Development of Solar Concentrator studded with Optical Fiber for Daylighting

Abstract

Over the years there has been an increase in the energy consumption pattern which has given rise to various environmental issues. Around 20% of the energy is used for lighting purpose and conferring to a U.S. Energy Information Administration 2007 & International Energy Agencies 2006 report lighting amounts for 7% of the CO 2 emissions globally and releases around 1900 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the atmosphere. Due to this issue an environment friendly solution which utilizes renewable form of energy so that even actions like lighting the buildings could be sustainable. About 50-80% of energy consumption for lighting can be saved through designing an efficient daylighting system to light the interior spaces in the buildings, which would provide various physiological and psychological benefits for the wellbeing of human beings. In this study a daylighting system is designed on the Cassegrain principle and evaluated through software's and experimental setup. A model of the daylighting system is constructed using simple and low cost materials, easily available and reliable. Maximum solar radiation point was ascertained by studying sun path diagrams. The model was tested for its lux intensity and temperature on 5 sunny days over a period of 6 hours. The daylighting system provides a lux intensity of above 1400 at its peak hour and 323 lux at its minimum through a bundle of 209 individual optical fibers enclosed in a circular pipe of 3/4 inch in diameter. The temperature attained was 60 ºC and 50 ºC which were well within the operating temperature limits of the optical fiber.