Challenging Conventional Approaches for Climate-based Daylight Simulations of Multi-Unit Residential Buildings ✓ Most Recent

Multi-unit residential buildings (MURB) represent morethan one half of the new housing built in the USA andCanada. To date, the majority of daylighting research hasfocused on offices, but MURB have a number ofenvironmental performance challenges and quality oflife considerations specific to their housing typology.Daylight is typically not sufficient in these dwellings, asmany units are small and single-aspect, with a deepfloorplate and a balcony that shades the living spaceswithin and below. There are no established metrics ormethods specifically aimed to aid in daylighting designfor MURB. There is a need for increased understandingof daylighting in these buildings, and better methods andmetrics to simulate daylight performance. New earlystage climate-based daylighting modeling (CBDM) toolssuch as DIVA allow designers to predict daylightperformance in buildings. These tools were developedwith offices in mind, and have underlying assumptionssuch as work hours and occupancy during daylight, anda focus on productivity and minimum sufficient lightingfor a task, that make them difficult to adopt forMURB. This paper emerged from a study of theinfluence of balcony typologies on daylighting andpresents a selective literature review of existingassumptions around daylight simulations for MURB. Itidentifies which assumptions in current tools andmethods are problematic, with the aim of leading to morerelevant CBDM assumptions and tools for this buildingtypology. Drawing on recent literature, publishedstudies, and rules of thumb, this paper identifies MURBspecificchallenges with current assumptions aboutdaylight simulation and tests some alternatives to typicalsimulation parameters. The aim is to begin to createMURB-specific thresholds for parameters includingtarget daylight illuminance, metrics, and simulation gridheight. See more