Daylight Performance of a Translucent Textile Membrane Roof with Thermal Insulation

Daylight usage in buildings improves visual comfort and lowers the final energy demand for artificial lighting. The question that always occurs is how much conservation can be achieved? New or rare materials and constructions have a lack of information about their application. Therefore, the current investigation quantifies the daylight and energy performance of a rare multi-layer textile membrane roof. A translucent, thermal insulation with a glass fibre fleece between the two roof membranes combines daylight usage and heating demand reduction. A sports hall built in 2017 is used as a case study building with 2300 m² membrane roof surface. The optical properties of the roof construction were measured with a total visual light transmittance τv of 0.72% for a clean surface. A climate-based annual daylight modelling delivers daylight indicators for different construction scenarios. The results show that, in comparison to only one glass façade, the additional translucent and thermally insulated membrane roof construction increases the annual daylight autonomy (DA700) from 0% to 1.5% and the continuous DA700 from 15% to 38%. In the roof-covered areas of the sport field, this results in a 30% reduction of the electricity demand for artificial lighting from 19.7 kWhel/m²/a to 13.8 kWhel/m²/a, when a dimming control is used. The study also found that the influence of the soiling of one layer decreases its light transmittance by a factor 0.81. Two soiled layers lower τv by a factor of 0.66 to 0.47%. This increases the electricity demand for lighting by only 12%. The results should be very valuable as a comparison and benchmark for planners and future buildings of a similar type.

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