A Study on Lighting Performance through Simulation Methodology :

A Case Study at Single Storey House in Kuala Selangor,

Selangor Darul Ehsan

Nur Silmi Adilah binti Mussalim¹, Anis Sahira binti Baharuddin², Dzatin Aiman binti
Zaharuddin³

Master of Science in Green Architecture,

Faculty of Architecture, Planning, and Surveying, UiTM Perak, Seri Iskandar Campus,
Perak

Abstract
Light sources are important to ensure that residents of a building could see things
around them. Daylight helps to create a visually pleasing, healthier, and more
productive environment for the occupant. The main objective of this study is to
evaluate the daylight performance of a single storey house using building
performance simulation, as well as to provide an overview of the relevance of
daylight variables and analyse effects of opening configurations such as door and
window sizes, height, and placement. However, excessive daylight could cause
discomfort in terms of the thermal environment and glare that disturbs visual of
occupants. The finding has been analyzed by using Lighting Analysis tab via
Autodesk Revit Software.

1. Introduction

Long time ago the only sources of light are sun during daytime and moon, stars, and
fire at nighttime. However, in 19th century, the introduction of torches, candles and
lamps with liquid has been use by people to light up their nighttime but, it has an
unpleasant smell. Past to this day, there are many lights to make the nights brighter
(Span, N., et. al., 2022). There are two sources of lighting to make the area of a
building light up which are daylight and artificial lighting sources. Daylight sources
such as sunlight and artificial lighting sources are light, bulbs and lamp posts. Light
sources are important to ensure that the occupant of the building could view objects
and surrounding of them (Universe in the Classroom, 2017). Every building needs an
adequate lighting source to ensure the building are in a good condition. Poor
workplace illumination can cause eye strain, fatigue, headaches, tension, and
accidents. Too much light, on the other hand, can cause safety and health issues such
as "glare" headaches and stress (International Labor Organization, 2014).

Daylight has their own benefits besides reducing the uage of electric generated
lighting. It also brings natural and diffused light into buildings with less heat than the
usage of artificial lighting. Besides that, it also helps to creates a visually pleasing,
healthier, and more productive environment for the building occupant (BOMI
International, 2020). Observations based on human behaviors have revealed that
working and living space arrangement, indicate that daylight is desired by building
inhabitants. Opening in buildings are vital not just for providing appropriate daylight
but also for maintaining a connection with the outside view. Quality, variety, and
spectral composition are other essential considerations when using daylight to
illuminate spaces. Occupant admitted that working under artificial lighting has a
negative impact on their health. They thought that working in an environment lighted
mostly by daylight provided significant benefits in terms of reduced stress and
discomfort (Hwang & Kim, 2011). However, excessive daylight could cause
discomfort in terms of the thermal environment and glare that disturbs visual of
occupants.

To ensure the daylight provided is adequate for the building the lighting designer and
consultant could provide an estimation regarding lighting of the building by using the
daylighting modelling techniques. The daylighting modelling techniques are useful
for predicting day lighting design outcomes for existing or future structures. These
technologies may estimate possible daylight levels based on weather and climate
conditions at different times of the year, and they work in concert with programme to
project building energy consequences (BOMI International, 2020).
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the daylight performance of the
modelled building using building performance simulation. Therefore, this study
focuses on effects on openings such as door and window sizes, height, and placement.
Accordingly, this can provide an overview of the relevance of daylighting variables
for a study of single storey house in Kuala Selangor, Selangor Darul Ehsan .

2. Literature Review

2.1 Daylight

Daylight can be defined as a combination of the indirect and direct sunlight

that is available during the day (Rana, 2018). It can also be described as the controlled
use of natural light in and around the building (Velux Group, n.d.). In order to achieve
an appropriate interior environment, daylighting is considered the most significant
component of the environment (Bahdad,et al, 2020).

Daylight in buildings can be composed of three types of light, which is direct

sunlight, diffuse skylight, and also light reflected from the ground and the surrounding
elements (Figure 2.1) (Rizal et al, 2020). Direct sunlight are characterized by the very
high intensity and constant movement and the brightness are varied by season, time of
the day, location, and also the sky conditions (Velux Group, n.d.). Skylight are
characterized by the sunlight scattered by the atmosphere and clouds which resulting
in a soft, diffuse light (Velux Group, n.d.). Reflected light are characterized by the
light that is reflected from the ground, such as terrain, trees, vegetation, and
neighboring buildings, and the surface reflectance of the surroundings will influence
the total amount of reflected light that reaches the building facade (Velux Group, n.d.).

Figure 2.1 : Three types of daylight

 (Source : Velux Group, n.d.)
2.2 Daylight Factor

Daylight Factor or DF can be described as the ratio of the value of lighting in

the room that is with the value of outdoor lighting in daylight conditions (Rizal et al,
2020). It can also be described as the ratio between the internal illuminance level at a
specific point to exterior horizontal illuminance under CIE overcast sky (Lee et al,
2019). Daylight Factors can be consist of three components, which is Sky Component
(SC), External Reflection Factor (ERC), and also Internal Reflection Factor (IRC)
(Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 : Components of Daylight Factor (DF).

(Source : Bixler, 2011)

Sky Component (SC) can be depicted as the light that is directly from the sky
and are normally referred to the diffused sky, where the ratio of daylight falling on
vertical surfaces to the daylight available are under an unobstructed sky (Parmar,
2016). Sky Component (SC) can also be described as the ratio or percentage of the
part of daylight illuminance,where at a point on a given plane, is received directly
from the sky as compared to the concurrent exterior illuminance on a horizontal plane
from the entire hemisphere of an unobstructed clear design sky (Parmar, 2016).

External Reflected Component (ERC) can be described as the sunlight that is

reflected from an exterior surface and reaching the point considered, and is the ratio
of the part of daylight illuminance, where at a point on a given plane, is received by
direct reflection from external surfaces as compared to the concurrent exterior
illuminance on a horizontal plane from the entire hemisphere of an unobstructed clear
design sky (Parmar, 2016).
Internal Reflected Component (IRC) can be described as the daylight that
reaches a reference point after reflections and inter-reflections from the surfaces
inside a room, where it is a ratio of the part of the daylight illuminance that is received
by direct reflection or inter-reflection from the internal surfaces as compared to the
concurrent exterior illuminance on a horizontal plane due to the entire hemisphere of
an unobstructed clear design sky (Parmar, 2016).

2.3 Daylighting Strategies

Kubba (2012) agrees that with an effective daylighting, it can help save energy
and improves the quality of the visual environment while also reduces the operating
costs and enhances satisfaction of building occupants. In order to achieve that, other
than adding windows or skylights to a space, it also involves carefully balancing heat
gain and loss, glare control, and variations in daylight availability (Gregg and Ander,
2016). It is also important that for the daylighting design to be successful, the
appreciation and integration of several key disciplines including architectural,
mechanical, electrical, and lighting are applied, thus can enhance the quality of light
in an indoor environment as well as improving the energy efficiency by minimizing
lighting, heating, and cooling loads, reducing the building’s electricity consumption
(Kubba, 2012).

Figure 2.3 : Design Strategies for Daylighting.

 (Source : Vigneau, 2012)

Some of the strategies that can be implemented in order to improve

daylighting are including the usage of optical light shelves, light-directing louvers,
light-directing glazing, clerestories, roof monitors, and also light tubes (Kubba, 2012).
Other more upgraded strategies that can be included are the implementation of
daylight-optimized building footprint, climate-responsive window-to-wall area ratio,
high performance glazing, daylight-optimized fenestration design, tubular daylight
devices, solar shading devices, daylight-responsive electric lighting controls, and also
daylight-optimized interior design (Gregg and Ander, 2016).

2.4 Daylighting Design Recommendations

There are several recommendations that can be implemented for the design
strategies for an effective daylighting in a building. First is by increasing the
perimeter of daylight zones in order to maximize the usable daylighting area, and
allowing daylight penetration high in a space such as windows that is located high in a
wall or in roof monitors that will result in deeper light penetration and reduce the
likelihood of excessive brightness (Gregg and Ander, 2016).

Not only that, the usage of light shelves to reflect daylight within a space can
be implemented in order to increase room brightness and decrease window brightness,
and also sloping of the ceiling away from the fenestration area that will help to
increase the surface brightness of the ceiling further into space (Gregg and Ander,
2016). Besides, the consideration of the avoidance of direct beam daylight in critical
visual tasks are implemented as poor visibility and discomfort can result when
excessive brightness difference occur in the vicinity of critical visual tasks, and the
harshness of direct light can be filtered with vegetation, curtains, louvers, or such in
the likeliness, thus helps in distributing the daylight (Gregg and Ander, 2016).

3.0 Methodology

This study adopts the usage of lighting simulation analysis in the Autodesk
Revit Software. Before conducting the lighting analysis, the first step is to develop a
3D model of the proposed case study, which is a single storey house at Lot 1522
Mukim Hujung Permatang Daerah Kuala Selangor, Selangor Darul Ehsan for Messr
Amiezam. The model of the house are developed in 2D and 3D output in order to
familiarize and understand the design of the case study property itself.

Figure 3.1 : 3D model development of case study.

 After the model was developed, the lighting simulation towards the spaces in
the building are made. In order for the analysis to be performed successfully, the
model are comprised with building elements consisting walls, floors, roofs, windows,
curtain walls, and such, since conceptual mass models will not work (Autodesk, 2022).
While developing the model, the location of the model are set in Autodesk Revit and
the appearances are edited in order to set the visible transmittance of transparent
materials and the reflectivity of opaque materials.

Next, in order to start the lighting analysis towards the developed model, the
‘Energy Analysis’ from the ‘Analyze’ tab are chosen and the element ‘Lighting’ are
then picked. From that, the analyzation of lighting towards the model are done while
the sky model are also taken into account. After the analysis has been run and
uploaded to the cloud rendering engine, the colorized result and legend of the model
are applied and can be viewed. Through this, the overall lighting analysis towards the
earlier developed model can be viewed and analyzed, where the explanation of the
results and analysis towards the case study model are described in chapter 4.0 Results
and Findings.
4.0 Results and Findings

Figure below shows the overall lighting simulation via Autodesk Revit on a
single storey house model. The sunlight is distributed into the interior spaces of the
house which consists the living room, dining area, kitchen, a master bedroom, a
bedroom and two bathrooms. Each room experienced uneven lighting distribution,
and some receive very minimal lighting causing the room to be dark. The uneven
distribution of lighting is not in accordance to the minimum lighting requirements
needed in these rooms. Thus, this led to a study on the single storey house daylighting
distribution and ways to improve it through changing the elements and configuration
of the 3D model and simulating the model using the Lighting Analysis tab on
Autodesk Revit.

Figure 4.1 : The Lighting Analysis of single storey house.

C
A

The building is divided into three zones; Zone A (Living Room, Dining Area
and Kitchen), Zone B (Master bedroom and Toilet 1) and the remaining spaces are the
remaining spaces are zone C (Bedroom 2 and Toilet 2).
Zone A

Figure below shows the distribution of lighting in living room, dining area and
kitchen area. From the north-west side of the building which is the kitchen area, it has
bad exposure to lighting whereby the area collects insufficient amount of lighting
causing it to be dimmer and darker. In addition, from the south to west of the single
storey house, the dining area have uneven lighting distribution but the living room has
better lighting but there is room for improvement.

The darker north to west of the building causes the occupants to opt for usage
of artificial light during cooking activities in the kitchen even during daytime which
results in high energy use that led to higher electrical bills.

Figure 4.2: Zone B before and after improvements are made.

Before After

Figure above shows the changes that has been made at Zone A. In the kitchen
area, changes are made on the west side of the wall where windows were added.
Before, the kitchen area is dark due to the absence of windows on the west wall and
the north side of the kitchen’s window was far from the cabinets and the cooking
workstation. 2 triple casement windows were added at the height of 700mm from the
ground. A change is made on the north side of the kitchen where the location of the
door and window were switched to allow lighting into the cooking station area.
However, the configuration of the window and door and its height from the ground
remains the same.

On the other hand, the dining area made changes on the size of folding door
from 2000x2000mm to 2500x2000mm. The width of the folding door increases to
ensure that the dining area will get sufficient and better lighting during daytime. The
south side of the building which is the living room area also has made improvements.
The size of the main folding door changed from 3000mmx2000mm to
2500mmx2000mm. The width is minimized due to the fact that oversized folding
door might affect the living room temperature increase which results in the area being
warmer and causes discomfort. The target is to receive enough daylight without
sacrificing the comfort of the occupants. The sidelite door at the living room is shifted
for more even light distribution.

Figure 4.3: Before and after of the west wall.

Before

After
Figure 4.4: The North side of the kitchen where the door and window swapped places.

Before

After
Zone B

Figure 4.5: Before and after improvements on lighting distribution made on Zone B

Figure above shows Zone B’s lighting distribution. The master bedroom
receive lighting equally in south part of the room, however 1/3 of the room that
happens to be at the entrance of the room does not receive sufficient natural daylight.
The bathroom attached to the master bedroom does not receive enough minimal
lighting resulting a dark area. The dark bathroom will be moist and have a hard time
drying its floors and fittings used.

Changes were made specifically on the windows configuration. The master

bedroom’s windows include 2 single casement windows at the building frontage and a
triple casement window placed at east side of the room. These window’s sizes remain
the same, however the triple casement window location is shifted to the right nearer to
the 1/3 parts of the room that lacks lighting. The bathroom windows also remain the
same regarding its size and materials, but it is placed lower where its height from the
ground changes from 1900mm to 1700mm. The shading device installed is eliminated
to allow more daylight into the bathroom. Below shows the lighting simulation of
Zone B after changes are made.
Figure 4.6: The before and after changes on the east elevation of Zone B

Before

After
Zone C

The figure below demonstrates the lighting distribution at Zone C (bedroom 2

and toilet 2). The lighting is not evenly distributed throughout the zone. While the
north side of the building receive sufficient lighting, the west side of Zone C which
consist of the toilet adjacent to the bedroom receive insufficient amount of daylight,
causes the toilet to be dark at times. Plus, with the lack of lighting in the bathroom,
the drying process of the bathroom floor takes longer time and the toilet would be in a
constant wet and humid condition.

Figure 4.7: Lighting distribution of zone C before and after changes made.

Before

After

Improvements are made in order for the spaces to receive evenly distributed
lighting. First and foremost, for the bedroom area, the existing single casement
window are replaced with a triple casement window. This allows more daylight filling
up the bedroom area. Next, the toilet’s window design remains the same, however the
window height from the ground is changed from 1900mm to 1700mm from the
ground. The window height plays an important role because the overhang of the roof
is shading the window and blocks out daylight. The shading device is also eliminated
in order to allow the toilet space to receive daylight. Below is the elevation of Zone C
whereby it shows the changes made on the window configuration and type.

Figure 4.8: The east elevation of the single storey house which
shows changes in type of window used.

Before

After
5.0 Discussion

The Lighting Analysis from Autodesk Revit has simulated the single storey
house according to a specific location in Tanjung Karang. The simulation is set for a
day in July from sunrise till the sun sets with an interval time of 1 hour. The lighting
analysis studies the amount of natural daylight enters in one’s room. The daylight
factor simulation changes as the 3D model is revised until its achieve the target of
evenly distributed lighting. The lighting distribution is evaluated according to an
indicator which shows a range of colors that shows the amount of lighting in each
area and corner of a space.

The result gained through the simulation has found that through shifting
openings position, changing window types and its position specifically its height from
the ground, the single storey house will definitely achieve its aim in even distribution
of daylight. Before any improvements made on each zones, each spaces receive
daylight, the difference is in the amount receive specifically the bathrooms. Based on
the indicators, the bathrooms are dark and in need of daylight. However minimal
changes are made on the bathroom’s windows height from ground and the elimination
of unnecessary shading device present on the existing model in order to provide
lighting into the bathroom. Due to the large overhang of roof, some windows need to
be shifted from its original height to a new one. Subsequently, this allows lighting
without compromising the additional heat that enters a space.

On the other hand, some spaces require a change in the type of windows they
use specifically in zone C (bedroom 2 and toilet 2). The change made from 2 single
casement window to triple casement window allows the daylight to fill up the whole
room. The kitchen at zone A requires lighting at daytime but the existing design does
not provide the space with windows. The lighting is needed for cooking and cleaning
activities. Large triple casement window arranged in the ribbon window style helps in
providing the required lighting.

The result gained from the Lighting Analysis simulation can further help
designers and developers makes decisions in its window types and placement study.
The success of providing good lighting distribution simultaneously minimize the use
of artificial lighting in daytime and cutting cost on the electricity bills. The use of
daylight is an efficient way of using renewable energy inside the building.

6.0 Conclusion

In summary, the types of windows used, its size an its placement plays an
important role in allowing natural daylight entering each space with ease and even
distribution. However, daylight comes with heat and glare that might cause
disturbance on the comfort and wellbeing of occupants. This can be counter by opting
to use tinted glass or even double glazed glazed. Glare and heat can both be retained
on the outside and sustained cool temperature on the inside. Selecting good shading
device could also assist in blocking out excessive daylight. The residents itself can use
blinds and curtains in minimizing heat that enters a room. Last but not least, before
any design, the orientation of the building must be the first main element to consider
in providing daylight without the extra heat and glare.

7.0 Acknowledgement

We thank Mr Ahmad Haqqi bin Nazali (UiTM Seri Iskandar) for his insights
and assistance for the simulation technique and methodology, and also for the
comments that greatly improved this paper.

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows : data collection : 1.

Anis Sahira binti Baharuddin, 2. Nur Silmi Adilah binti Mussalim, 3. Dzatin Aiman
binti Zaharuddin; model development : 1. Nur Silmi Adilah binti Mussalim, 2. Dzatin
Aiman binti Zaharuddin, 3. Anis Sahira binti Baharuddin; analysis and interpretation
of results and findings : 1. Nur Silmi Adilah binti Mussalim, 2. Anis Sahira binti
Baharuddin, 3. Dzatin Aiman binti Zaharuddin; draft manuscript preparation : 1. Anis
Sahira binti Baharuddin. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final
version of the manuscript.
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