Study on movable light-shelf system with location-awareness technology for lighting energy saving

Abstract

Various ongoing studies regard light-shelves as one solution to the recent increase in lighting energy consumption. However, in previous light-shelf systems, the direction of incoming light was determined by external conditions, thereby limiting the efficiency of lighting energy saving. The purpose of the present study was to develop a movable light-shelf system with location-awareness technology and verify its performance. In this study, a full-scale testbed was established in order to test the proposed movable light-shelf system with location awareness as well as to verify its energy saving potential. The results were analysed and compared with the performances of previous fixed (Case 1) and movable (Case 2) light-shelf systems without location-awareness technology. The obtained results were as follows. (1) The proposed light-shelf system can respond to external conditions and to the location of the occupant by means of the control axis of the light-shelf module angle through modulation between the control axis of the angle of the previous light-shelf and the reflector of the light-shelf. (2) The proposed light-shelf system provides 90.0% and 86.6%/91.0% energy savings in comparison to Case 1 and Case 2, respectively.