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Design analysis tool that supports daylighting-related design decisions in commercial buildings during the initial design and design development stages. Daylight 1-2-3 (former Lightswitch Wizard) predicts the daylighting and energy performance of sidelit and/or toplit private offices, open plan offices, and classrooms. Daylight 1-2-3's main objective is to help design professionals with interest in -- but no expert knowledge of -- daylighting to develop climate-responsive daylighting design concepts; to optimize façade/roof layout and orientation with respect to daylight and energy use; and to quantify energy savings from occupancy sensors and/or photocell controlled dimming.
Keywords
climate-based daylighting metrics, integrated lighting/thermal simulations, lighting controls
Validation/Testing
Daylight 1-2-3 uses a customized version of ESP-r that reads in RADIANCE/DAYSIM-based daylight coefficients and uses the occupant behavior model Lightswitch to predict the energy saving potential of automated lighting controls such as occupancy sensors and photocell-controlled dimming. Simulation outputs include the latest generation of climate-based daylight performance metrics such as continuous daylight autonomy, useful daylight index, and daylight saturation percentage as well as monthly energy loads for heating, lighting, and cooling. The effect of venetian blinds is modeled using the SKYVISION software. For an overview of the software, please refer to this paper.
Expertise Required
Daylight 1-2-3 comes with an intuitive graphical user interface and extensive help files and should take you less than 30 minutes to learn.
Users
New program, launched in July 2007.
Audience
Architects, engineering consultants and other design practitioners.
Input
Building site and orientation, office dimensions, surface properties, lighting and blinds control systems, and occupant properties are specified through pull-down menus. Extensive help is provided throughout.
Output
False-color distributions of key daylighting performance metrics such as daylight autonomy, daylight factor, useful daylight illuminance and daylight saturation percentage. Monthly energy load charts for heating, lighting, and cooling.
Computer Platform
Windows 2000 or higher.
Programming Language
Java
Strengths
Lightswitch provides reliable predictions of lighting energy use in private offices considering occupant control of lighting and blinds. The underlying user behavior model is based on field study data. The tool should be used to estimate the energy saving potential of automated compared to manual lighting controls. Annual daylight availability and energy predictions are very accurate since they are based on RADIANCE and ESP-r.
Weaknesses
The number of supported building geometries and types is limited.
Contact
Availability
Daylight 1-2-3 can be downloaded free-of-charge from www.daylight1-2-3.com.
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