A 23-lamp helidon

Abstract

Heliodons have been developed to simulate sunlight direction in relation to a building model. For placing the building model, heliodons can be divided into two categories. In one category, the model is to be tilted and normally also rotated [1, 2, 3]. In the other category, the model is to be placed horizontally and normally also stationary [4, 5, 6]. The later category of heliodons, with a horizontally placed building model, and with the simulated sunlight moving around it, will certainly help architectural students, to visualise the change of sunlight direction around a building and the related effect on insolation and shading. This category has appeared in architectural schools in two versions, namely a movable, single-lamp version [4], and a multi-lamp version with lamps fixed to stationary supports to simulate sunlight direction at selected day/time combinations [5]. This paper reports on a hybrid version between these two versions. This hybrid version consists of 23 lamps (i.e. for day selection) fixed on a rotatable elbow (i.e. for time selection), which is in turn mounted on a tiltable (i.e. for latitude selection) turntable.