Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This scoping study sets the stage for transforming the design and implementation of integrated lighting systems (daylight and electric), and thereby helping to achieve long-term objectives in energy savings goals established by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO). While integrated lighting systems may reduce building energy use, a broader network of non-energy benefits affecting overall health, comfort, and satisfaction of building occupants may also influence technology investment objectives when considering the entire lifecycle of the built environment. Lighting systems in today’s typical buildings are disconnected from other systems and their control mechanisms. Being disassociated from the inputs and outputs of those systems, and unable to capture and capitalize on the information those systems gather, prevents realizing the dynamic nature of holistic human responses to light inside buildings. In the future, lighting in new and existing buildings must be adaptable throughout the course of a day to changes in the quantity and quality of daylight, information flows throughout a building’s connected systems, changes in the requirements for optimal lighting for occupant comfort, health, and well-being.