Improving the Performance of Light Pipe System Using Laser Cut Panel

Light pipe systems (LPS) are simple devices that allow the transmission of daylight into interiors of buildings. It is a convenient concept for illumination of windowless parts of buildings. The light performance of this is highly dependent on the solar altitude due to the small inlet aperture. Placing the laser-cut panel (LCP) at the entrance aperture in light pipe system, will increase the light performance during low solar angle. This paper presents the results of light performance a 400mm diameter light pipe integrated with a laser-cut panel at entrance aperture as collector. For that reason, this research adopted an experimental approach to compare the light pipe performance via 1: 10 scale model. Two scale models were built. LCP in the form of pyramids was fitted at the entrance aperture of light pipe in different tilted angle 40 degrees and 47.5 degrees. The system has been monitored 30 minutes interval with lux meter to evaluate the improvement light performance on a working plane for 6 days under good sky condition. The results of this experiment shows that LCP with 40 degrees tilted angle performed better than 47.5 degrees tilted angle. The light pipe with LCP as collector the minimum recommended illuminance by Malaysian Standard (MS) 1525: 2007 can be achieved as early at 8am.