On the luminous efficacy of diffuse solar radiation

Models for diffuse illuminance and irradiance and for the luminous efficacy of diffuse solar radiation are developed, specifically for clear skies, an d also for all sky types. All luminous efficacy models reported in the present work have the distinct ive feature of being obtained from empirical models developed for diffuse i lluminance and irradiance, looking in this way, apparently for the first ti me, for a mathematical coherence between the luminous efficacy and the two magnitudes that define it. Statistical assessment of all the models shows that those for all sky types developed from two independent variables, solar elevation and brightness i ndex, predict the illuminance for clear skies better than the specific clea r skies models developed with solar elevation as the only independent varia ble. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.