IES software used in design of first daylight trough for office tower in the Tropics

Case study: IES discuss how their software has been used in the design of first daylight trough for an office tower in the Tropics

IEN Consultants used the radiance capability within IES Virtual Environment (IESVE) to investigate the design of the first daylight trough for a high-rise office tower in the Tropics.

Case Study –
Mercu Mustapha Kamal
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Key Facts

• Daylight effectiveness design investigated with IESVE Radiance
• First daylight trough for high rise office tower in the Tropics
• Sufficient daylight delivered to as deep as 6 meters under overcast sky condition
• 2% lighting energy saved with a low lighting Power Density of 1.90W/m²

Mercu Mustapha Kamal, consisting of two office towers with a GFA of 55,000m², has been awarded Green Building Index (GBI) Gold Design Assessment Stage and is also a demonstration project under the Building Sector Energy Efficient Program sponsored by the United Nations. The client wanted an innovative solution to deliver daylight to the deep floor plates, ranging from 10 to 16 meters, along with the existing green building certification mandate.

The IESRadiance module within the Virtual Environment (IESVE) enabled the IEN consultancy team to investigate an array of daylighting design strategies. This is particularly critical for the geometry design of daylight trough, such as the size of the entry and exit apertures, length of duct and angle of distribution. The IEN consultancy team has also utilised the specularity property in Radiance to ensure the visual comfort of the occupants by choosing an appropriate surface finishing material.

A field measurement was also conducted and confirmed the correlation between Radiance and on-site measurements, signifying the accuracy of daylight modelling in facilitating the optimisation of daylight harvesting device.

The paper Practicality and Performance of Daylight Trough in The Tropics: A Case Study was published to document the practicality, performance and technicality of designing daylight trough in the Tropics.