By using advanced lighting and automated shades, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that occupants on one floor of a high-rise office building in New York City were able to reduce lighting energy usage by nearly 80 percent in some areas.
The dramatic results emerged at a “living laboratory” set up to test four sets of technologies on one 40,000 square-foot floor of a building.
By using advanced lighting and automated shades, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that occupants on one floor of a high-rise office building in New York City were able to reduce lighting energy usage by nearly 80 percent in some areas.
The dramatic results emerged at a “living laboratory” set up to test four sets of technologies on one 40,000 square-foot floor of a building.
Berkeley Lab partnered with the Building Energy Exchange (BEEx), an independent nonprofit, to demonstrate that even in relatively modern office buildings, installing the latest generation of smart, actively controlled energy efficient lighting and shading can dramatically lower energy costs and enhance the quality of the work environment. These results will be important in speeding market adoption of emerging energy-saving technologies, according to Berkeley Lab scientist Eleanor Lee, who led the project.
“Context matters when it comes to figuring out where the market barriers are with respect to contractors, facility managers, and office workers – isolated tests in a laboratory environment are often not enough,” she said. “Reducing stakeholders’ uncertainty about performance and occupant response in a real-world setting can be critical to accelerating market adoption.”
Read more at DOE / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Image: Thermal imaging was used to measure surface temperatures near the window, which in turn was used to evaluate the occupants’ level of thermal comfort. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)
