Abstract
The use of natural light has the potential for improving both the energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality in buildings. A light-pipe system can introduce daylight to spaces that would otherwise not be able to benefit from the advantages of daylight penetration. For the light-pipe system to be widely used in Korea, it is important to quantify its daylighting performance with due consideration regarding the effects imposed by the local climate conditions. This paper presents the evaluation results of existing semi-empirical models to predict daylighting performance of a light-pipe system. The evaluation of the existing models was based on the monitoring data obtained from a underground parking lot in which the light-pipe system was installed. Comparisons were made between the predicted and the monitored data obtained from the study. The results indicated that semi-empirical models which was developed using the experimental data obtained under the Korean climatic conditions had a good prediction performance. We also quantified the effects caused by sky conditions, solar altitudes, room dimensions, and the aspect ratio of a light-pipe system on both the daylighting performance of the light-pipe system and the indoor illuminance distributions of the space using the semi-empirical model. Finally, this paper provides the design guideline of the light-pipe system for its application to an underground parking lot space.
