How to reduce the amount of electricity consumed for lighting by up to 90%.
Perhaps my article will be useful to someone, and necessary for someone! There is no production company like ours in the Russian Federation and the CIS, as well as the most developed lighting technology.
Can our activity be called Satrap or innovation, I think so. We work in the area solar lighting since 2011. And only in 2016 they received the status of an innovative company. The research itself began in 2010, and in 2015 we finally released a completely original, proprietary light guide with our own patent.
After six years of research in the field of energy saving, we can say with confidence that the main costs of an enterprise are related to light; they can be both direct and indirect. I’ll explain why: any type of human activity is associated only with light, any... in order to produce something, you need to “provide” yourself with a certain level of light. This can be done for free (but not always comfortable) or for a fee (then you have to pay for comfort). Few people will be able to do their work in the workplace without light, while without heat (not comfortable, but you can work), without water (you can wipe your hands with napkins), without ventilation (work in a respirator), without air conditioning - in the absence of all these systems you can work. All this is part of a comfortable stay for people in the workplace. It is the creation of comfort that makes up the majority of the costs of a building, but in the absence of light, creating a comfortable stay for people in the workplace makes no sense at all.
The number of companies providing this service in Russia can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Light guides...
There is always a solution. In order to reduce heating, air conditioning and ventilation costs, you need to make windows smaller.
It is important to understand that windows are only a means of communication with the outside world. As soon as you neglect this understanding, problems immediately begin, because direct dependence, as mentioned earlier, does not go anywhere. And this situation is typical for architecture.
Light guides will help get rid of the dependence on natural light through windows.
A light guide (or light well) is a ring mirror (a hollow mirror tube) that transmits sunlight and natural light with minimal loss to the target room. The prototype of a light well is a hole in the ceiling.
Light guides are used to illuminate any buildings during the daytime.
Many incorrectly compare light guides with electric light lamps or LEDs. I want to cut this moment off right away. Light guides, of course, can be compared with sources of artificial light, but no one would think of comparing a window with a light bulb, and here there is no point in comparing a light guide with a lamp, but you can confidently compare a light guide with a window.
For example, a window installed in the roof (dormer window) is less safe than a fiber optic.
IN summer time it is impossible to be under the attic window, it passes through a large number of solar radiation. The room heats up and in such rooms they often install an air conditioner, or simply curtain the window and turn on the lamp. This is the whole paradox - people install a window to make the room light and cozy and then immediately refuse this lighting.
Light guide, unlike dormer window is not able to heat the room, but the dynamics of natural light, i.e. what is happening on the street can be tracked.
The window cannot be installed in rooms remote from external enclosing structures (walls, roof). Using a light guide, you can illuminate the most remote corners of your home or office.
A lamp or LEDs can be installed in the light guide and illuminated by the light guide at night. It is possible to make the light guide completely independent of the weather, the street, and electricity.
As V.V. Mayakovsky said
Always shine
shine everywhere
until the last days of the Donetsk,
shine -
and no nails!
This is my slogan -
and sun!
The light well resembles a periscope, the only difference is that the periscope transmits an image, and the light guide only transmits light. The light guide consists of three main parts: a light-collecting dome, a mirror tube (shaft) and a light diffuser.
From the point of view of Regulatory Construction Documents, a light guide is a point skylight with a light-conducting shaft with an end or side diffuser. Unlike skylights, the light guide does not heat the room, does not allow moisture and heat to pass through, and it does not have a heating zone underneath it.
The light guide is like a thermos, completely sealed.
I'll go straight to practice.
The facility was commissioned in 2014.
Below are the main specifications and indicators.
Lighting area 250 m2
Number of light guides 8
Name of light guides SW700 (Ф700mm)
Diffuser installation height from floor 5.5 m
Illumination on the working surface
in cloudy weather 240 lux
V sunny weather 550 Lux
Average operating time of light guides
March-September = 12 hours (2376 hours)
September - November = 7 hours (434)
November - January = 5 hours (310 hours)
January - March = 6 hours (354 hours)
The average duration of illumination with natural light in a room in accordance with lighting standards for the year is ~3474 hours.
Working hours for 2017 (in hours)
with a 40-hour week - 1,973.00 hours
Number of installed electric lamps
Fluorescent lamps - 18 pcs.
Lamp power 92 W.
The cost of stopping one hour of production to replace lamps.
approximately 150,000 rub.
Increasing the operating time of artificial light sources by more than 3 times.
General economic feasibility.
Light guides help save more than 30,000 thousand rubles per year on direct costs of power consumption and replacement of lamps
Light guides help save on indirect costs (stopping production to replace lamps) - more than 150,000 rubles per year
Total Light guides will help save more than 180,000 rubles per year
The payback of the light guides will occur in the third year.
The conclusion is up to you!
If the article was interesting for you, I am ready to publish a number of such articles with more in-depth review on this topic.
10. The roofing element is carefully, without tears, glued to the surrounding bars and rafters
11. Before installing the first corner piece of the light guide pipe, remove the internal protective film
12. Then screw it in corner piece. Green sealing tape strengthens the vapor barrier
13. The missing thermal insulation is carefully laid around the pipe light tunnel
14. Other pipe parts are made from sheet aluminum. It is unrolled, fastened and...
15. ...fastened with screws. This creates pipes with a slight conical expansion...
16. ...allowing them to be inserted into each other. Right direction The light tunnel is defined by a tightly glued corner piece
17. The second part of the light tunnel pipe is first temporarily connected to the first in order to adjust the length, and at the same time accurately outline...
18. ...hole in the ceiling lined with particle boards
19. Having accurately marked the hole in the floor, it is carefully cut out using
20. View from the bathroom through the hole in wooden floor to the section of the pipe through which sunlight enters
21. The last piece of pipe with a ceiling plug attached to it is inserted from the bathroom side...
22. ...and fasten it with screws to wood paneling ceiling. The outer end of the pipe segment looks like from the attic...
23. ...in this way. In this case, the cable is intended for electric lighting
24. Frosted glass is used as the final detail of the light tunnel
25. To complete the design, it remains to insert the last piece of pipe
26. Pipe joints are taped to prevent light leakage
27. Finally, the tiles are laid again around the frame
Read 28. Outside finished design light tunnel resembles a small
29. The pipe running in the center of the pantry can be decorated if desired.
To help the master:
Hole Center
After a place has been found for a new roofing element and a cutout has been made in the roof, a nail is hammered into the roof sheathing (here it is a profiled board) from the outside, which will protrude from the side of the room, marking the center of the future hole.
Rainwater drainage
To drain rainwater, a strip with a slight lateral slope is built on top of the light tunnel structure so that it is cut across at this point and glued to the strip.
Two in one: combined lighting
In a space equipped with a light tunnel in dark time day you will have to use artificial lighting. To do this, the light tunnel and the electric lamp can be combined into one design using special kit backlight with a tripod and E-27 socket, suitable for both regular and energy-saving lamps.
- A tripod on four supports is carefully mounted to the ceiling element.
- The electrical cable is pulled through pre-drilled holes in the pipe wall.
- The base of the tripod is glued with reflective adhesive tape, masking the joints.
- During daylight hours, a lamp is screwed into the socket so that the bathroom is light even at night.
Photo by Tom Filippi.
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Locked in multi-story hive offices, we often turn on the lamps even during the day, because the light from the windows has difficulty getting inside the large building. Meanwhile, the most free source of rays shines above our heads. Using it “smartly” is quite possible. We just need to give a new dimension to the concept of “natural light”.
The Canadian company SunCentral, which is preparing to enter the market with an original system of “artificial natural lighting,” is confident of this. The company was created last year to commercialize an interesting development from the University of British Columbia's Structured Surface Physics Laboratory (SSP).
The latter specializes in creating and testing new materials that can reflect, absorb and refract light in different ways. In other words, the laboratory's strong point is light guides and mirrors, lenses exotic in composition and structure, as well as various technical devices based on such elements.
One of the most striking projects of the laboratory is the Solar Canopy system. It is based on a frame with a set of small lightweight mirrors, which, using tiny actuators (controlled by cheap electronic circuit) deflect horizontally and vertically to follow the sun.
These mirrors direct light to two pairs of parabolic mirrors, which compress the light flux and throw it into the vent light box, coated on the inside with a mirror film. The lower part of the box is equipped with a thin prismatic diffuser, which effectively directs the light traveling down the box into the room.
In the following video, a company representative explains how the system works using a scale model as an example.
Lamps are also mounted inside the box daylight for lighting at night or in cloudy weather. After all, the Solar Canopy system takes the place of traditional lamps on the office false ceiling. At the same time, the automation quickly adjusts the number of included “tubes” in inverse relationship from natural luminous flux, maintaining the total illumination at the same level.
Canadian experts believe that such a seemingly complex solution may turn out to be more profitable than other methods of solving the problem. But the presence of servo drives and a mirror system seems to make the design more expensive. Maybe there are more attractive alternatives?
For relatively short distances transporting sunlight can be useful simple system like a "solar pipeline". But if the beams need to be thrown 10 meters or more, you should think about other options.
Many companies from different countries already offered on the market various kinds"ray transporters", but all of them, along with obvious advantages, also have disadvantages. Some have questions regarding the limits of application, others are simply expensive, and others are not very effective.
But, it would seem, what could be simpler? Even people who are far from technology understand that the most banal system of mirrors can easily direct light into the house. But for some reason such installations never became widespread.
SunCentral explains what's going on here. Used in such cases inexpensive materials do not have the best reflectivity - 90-95%. This means that with each reflection, 10% of the light flux is lost. After several turns inside the system, the beam weakens very noticeably - the installation turns out to be ineffective.
The basis for Solar Canopy was the research of a Canadian laboratory in the field of coatings with a reflectivity of 99%, and the materials developed by SSP remained very inexpensive - this important condition for their use in fairly long light “pipes”.
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This is not the first time that scientists have come up with original ways delivering natural light into the shaded depths of offices. Thus, the glass walls of the New York Times Building skyscraper are equipped with myriads of snow-white ceramic tubes. On the one hand, they block direct sunlight, reducing air conditioning costs, and on the other, thanks to several reflections, they provide soft and diffused white light that penetrates very far from the windows. This reduces the cost of lighting the interior of the building. |
SSP built the first working prototype of the mirror trap on the territory of the so-called Great Northern Way Campus, a joint campus of three universities and one institute based in Vancouver. Including the University of British Columbia, the parent of Solar Canopy, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), a partner in this project.
And in 2008, SSP installed five of its light collection systems on the third floor of one of the BCIT buildings in Burnaby. The experiment showed that on a clear afternoon, the illumination from a “sun trap” in the depths of the room can be comparable to the degree of illumination from fully turned on ceiling fluorescent lamps.
SunCentral is currently fine-tuning and polishing the technology. Plans for the near future include installing Solar Canopy on six more buildings. And these will be buildings different designs. One of the objectives of the tests is to develop new modifications of the installation that allow it to be embedded less noticeably than in the case of BCIT, that is, into the thickness of the walls.
After such a large-scale check, it will be possible to think about starting mass production of trap modules and their wide sale. But the Canadians do not give any deadlines.
They can turn a gloomy, dark attic into a well-lit room. The use of roof windows is perfect solution in order to reduce the cost of electric lighting in the attic. However, there are rooms in the house where it is impossible to install any windows. In this case, the problem is solved by tubular light guides.
Tubular light guide system was invented in Australia in 1991. It consists of three parts: a transparent dome-concentrator of sunlight, a light guide, and a diffuser. Sunlight passes through a transparent dome made of impact-resistant polycarbonate installed on the roof of the building and is directed into the room through a pipe, which is a light guide. With the help of a diffuser installed on the ceiling, the room is illuminated with a surprisingly soft diffused natural light. It has been proven that daylighting has a positive effect on human health and increases productivity.
The dome is a light concentrator and allows you to collect light even in the case of a low sun position in the morning or evening hours. Light guides, the length of which ranges from 1.5 to 3 m, are installed in the gaps truss structures And ceiling beams. Two types of light guides have been developed: a flexible light guide and a rigid tube with reflectivity up to 98%. Through a diffuse diffuser, natural light is directed to problem areas: hallway, bathroom, kitchen, closets. System Solatube blocks up to 99% of ultraviolet radiation, which adversely affects human health.
The manufacturer recommends using flexible light guides up to 3 m long, and rigid light guides up to 6 m. However, you should be aware that as the length of the pipe increases, the light transmittance decreases, regardless of the materials used.
A diffuser with a diameter of 25 cm, installed in a room of 14 sq.m., provides illumination equivalent to three 100-watt incandescent lamps, model with a diameter of 36 cm can provide sufficient lighting in a room twice the size. The diffuser looks like a regular ceiling light.
Models with remote control remote control allow you to change the lighting, for example, in rooms such as a bedroom. There are systems equipped with additional electric lamp, which turns on at night.
Some models are equipped with a fan installed in the light guide branch.
System efficiency Solatube depends on the time of year, time of day, diameter and length of the optical fiber, and the orientation of the location of the concentrator dome on the roof.
The system can be easily installed in literally 2 hours on any roof. The cost of installing one archway is about 15 thousand rubles.
The SW530 light guide is a hollow tubular light guide (Spot Rooflight) of the SW series designed for rooms with an area of at least 20 m2 with a ceiling height of at least 3 m. Suitable for use in training rooms, operator rooms, warehouses, laboratories, offices, halls. The diffuser model SW530 is suitable for any type of ceiling.
Technical parameters table:
Coefficient useful action light guide is at least 82%. At the same time, such positive traits natural lighting, as a continuous spectrum of light, the natural rhythm of illumination, corresponding to the “bioclock” of a person, the natural dynamics of natural light, allowing one to judge the weather outside, i.e. ensure maximum connection with the external environment.
SW530 SERIES LIGHT GUIDE PROVIDES ILLUMINATION IN AN AREA OF NOT LESS THAN 30 m2
Light guide SW530 is designed for lighting large premises- auditoriums, classrooms, laboratories, conference rooms, offices, offices. The solar tunnel replaces 6 Armstrong lamps in the summer and 2 Armstrong lamps in the winter. Produces at least 5,000 lm in cloudy weather and about 11,000 lm in sunny weather. The heat of the sun will not pass through the light guide, which means there will be no heating of the room. The light guide will also prevent heat loss and maintain the thermal integrity of the building.
THE USE OF SOLAR WELLS ALLOWS YOU TO PROVIDE:
Efficient, healthy lighting for upper floors buildings and in closed rooms;
Safe lighting of fire and explosion hazardous areas;
Safe lighting in rooms with high humidity where there is a danger of electric shock;
Natural diffused lighting prevents objects from “burning out” and does not distort colors;
Safety for children;
Illumination of garages, storage rooms, toilets, bathrooms and other small spaces.
LIGHT TRANSMISSION SCHEME
MAIN ELEMENTS OF A LIGHT TUNNEL
Dome Solarway's roof-mounted light guide captures light from the entire sky from dawn to dusk using an active light-catching dome.Mirror Mine
Mirror MineSolarway light guide conducts light through floors to any point in the building remote from the roof or outer wall. DiffuserDark places will be filled with sunlight from the Solarway light guide. Light diffuserSolarway light guide evenly distributes sunlight throughout the room, maintaining its dynamics.
CLICK HERE, TO SEE WHY THE SOLARWAY SW530 LIGHTING SYSTEM IS A QUALITY REPLACEMENT FOR ARTIFICIAL LIGHT SOURCES.
comparison of SW530 fiber and sources
artificial light
| Artificial light sources (ALS) | Light guide Solarway SW530 | ||
| Positive factors | Photo | Photo | Positive factors |
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1. Lighting during the day and evening | |
| 2. No heat loss | 2. No heat loss | ||
| 3. Possibility of installing lighting in any room | 3. Possibility of installing lighting in any room |
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| Negative factors | |||
| 1. Ripple | 5. No ripple | ||
| 2. Shine | 6. No shine | ||
| 3. Presence of heat inflows | 7. No heat gain | ||
| 4. Uneven illumination | 8. Uniform lighting | ||
| 5. Electrical and fire hazards | 9. Electrical and fire safety | ||
| 6. High operating and energy costs | 10. No energy costs for lighting | ||
| 7. Discrete spectral composition does not correspond to the spectral composition of natural light | The total cost of a roof window with installation is at least 25,000 rubles. (With a lighting area of at least 22 m2) | The total cost of a hollow mirror light guide with installation is no more than 22,000 rubles. (With a lighting area of at least 22 m2) | 11. Complete preservation of the spectral composition of natural light |
| 8. Lack of visual contact with the external environment | 12. Maintaining partial visual contact with the external environment | ||
| 9. Negative impact on environment | 13. No impact on the environment | ||
| The light tunnel has 13 positive factors, unlike artificial lighting. |
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Artificial lighting – created by electric light sources. Artificial light sources (ALS) are capable of illuminating the target room around the clock, with one condition - if electricity is available. Those. If there is no electricity in the network, there will be no lighting, which means the room will not be able to be used for its intended purpose. |
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The light guide is a hollow ring mirror (mirror tube), which is completely sealed and excludes the possibility of convection. air masses due to the ThermoBarrier built into it. |
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Possibility of installing lighting in any roomIt often happens that it is not possible to bring light into a room that is located inside the house and does not have access to the external walls. sources of artificial lighting cope with this problem just as well as light guides, which are capable of conducting natural light at a distance of up to 20 meters deep into the buildingThe light guide can easily illuminate any room remote from the roof or outer wall. |
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Uniformity of lighting.With modern lighting sources ( LED lamps) very low uniformity close to unity. The light guide has a high uniform illumination closer to three. |
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Ripple.Any source of artificial light has a stroboscopic effect - in other words, there is a pulsation. Many have already encountered the non-visual impact of artificial lighting pulsation, which manifested itself in the form of a feeling of discomfort, fatigue and even malaise that occurs under seemingly good, brightly lit conditions or when working at a computer.The light guide is essentially a window or a spotlight and, like a periscope, it conducts sunlight without distortion or pulsation. |
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Shine.Shininess negatively affects the functioning of the eyes. There is no protection against glare in the eyes. In the presence of high brightness, vision functions are reduced, and temporary blindness occurs, which is called glare. A high degree of gloss may cause visual disturbances, headache. Shininess in production conditions is completely unacceptable. The presence of shine in the workplace can lead to work-related injury.The light guide diffuser does not have a blinding effect, the light is evenly distributed over the entire area of the room. |
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Heat inflows.The heat generation from the IIS is not so great, however, in accordance with regulatory documents they must be taken into account. The total heat receipts from the IIS are no more than 3%.The light guide transmits less than 0.5% heat, increasing the room temperature by no more than 0.003 o C |
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Electrical and fire safetyThe light guide is electrically and fireproof. The light guide does not require electricity to perform its main function - lighting. |
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No energy costs for lightingThe main advantage of the light guide is its direct savings. IIS do not have direct savings and can only be content with indirect ones. |
O C
It is recommended to wipe the surface of the dome with a damp cloth 2 times a year.
It is prohibited to exert physical influence on the product.
To install light guides you need:
Prepare holes in the roof and ceilings. (In accordance with SNiP 2.01.07-85 “Loads and impacts”).
Prepare a box for the light shaft on the roof. The height of the shaft depends on the thickness of the snow cover in winter time(SNiP 23-01-99 “Building climatology”; SNiP 41-01-2003 “Heating, ventilation and air conditioning”).
Light guide assembly:
First, the tubes are assembled according to the installation instructions.
The pipes are placed in the opening and secured in interfloor ceilings(if the light guide passes more than one floor)
At long length The optical fiber pipes are assembled in segments and attached in place. If the length of the light guide is short (2-3 tubes), you can assemble the entire pipe and mount it as an assembly.
Read the technical data sheet of the product
ADDITIONAL OPTIONS and ACCESSORIES
DimmerInstalling a device such as a dimer (dimmer) will allow you to change the intensity of the general light in the premises.
Light crownThe light crown is designed for additional lighting of rooms using light guides in the dark.
Heliostat "Peresvet"The heliostat using the Peresvet technology (developed by Solarzhi) is a fixed panel. Sunlight at low angles at sunrise and sunset falling on the heliostat is redirected into a mirror tube. The efficiency of the device is at least 90% at angles from 0 to 15 degrees.