DAYLIGHTING IN SOLAR HOUSES

Abstract

Solar house is an emblem of sustainable design. Since the beginning of life on Earth, solar energy has been used to fundamentally support life. Similarly at solar houses, the ability to use solar energy for electricity production, heating purposes, and daylighting, is the basic expectation of the solar houses. This research finds that more attention needs to be given to daylighting, and so aims to search in Solar Decathlon houses for failures in a range of daylighting-related issues. If any type of failure occurs persistently, this type of daylighting-related failure shall be deemed to be critical to the development of Solar Decathlon and its related industries, and so deserves our attention. Five new and well-designed solar houses that took part in the Solar Decathlon completion are used for this analysis, and it was found that the glare controls are unable to maintain a vision for the outdoors and the entry of daylight conveniently. Few recommendations varying from an affordable translucent blind, to a photochromic glass that smartly changes its light transmittance, were provided. The biggest limitation is the failure of this research to take into consideration the actual satisfaction of the occupants.