Daylight analysis of outdoor space

[SebLeG]

Hi,

I'm new to Ecotect so this might be a bit of a amateur problem...

The first project I'd like to analyse is one that includes an outdoor courtyard. The courtyard is small, triangular, and with high walls, so I would like to analyse the daylight factor (or lux levels) within the courtyard itself to see how useful it will be as an outdoor space. So far Ecotext is telling me that that the space will have a DF of above 70%, which can't be accurate. Is there some steps I should take to have Ecotect correctly model this space?

Thanks!

Seb

[Pennetier1]

Hello SebLeG, 

The reason you are getting erroneous results is because the Daylight Factor method is designed to be used in interior spaces only.

Thus in Ecotect, only analyses performed within an enclosed "zone" would give correct Daylight Factors.

One work around might be to create a "zone" that encloses your outdoor space, and use VOID elements on the zone to simulate the zone being completely outdoor, but from experience, this will give you some funny results as well, as the VOID objects seems to create overly lit areas.

The real answer would be to perform the analysis using the RADIANCE plug-in to Ecotect.

You can read through this tutorial to get you started with RADIANCE.  You can download and install Desktop Radiance here.

Have a read at this post to install Desktop Radiance properly.

Also, a good reference manual can be found here.  If you download and install DAYSIM, you will be able to run Daylight Autonomy analyses based on the weather file you have in the Ecotect model.

Once you install and run the analysis through Radiance, Ecotect will re-import the results in your model and will display the illuminance or luminance within the sapce at a spacific day and time.  You also have the option to use "daylight Factors" from Radiance, although that is not quite the correct choice in my opinion.

Let me know if you have more questions on this topic, otherwise please accept as a solution so that others can benefit from this information.

Cheers,