Redirect solar ray by mirror surface

[dorianrigal]

Hello All,

I have a special architectural project to analyse.

To goal is to determine the best position of two mirror surface to have the best solar reflection on a surface 30m under th floor.

The first mirror redirect the sun ray on the other mirror and then on the base surface.

1 : I'm wondering how can i specify in ecotect this material (wich is not a default one). Then wich process can give me the better angle for those two surfaces.

2 : Is radiance a best solution to analyse how many lux on the vertical and horizontal plan ?

The solar analysis is during one year.

Regards.

[Pennetier1]

Hi dorianrigal, 

In Ecotect, you can specify and assign any material you want.

Select any default material and edit its properties - if it is a mirror, you might want to assign the specularity to 1.0 - then change the old name to a new name and click on the "Add New Element" button.  There is an existing "Mirror" object under the Partition elements, but the specularity is set to 0.  The specularity will only affect the amount of light reflected.

Unfortunately, there are no automatic process to calculate the best angles for your mirrors or any objects tagged as reflector.  It is going to have to be a trial and error process, but I would start with your bottom mirror, setting it up to where you want the reflected sunlight at a specific time of the day and year and go from there.  

I would use Radiance for all my lighting analyses.  You can create sensor points on the vertical and horizontal planes, or fit an analysis grid, but the grid will only fit one plane, so it will have to be two different analyses if you go that route.

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,