Zero Energy Building Concept _ Lighting

Friday, September 13, 2013


As described in the previous article, improving the energy performance of a building can be considered as an important part of the country’s sustainable energy development process. In energy efficient building designs, the particular commercial, industrial buildings or the large scale housing schemes attend to their needs in the aspects of design, construction and maintenance under minimal consumption of energy without compromising either the functions of the building or the comfort as well as health of the occupants.

While looking for an energy efficient building, some particular areas can be identified which one should consider on. They are as follows,.
  1. Lighting
  2. Ventilation and air conditioning
  3. Building envelop
  4. On-site power generation
  5. Water conservation
So, let’s consider one by one and get a clear idea on how we can apply those facts to buildings in order them to be energy efficient. 
  1. Lighting

Usually artificial lighting accounts for a significant portion from total electric consumption of a building. Therefore lighting is normally known as the single largest consumer of energy in a building. Hence, a minimum amount of electrical energy has to be used to provide lighting to the quantity and quality of standards.

The following steps can be considered as some rules for achieving energy efficiency in lighting. 


  1. Use well-designed energy efficient lighting schemes.
    It is wiser to use the most energy efficient, cost effective lamp for each application. The use of incandescent or tungsten halogen lamps should be minimized thoroughly unless the application specially requires them. (Refer this article for more information about Star rating of CFL bulbs http://energyzee.blogspot.com/2013/01/star-rating-of-cfl-in-sri-lanka.html)

  2. Consider prompt and appropriate interior decorations. (specially colors)
    The ceiling height, windows, colours and reflectivity of room surfaces and furnishings directly affects the lighting condition of a building. Therefore special consideration should be paid for the interior features. ‘Light’ colours should be used for interior rooms and large windows should be used to reduce artificial lighting.

  3. Using intelligent controlling system
    Automatic controls such as daylight sensors, time based controls or occupancy sensors can be used to adjust the level of lighting when sufficient daylight is available. In addition to that, other artificial lighting strategies should be incorporated such as using infrared, ultrasonic or microwave sensors which respond to movement or object surface temperature and automatically turn on and off. 

  4. Increase the ability to get the maximum day light during the day time.
    Daylight strategies are essential to reduce the energy consumption of the building to a great extent. The positioning and sizing of the windows of the building must be carefully designed and planned in order to permit the maximum natural light into the building, thus reducing the use of artificial lighting and saving energy specially during the day time.
It can be seen that there’s an emerging trend among the people towards this fact and therefore the people who wish to build a house, do concern on design of the building so as to get the maximum use of the daylight. 

A comprehensive analysis of zero energy based approach to ventilation and air conditioning of a building would be presented in the next step of this article series.

Article image: http://technologygreenenergy.blogspot.com/2012/12/green-technology-blog.html

Article By:
Tharangi Gunarathna
Muditha Karunathilake
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