Engineering Daylight into Commercial Buildings

The daylighting of commercial buildings offers the opportunity to reduce energy consumption and improve occupant appraisal of the quality of their interior environment. The focus of this paper is the assessment of a light-redirecting device designed for use in a passive daylighting system for conventional, high-rise building facades. This paper presents an introduction to how performance parameters can be defined and performance analysis conducted at the design stage of this daylighting device using ray tracing software. The device is judged on its potential to redistribute light throughout the depth of a typical room without causing discomfort glare to occupants. A proposed definition of optimal device performance, derived using geometric considerations, is also presented.