Evaluating performance of daylight-linked building controls during preliminary design

Thanks to the spread of new light sources and of smart dynamic control systems, automation sector has begun to play a fundamental role in lighting design. In this regard, daylight-linked control systems (DLCSs) represent a particularly interesting research field, since they offer great opportunities both in obtaining energy savings and in improving visual comfort conditions. However, their use is not so spread, because of the difficulties in predicting their functioning during the design process and in evaluating their effective energetic and economic advantages: available technical solutions are so many that design choices can be very hard for specialists. To overcome these obstacles, a precise assessment methodology is needed. Given these premises, the goal of the paper is to show the effectiveness of new performance parameters (Daylight Integration Adequacy, Percentage Intrinsic Light Excess, Percentage Light Waste and Percentage Light Deficit) in order to evaluate DLCs performance and to underline which factors mostly affect their functioning. •A new methodology was used to assess daylight-linked control systems (DLCSs).•The impact of daylight availability on DLCSs performance was analyzed.•The effect of calibration setting on DLCSs performance was highlighted.•The methodology proves that each design choice can strictly modify DLCSs functioning.•The introduced analysis methodology is then crucial during preliminary design.