A predictive daylight harvesting system, comprising a controller that:
- reads input data from one or more sensors and information feeds, the sensors and information feeds including daylight photosensors, occupancy sensors, timers, personal lighting controls, weather report feeds, and energy storage controllers, the occupancy sensors being located in a building's interior environment;
- calculates effects of variable building design parameters on the building's environmental characteristics;
- determines diffusion properties of a transition surface between an exterior environment and the interior environment of the building;
- outputs controller command signals in order to maximize an optimal light distribution in the building while maintaining selected occupant requirements for the building's environmental characteristics;
- includes virtual representations of the transition surface and the building's exterior and interior environments, including geometry and material properties of objects that influence a distribution of daylight, diffused light, and artificial luminous flux within the exterior and interior environments, wherein the virtual representations are accessed and used by the controller to generate the controller command signals;
- and
- receives and processes information about luminaires located in the building's interior environment, including photometric and electrical properties of the luminaires, and uses the information to generate the controller command signals;
- wherein the predictive daylight harvesting system further comprises a fuzzy-logic inference engine that learns weather patterns and occupant preferences;
- wherein the controller:
- maintains a mathematical model of sky conditions, historical weather data, a database of weather patterns and occupant preferences, and a database of diffusion material properties;
- continually reads data from external input and communication devices;
- calculates optimal settings for the luminaires and fenestration devices;
- and
- controls the luminaires and the fenestration devices to achieve maximal energy savings while providing an interior luminous environment that is consistent with predefined goals and the occupant preferences;
- wherein the predictive daylight harvesting system further comprises a daylight harvesting lighting modelling system comprising:
- a logic subsystem;
- and
- a storage subsystem storing computer readable instructions, which, when executed by the logic subsystem, cause the daylight harvesting lighting modelling system to:
- assign diffusion characteristics to the virtual representation of the transition surface (“virtual transition surface”) based on diffusion properties of a material of the transition surface;
- assign a unique identifier to each virtual exterior element in the virtual representation of the exterior environment (“virtual exterior environment”) and to each virtual interior element in the virtual representation of the interior environment (“virtual interior environment”);
- select a first set of directions in a half-space defined by the virtual transition surface, the diffusion characteristics, and the virtual exterior environment;
- select a second set of directions in an opposing half-space defined by the virtual transition surface, the diffusion characteristics, and the virtual interior environment;
- choose a position on the virtual transition surface for each of the first set of directions;
- select a first direction from the first set of directions;
- and
- for the first direction:
- trace an exterior ray from the chosen position on the virtual transition surface in the first direction to the closest virtual exterior element;
- assign the unique identifier of said closest virtual exterior element to the exterior ray;
- select a second direction from the second set of directions;
- trace an interior ray from the chosen position on the virtual transition surface in the second direction to the closest virtual interior element;
- assign the unique identifier of said closest virtual exterior element as an attribute to said closest virtual interior element;
- and
- indirectly determine another element attribute transferred from said closest virtual exterior element to said closest virtual interior element by way of the unique identifier of said closest virtual exterior element.