Influence of building design on running costs of lighting in office buildings. (case study: Nairobi central business district)

Abstract

This is a study of office building design and running costs of lighting in an urban setting. The hypothesis of this study is that architectural design parameters have an influence on running costs of lighting. It has been established in the literature review that the design indicators for running costs of lighting are fagade character, window size, position of window, floor area, partitions, shape of building, room height, use of space and colour of room surfaces. The analysis of data collected indicated that most buildings with adequate provision of natural lighting during the day to support basic office functions still had their lights on even though not required. The need for automatic lighting controls was revealed by this trend of space users forgetting to switch lights off using manual controls. The study concludes that a relationship exists between running costs of lighting and design parameters. Thus designers should design for economy in terms of lighting costs among other factors. The study recommends that, for future developments, provision of lighting in office buildings should be considered at the design stage and modern technology in terms of use of automatic lighting controls put into consideration.