DIRECT LIGHT & OVERHEATING

IN RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

Access to direct light is often considered a desirable quality in residential architecture. While direct light is a valuable asset for occupant physical and physiological wellbeing and beneficial for both daylighting and passive heating, it can also significantly increase cooling loads. Due to the lack of research that correlates direct light with its thermal contributions, residential daylight evaluation remains difficult in arid, hot, and humid climates, in which the effect of direct light is the largest.

The authors juxtapose access to direct light with thermal and daylighting contributions across 14 climate zones over different window-to-wall ratios, construction types, and shading conditions for a total of 448 different scenarios. The impact of direct light on daylight performance, heating loads, cooling loads, and artificial light loads over these scenarios are analyzed. The authors then propose a climate-based schema that considers the thermal implications of daylight in residential architecture to adapt the Residential Daylight Score for use in warmer climates.

Published as:

• “Adapting the Residential Daylight Score for Arid, Hot, and Humid Climates” | Building Simulation 2019 | With Timur Dogan, PhD

(Top) Summary workflow of scenario combination logic and analysis results.

(Above) A benefit vs. harm analysis of direct light for an apartment in a Warm-Humid climate.

Visual summary of the impact of direct light on daylight performance, heating loads, cooling loads (no natural ventilation assumed), and electric light loads across different climates and window-to-wall ratios.

DANIEL PARK

Cornell University AAP | B.Arch ‘20 Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar

ycp4@cornell.edu | (443) 838-7311