3196 -- Economic Analysis of Daylit and Non-daylit Large Office Buildings for Different Climatic Locations and Utility Rate Structures PDF

The use of natural daylight to reduce electric fighting loads and space conditioning equipment operation in an office building is investigated. Energy requirements from thermal simulations of a non-daylit and a day/it building are studied using the DOE2.1B program. The economic impact of varying glass-to-waft-area ratios (GWAR) on daylit building is also analyzed. The effects of climatic conditions are investigated by simulating therma/ perfor. mance at four representative North American cities. Four utility rate structures are used in the economic analysis to provide a range of typical energy costs.

Energy simulation results for a day/it building predict up to a 17% decrease in electrical energy consumption as compared with an identical non-daylit building. An economically viable daylit building is influenced by the available daylight illuminance, the utility rate structure, and the design window area.