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Photos:
Lighting up your workplace
Queensland student
pipes light to your office cubicle
Monday 9 May 2005
Most people prefer natural
light when they work and play. However, the size of modern office buildings
often means that natural light is far away.
Veronica Garcia Hansen, a
PhD student from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, has a
solution to this problem: “light pipe technology” which uses sunlight for the
illumination of high or middle-rise deep plan buildings.
The unique solar collectors
already have patent protection and a leading Malaysian architect has
incorporated the pipes into his latest designs.
Although windows are the
simplest way of introducing natural light into a building, they can only
illuminate an area of 4 to 5 metres from the window. Deep buildings, with depths
over 10 metres from the daylight source depend almost entirely on artificial
light.
“This creates unhealthy
working environments for people, and increases electricity consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions,” says Veronica.
“In fact, nearly 20% of the
power consumed by commercial buildings comes from electrical lighting,” she
says.
The only practical way to
naturally illuminate spaces at distances over 10 metres is by piping light in.
“Architect Ken Yeang, from
Malaysia, first contacted us to find an energy efficient lighting solution for a
building proposal in Kuala Lumpur.”
The solution proposed by
Ms. Garcia Hansen and her supervisor Dr. Ian Edmonds was a system that captures
and reflects sunlight into a hollow mirrored pipe, which can then be reflected
into the deep office space at the required locations.
“One of the greatest
difficulties was how to capture the sunlight efficiently since the sun
constantly changes its position in the sky during the day and over the seasons,”
says Veronica.
“Most systems use
complicated and expensive sun tracking systems. Our solution has no mobile
parts, and is completely passive, therefore reducing operation and maintenance
costs.”
“We realised that a simple
device known as laser cut acrylic panels, would passively redirect sunlight
inside the pipe. This reduces the number of light reflections along it, thereby
increasing the performance.”
“An important innovation of
our system is that light can be extracted at any distance and at multiple points
along the pipe, up to a distance of 24 metres. Commercially available light
pipes for residential use can only reach up to three metres and have only one
light output”.
The light pipes can be
adapted to building designs and can be vertical – collecting light from the roof
- or horizontal - collecting light from the facade.
With interest growing from
international architects, the next step for Veronica and her colleagues is to
build a prototype – scheduled for later this year.
Veronica believes the light
pipes will provide a cost-effective, energy efficient solution that will enhance
the well being and productivity of workers.
Garcia Hansen’s innovation
won her a place at Fresh Innovators- a national initiative to bring the work of
16 early-career inventers to public attention.
For more information contact
Veronica Garcia Hansen t: 07 3864 4334 m: 0418 730 040
e:
v.garciahansen@qut.edu.au
Photos:
Click on each one for a
larger image. For high res versions, please contact Veronica.
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