Energy-efficiency in Industrial Buildings by Lighting Solutions; A Case of Smart Lighting

Sammanfattning: ”Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, οf forms assembled in the light.” Le Corbusier. Nowadays, lighting covers a great portion of the total energy use of a building, almost 21%, while in most of the places, the quality of the existing lighting conditions is usually notably poor. In addition, lighting is responsible for 14% of all electricity demand in EU (CELMA, 2011) and 19% of the latter worldwide (CELMA, 2011). At the same time, the European Union has set ambitious climate and energy targets for sustainable development, widely known as “20-20-20 Energy Efficiency Targets”, with which all countries should comply. (European Commission, 2014). Europe has already developed a wide range of policy instruments in charge to stimulate the uptake of sustainable technologies, including lighting. (European Commission, 2011). The objective of this study has been to examine the energy performance and the lighting conditions of an industrial building, poorly daylit and with electrical installation. The building is located in Greece, a place that offers great quantity of daylight and the possibility to achieve notable energy savings due to lighting and improved building envelope. Therefore, the main question of this thesis has been whether the introduction of smart lighting technology is more preferable than modern LED in terms of lighting, functionality, energy and cost savings. The thesis was conducted with the aid of computer programs, such as DesignBuilder and DIALux. The study has shown that the investigated industrial area would have been underlit even though a huge amount of lights of great wattage would have been used, rendering the lighting installation completely inefficient. Daylight is not used at all rooms. The lighting conditions can significantly be improved if smart lighting technology is introduced, in combination with the optimum window size and technology in the spaces where daylight is beneficial, such as offices. If the aforementioned are applied, the energy savings and thus, the cost savings become remarkable. More specifically, replacing the lamp technology, reducing the amount of fixtures and using occupancy, motion and daylight harvesting sensors in combination with dimming control may lead to a reduction in energy use for lighting of around 90.3%. At the same time, light appears to be more evenly distributed in the room. In conclusion, improvements towards more energy efficient lighting conditions within rooms are possible if daylight is more wisely used and electrical installation is carefully designed. Under these conditions, the energy need and the desired lighting levels are easily met reducing a building’s footprint and contributing to a better environment.