Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Center for Building Science has developed a state-of-the-art computer software program for analyzing lighting systems. Radiance accepts three dimensional models of rooms or other spaces as input, and produces full-color renderings of the spaces so you can measure the light level at any point in the space and see subjectively what the space looks like given any day, time, outside weather condition, and configuration of interior light sources.
Presented here are sample Radiance outputs for a proposed retrofit of the White House Office on Environmental Policy suite in the Old Executive Office Building. These renderings were used to evaluate different lighting options for the suite, especially comparing how the space would look during the day and at night. The design for the suite included uplights to illuminate the space indirectly by bouncing light off of the ceiling, as well as task lamps and desk lamps at individual workstations.
There are renderings for five different views of the suite, and for several lighting schemes for each view. Some of the renderings include "isolines", which define areas of equal light intensity in the view.
LBL maintains a web server dedicated to providing information about Radiance.
For more information on Radiance please contact:
Greg Ward
LBNL Center for Building Science
510-486-4757