Title: Visual and thermal comfort and its relations to exergy consumption in a classroom with daylighting

Authors: Yoko Maki; Masanori Shukuya

Addresses: Nihon Kagaku Sangyo Co., Ltd., Shitaya 2-20-5, Taito-ku 110-004, Tokyo, Japan ' Laboratory for Built Environmental Research, Tokyo City University, Ushikubo-Nishi 3-3-1, Tsuzuki-ku 224-8551, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract: This paper discusses the exergetic aspect of daylighting together with luminous and thermal comfort aspect. We calculated the exergy consumption for lighting and cooling in a classroom for the cases with and without electric lighting. The full use of daylighting decreases chemical exergy input to the power plant by 89%. According to a questionnaire survey asking the students' perception of sensations and comfort in the classroom, while daylighting was being used, the cut-off of fluorescent tubes did not cause any luminous discomfort and it made their thermal comfort even better.

Keywords: exergy consumption; daylighting; questionnaire survey; radiation; visual comfort; thermal comfort; university classrooms; lighting; cooling; fluorescent tubes; luminous comfort; higher education; heat pumps; air conditioning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2012.050258

International Journal of Exergy, 2012 Vol.11 No.4, pp.481 - 492

Published online: 13 Nov 2012 *

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