DYNAMIC DAYLIGHT AND SOLAR CONTROL IN TROPICAL CLIMATE

Abstract

Daylight is dynamic, thus there is no one common solution for all scenarios. It is more critical in tropical climate where the sky is predominantly intermediate; with inconsistent clouds formations which will influence the presence of direct sunlight and daylight availability. In this study, the potential of dynamic internal shading devices for improving daylighting performances in tropical climate was investigated. Scaled physical models and computer simulation methods were employed to examine daylighting performances of various internal shading devices under different tropical sky conditions: Intermediate sky with direct sunlight, Intermediate sky without direct sunlight and Overcast sky. The findings proved that the shading devices yielded significant different performances under various sky conditions. The effective daylighting depth under tropical sky can be as deep as 3.8 times height of the window from work plane. Dynamic internal shading device was suggested for effective daylighting in the tropics.