Efficient use of daylight in buildings
In line with Kyoto protocol, the whole building sector needs to change the current way of designing, renovating and building to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. An effective way is to exploit daylight in order to offer different functional results as far as light and climate are concerned. Some examples include illumination, redirecting, sun shielding, glare protection, contact to the outside environment and utilisation of solar thermal energy. In order to achieve these effects, several systems are required, which are either specific for a particular function or expensive when integrated for use in more than one function. Additionally, such constructions may become highly complicated maintenance activities a resourceful task. Particularly, aesthetic issues and technical problems when integrating such systems in facades still constitute the major obstacles for their wide utilisation. To answer this need the LCDAYLIGHT project developed a novel multifunctional daylight system capable of controlling light and climate simultaneously. This innovation allows efficient and effective transmission, reflection and scattering of daylight and sunlight. In this way, there are large energy savings for lighting and heating during winter or cooling in the summer. Moreover, promotion of solar energy can gradually lead to replacement of fossil energy in significant amounts. The novel daylight system meets the regulatory demands for energy saving, sun and heat protection, as well as, environmental protection. Additionally, it is expected that this new multifunctional glass technology is going to improve the quality of life in housing and working environments. Glastec, one of the leading companies in the European insulating glass market is expected to gain competitive advantage with this innovation.
