Evaluation of four artificial lighting simulation tools with virtual building reference

There are number of software environments available to conduct lighting simulation to support researchers and designers. This paper compares and analyses performance of four lighting simulation programs, they are, AGI32, DIALux, RADIANCE and RELux. Along with the evaluation of modelling ability and output features, two significant aspects of lighting calculation focussed in this study are accuracy in calculating illumination level and luminaire number for interior spaces. Illumination level calculation is validated by Commission International de Eclairage (CIE) recommended methodology known as CIE test cases. Another virtual space is used to evaluate luminaire number calculation capability. Modelling and simulation were conducted by all four packages. Validation was done by comparing simulation results with analytical and manual method calculation.