The Energy and Exergy of Light with Application to Societal Exergy Analysis

Matthew Kuperus Heun, Zeke Marshall, Emmanuel Aramendia and Paul E. Brockway
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Matthew Kuperus Heun: Department of Engineering, Calvin University, 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA
Zeke Marshall: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Emmanuel Aramendia: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Paul E. Brockway: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-24

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: exergy; efficiency; light; radiation; thermodynamics; illumination; lumen; luminous efficacy; spectrum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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