A Methodology to Model Occupants' Day Lighting Quality Satisfaction in Residential Buildings

The building overall satisfaction level can be favorably improved by enhancing residents' thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and indoor lighting quality. Various studies have shown that lighting plays a critical role in improving indoor environmental quality and occupant satisfaction. Although the high interaction of lighting and satisfaction has been admitted, the proper methodology that could be employed in the design process is still a missing piece of puzzle. The amount of light and its distribution highly depends on the interior partitions location and exterior envelope design strategies. In order to obtain the most satisfying design, the impact of different strategies should be evaluated during early stages of design. Therefore, this paper presents a model, which is capable of evaluating the lighting satisfaction level of a single-family house. This model employs defined indoor lighting quality index (LQI) and quantified satisfaction model to evaluate building lighting overall satisfaction level. In addition, to illustrate the modeling process and demonstrate the use of developed model, a housing unit is analyzed as an example.