Integrated Day and Electric Lighting

Group leader:  Prof. J.-L. Scartezzini (associate editor for Daylighting in Solar Energy Journal)
PhD students: Yujie Wu, Marta Benedetti

Factsheet 2019/2020

daylit room

Ample and judicious use of daylight in buildings has a positive impact not only on electricity consumption but also on occupants’ health and productivity.

To strike a balance between energy savings and user comfort, daylight research in our lab currently focuses on integrated day and electric lighting control as well as on innovative glazing technologies.

Earlier research conducted in this field produced a sophisticated daylighting laboratory with, among other, a scanning sky simulator and an automated heliodon, which allow reproducing with very high precision all daylight conditions that exist around the world. Several anidolic (non-imaging) daylight transmission systems were developed and tested. A bidirectional reflection and transmission photogoniometer was developed to test the characteristics of advanced glazing.

Research related to visual and non-visual aspects of light on human physiology and behavior was carried out under the supervision of Dr Mirjam Münch, who set up a photobiological laboratory with different light sources for this purpose. Her work was funded by Velux Foundation.

Finally, software tools have been developed to help architects and planners understand the impact of their designs.

Published work relates to

PhD theses published in this domain:

Tools: