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Safranek, Sarah

Publications and source records attributed to Safranek, Sarah.

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

TECHNOLOGY: A Lesson In LED Adoption: Understanding the hurdles faced by K–12 schools

PK-12 schools lag in upgrading fluorescent lighting. Surprised? So were we; spurring a journey to understand the reasons for lagging adoption of LED. During conversations with school facility managers and other lighting professionals the reasons became clearer. What follows is a synopsis of what has been uncovered so far, yet there remains much to learn. Here, these stories are not the product of imagination; they represent real experiences, real decisions, and real concerns from 9 school districts in 7 states from coast to coast.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Impact of Circadian Lighting Design Strategies on Lighting and Cooling Energy of an Office Space

A DOE-funded study of the potential electrical and thermal energy impacts of using daylight and electric light to meet existing recommendations for human health and well-being, conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in collaboration with researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Washington, and the University of Oregon. New software tools for modeling the spectral characteristics of light, like Adaptive Lighting for Alertness (ALFA), were leveraged to conduct annual daylighting, electric lighting, heating, and cooling simulations for office applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Lighting System Control Data to Improve Design and Operation: Tunable Lighting System Data from NICU Patient Rooms

The advancement of LED and controls technology, computing capacity, and software provides new opportunities for researchers and designers to work together to further optimize spaces for occupant benefit. Here, lighting system control data from five neonatal intensive care unit patient rooms was collected over a 25-week monitoring period and analyzed to better understand occupant response to a tunable lighting system with automatic transitions throughout the day. Lighting systems are very rarely refined after installation based on actual use. Objective data detailing how the lighting system is used by the actual occupants highlights the opportunities for optimization after installation and provides insight for improving the next design. As use of the data becomes more commonplace, it can be leveraged for design recommendations. The collection of the data required no additional cost beyond the time for examining the data. The analysis revealed several clear opportunities for improvement, including adjustments to the default control setting at night, re-labeling of the control stations, and adjustments to the nighttime fade rate. The patient room occupants were active users of the different zones, dimming options, and manual overrides made available by the lighting system.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Review of the Use of Wearables in Indoor Environmental Quality Studies and an Evaluation of Data Accessibility from a Wearable Device

An understanding of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and its effects on occupant well-being can inform building system design and operation. The use of wearables in field studies to collect subjective and objective health performance indicators (HPIs) from a large number of occupants could deliver important improvements in IEQ. To facilitate the use of wearables in IEQ studies, there is a need to identify which HPIs should be collected and to evaluate data accessibility from these devices. To address this issue, a literature review of previous IEQ studies was conducted to identify relationships between different IEQ factors and HPIs, with a focus on HPIs that were collected using wearables. A preliminary assessment of data accessibility from a selected wearable device (Fitbit Versa 2) was performed and documented. The review suggested the need to further investigate and collect sleep quality parameters, heart rate, stress response, as well as subjective ratings of comfort using wearables. The data accessibility assessment revealed issues related to missing data points and data resolution from the examined device. A set of recommendations is outlined to inform future studies.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗