LAPSE:2023.27110
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LAPSE:2023.27110
The Energy and Exergy of Light with Application to Societal Exergy Analysis
April 4, 2023
Lighting provides an indispensable energy service, illumination. The field of societal exergy analysis considers light (and many other energy products) to be enablers of economic growth, and lighting contributes a non-negligible proportion of total useful exergy supplied to modern economies. In societal exergy analysis, the exergetic efficiency of electric lamps is central to determining the exergy contribution of lighting to an economy. Conventionally, societal exergy practitioners estimate the exergetic efficiency of lamps by an energy efficiency, causing confusion and, sometimes, overestimation of exergetic efficiency by a factor as large as 3. In response, we use recent results from the fields of radiation thermodynamics and photometry to develop an exact method for calculating the exergy of light and the exergetic efficiency of lamps. The exact method (a) is free of any assumptions for the value of the maximum luminous efficacy, (b) uses a non-unity spectral exergy-to-energy ratio, and (c) allows choices for the spectral luminous weighting function, which converts broad-spectrum electromagnetic radiation to light. The exact method exposes shortcomings inherent to the conventional method and leads to a reasonable approximation of lamp exergetic efficiency, when needed. To conclude, we provide three recommendations for societal exergy practitioners: use (a) the exact method when a lamp’s spectral power distribution is available, (b) the universal luminous weighting function, and (c) the reasonable approximation to the exact method when a lamp’s luminous efficacy is known but its spectral power distribution is not.
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Keywords
efficiency, Exergy, illumination, light, lumen, luminous efficacy, radiation, spectrum, thermodynamics
Subject
Suggested Citation
Heun MK, Marshall Z, Aramendia E, Brockway PE. The Energy and Exergy of Light with Application to Societal Exergy Analysis. (2023). LAPSE:2023.27110
Author Affiliations
Heun MK: Department of Engineering, Calvin University, 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA [ORCID]
Marshall Z: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Aramendia E: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Brockway PE: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Marshall Z: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Aramendia E: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Brockway PE: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK [ORCID]
Journal Name
Energies
Volume
13
Issue
20
Article Number
E5489
Year
2020
Publication Date
2020-10-20
Published Version
ISSN
1996-1073
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PII: en13205489, Publication Type: Journal Article
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LAPSE:2023.27110
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doi:10.3390/en13205489
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Apr 4, 2023
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