Decrease energy use. Boost morale and productivity.
Daylighting is the use of natural light, through skylights and windows, to complement or replace interior electric light. This is different than sunlight, which is a direct, often glare-producing beam. Daylight is available on even the cloudiest day in Vermont. With appropriate controls, you can modulate how much daylight enters your space.
Benefits of daylighting:
- Pleasant, attractive spaces that people feel good about. Daylight in retail shops can encourage customers to visit more often and to purchase more. In daylit classrooms, students concentrate better. Workers in daylit commercial buildings experience improved morale and can become more productive.
- Reduced energy costs for electric lighting.
- Reduced energy costs for cooling, due to the reduced use of heat-generating electric lights.
- Daylighted buildings may lease at better rates, have reduced tenant turnover and greater resale value.
When you build or renovate:
- Start early. Incorporate daylighting strategies in the pre-design phase of the project for the greatest cost-effectiveness.
- Determine daylight feasibility when doing space planning. Your architect can assess window to wall ratio and whether or not windows are obstructed. Then, you can determine how much natural and electric light you'll need.
- Include daylight in decisions on building structure and rooms. Reduce glare by positioning windows and skylights away from the most direct sunlight. Plan skylights in long and narrow rooms, in conjunction with dimming fixtures, to optimize the spread of light. Dimming is most effective in rooms with windows facing north or south.
- Select the right glazing. When selecting glazing pay close attention to visible transmittance, visible reflectance, solar heat gain coefficient, and U-Value.
- Consider the whole building. Your daylighting decisions may reduce the number of heat-generating electric lamps needed in your building. By reducing the number of lamps, you'll lower your cooling needs and reduce the size of the cooling system you'll need. Talk to your architect, engineer or lighting designer.
- Coordinate lighting. Design lighting systems so they accept dimmable ballasts and sensors. These technologies respond to available daylight and provide only as much illumination as you need.
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