Abstract
As has been expected, economic factors are a major consideration in almost every decision in building design process. Assuming that improving a lighting system, existing or proposed, will reduce operating cost, what preliminary economic guidelines can be established to determine whether any proposed investment appears cost effective? In such a case a reasonable technique to compare system costs is by life-cycle costing. Stated simply, a life-cycle cost represents the total cost of a system over its entire life cycle, that is, the sum of first cost and all future costs. This paper aims to exemplify the benefit of daylighting in term of economic consideration. Four different electric lighting system designs are proposed and a lighting control system that is continuously operating according to the level of daylight in the space has been adapted. The accumulated performance of electric and daylighting is figured out to declare the effective depth of daylight in the space. The analysis on the saving amount of lighting energy due to daylight has been undertaken in answer to the question, that is, several projects are being considered, which is the most desirable from the cost-effectiveness viewpoint. The result shows clearly that although denser layout of lighting fixtures might be more effective to interface to the level of daylight ceaselessly changeable, its economic benefit may not meet the expected criterion the reason of increased initial investment and maintenance cost for the fixtures and control hardware.
