Performance and Calibration of High-Resolution Daylight-integrated and Occupancy-based Lighting Systems in Open-plan Offices

A significant portion of the energy buildings consume is spent providing sufficient lighting for occupant happiness, health, comfort, and productivity. Intelligent control of lighting systems featuring high-resolution daylight and occupancy sensing has the potential to conserve a large portion of this energy, reducing or eliminating energy wasted illuminating spaces that are already daylit or are unoccupied. This thesis explores intelligent lighting systems through two related studies. In the first, the energy savings potential of such systems is quantified by simulating system performance under a variety of conditions. Savings are found to be between 61% to 91% when high-resolution control is utilized, with the greatest savings occurring when occupancy is lower and daylight penetrates deeply into a space. In the second study, the problem of required labor-intensive manual calibration is addressed by evaluating an automated calibration process. Systems calibrated automatically are found to perform similarly to those calibrated manually.