Efficiency analysis of a passive daylighting system based on Northern Malaysia’s climate

Daylighting design strategy is important in order to have adequate lighting source in a room and necessary to decrease energy consumption for artificial lighting. Passive daylighting system utilizes daylight by collecting, reflecting and diffusing the natural light throughout a given area. The purpose for this study is to monitor, compare and analyse an optimum light pipe system design that can scatter daylight into a room based on three case studies. Lighting analysis was conducted using Autodesk 3ds Max Design software throughout the project based on the actual geographical parameters of Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia and also using the real sun azimuth on working hours. The results were compared according to the respective designs in order to observe the maximum internal illuminance and the average internal illuminance. The results show that the straight geometry with low aspect ratio produces the highest interior light intensity among other light pipe systems and the average internal illuminance values in the room was able to reach the minimum requirement of a small room which is 200 – 500 lux.