Improved Tubular Daylighting Devices

Lighting California's Future's project on Improved Daylight Performance of Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDDs) is developing, demonstrating, and helping commercialize new diffuser elements that redirect a significant portion of the emitted daylight towards the ceiling and precisely filter and spread the rest, producing a direct/indirect luminaire effect. The result will be to increase the acceptance of TDD daylighting systems by introducing systems with luminance ratios that are closer to the accepted norms for interior spaces.

The project accelerates the development & release of new TDD diffuser options that address market barriers to daylight usage. Options include reducing direct glare from diffuser surfaces and increasing ceiling illumination.  The goal of the research is to provide off-the-shelf daylighting solutions which support current visual comfort trends in commercial spaces.

Measurement and simulation of daylighting performance of standard TDDs included photopia models and ray trace analyses, as well as HDR verification of simulations.

Project partners are CLTC, SCE and Solatube International, Inc.

LCF Research will continue through 2009.

SOURCE:  ArchEnergy.com