UCF uses sunlight to decrease costs

The UCF Department of Sustainability and Energy Management has implemented a new energy-saving program called daylight harvesting, and just in time for the fall season.

Daylight harvesting is a method of energy conservation in which lights are turned off during the daytime, taking advantage of the natural light that flows into a building. It is most often used in buildings that have a large amount of natural light flowing through it, particularly the newer glass-walled buildings, where the use of artificial lighting would be redundant during the day.

"It's unused light," David Norvell, the director of UCF's Department of Sustainability and Energy Management, said. "There is natural light coming in through the big glazing that the architects have put in through the building, so why not use the natural light instead of having both natural and artificial lighting going simultaneously?"

The Department of Sustainability and Energy Management attempts to lower the amount of energy used on campus through both the implication of energy-efficient programs and through the education of both faculty and students about steps that can be made to help the university become more energy-efficient.

Norvell explained that programs such as daylight harvesting are essential during the poor state of the current economy.

"As the budget crush gets worse and worse on the state, we are looking for more and more aggressive ways to save energy," Norvell said.

Although the concept of daylight harvesting has been around for nearly 10 years, 2008 marks the first time such a program has been attempted on the UCF campus.

Due to variations in architectural design, not every building at UCF is optimal for the daylight harvesting program.

Buildings with large atriums and a large amount of solar gain going through the glass are the ones that are most likely to benefit from the program. So far, the daylight harvesting program has been tested out at the Health and Public Affairs, Psychology and Teaching Academy buildings, Colburn Hall and the Harris Corporation Engineering Center.

"There are some lights that light the ceiling in the [Psychology Building] atrium, and they used to be turned on all day, and shortly after the building was commissioned and turned over to the university, we went in there and installed some controls that turned those lights off when there is sufficient lighting coming through the windows," said Eugene Roberts, the project manager of the daylight harvesting program.

Currently, the lights in the Psychology Building are timed to turn off from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., weather permitting.

"The purpose of this is two-fold," Roberts said. "One is to save on the maintenance on the lighting, and the other is to save the electricity that the light uses because if the light level is sufficient to walk around and find their way around, there is no reason to turn those lights on. I also think that people like the daylight more than the artificial light."

Other energy-saving programs that are being practiced at UCF by the department include making air conditioning systems more efficient and a lighting retrofit program in which older, less efficient lighting fixtures are replaced with more high-efficiency bulbs.