Hospital Lab - Sunpipe Assessment

A three-dimensional model of the three laboratories has been built into state-of-the-art lighting/daylighting software. Various views of the model are shown to the left. Since the benches are significant pieces of furniture, these have been included in the model. All other items of furniture and equipment have been removed for simplicity.

The sunpipe EIS data is provided for certain sky conditions or lux levels. The sunpipes are therefore modelled as if they were artificial luminaires. For the original window and skylight configurations, the lux levels inside the laboratories are simulated under the sunpipe EIS sky conditions, thus ensuring that a direct comparison can be made.

For the original window layout, a significant reduction in daylighting is predicted towards the wall opposite the windows. Overall, the daylighting is predicted to be satisfactory. The number and layout of skylights and different diameter sunpipes were optimised (within limits) to produce a similar level of average lighting. The results are shown on the right.

The assessment by Flow Analysis yielded the following key conclusions:

• The depth of the ceiling void reduces the effectiveness of skylights.
• The smaller diameter sunpipes are better suited to the relatively low ceiling level since they produce a more even light distribution.
• However, a larger number of smaller diameter pipes are required to raise the amount of light to a level comparable to that when windows are unobstructed.

Taking the above conclusions into consideration, the 450mm sunpipes appear to offer the best compromise between evenness of light distribution and number of sunpipes.

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