Various ongoing studies regard light-shelves as one solution to the recent increase in lighting energy consumption. However, in previous light-shelf systems, the direction of incoming light was determined by external conditions, thereby limiting the efficiency of lighting energy saving. The purpose of the present study was to develop a movable light-shelf system with location-awareness technology and verify its performance. In this study, a full-scale testbed was established in order to test the proposed movable light-shelf system with location awareness as well as to verify its energy saving potential. The results were analysed and compared with the performances of previous fixed (Case 1) and movable (Case 2) light-shelf systems without location-awareness technology. The obtained results were as follows. (1) The proposed light-shelf system can respond to external conditions and to the location of the occupant by means of the control axis of the light-shelf module angle through modulation between the control axis of the angle of the previous light-shelf and the reflector of the light-shelf. (2) The proposed light-shelf system provides 90.0% and 86.6%/91.0% energy savings in comparison to Case 1 and Case 2, respectively.
Light shelf is an efficient system that reduces the energy consumption by bringing the natural light down to the deep spaces inside of a building. However, the existing light shelves have limits in reducing energy usage, because the direction of the light flow is determined by the external environment such as the altitude of the sun and the azimuth. This current study presents a system that increases the efficiency of the light shelf by applying the Location-Awareness technology, in which the efficiency was verified through the performance evaluation. According to the examination of the technology for the Location-Awareness within residential space, 'Zigbee' type appears to be the most appropriate. The Location-Awareness technology operates the light shelf based on both the angle control axis and the light shelf angle control axis through the modularization of the reflector surface which is less affected by the external environment. The results of the performance evaluation showed that the movable light shelf that employs the Location-Awareness technology can reduce the energy consumption for lighting by 98.3% compared to the fixed light shelf and by 97.3% compared to the movable light shelf without Location-Awareness.
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