1.1.

2 Daylighting
Daylighting is the use of natural light to provide illumination in buildings during the
day. Historically, daylight was the dominant source of illumination both indoors and
outdoors, but as behavioural patterns have shifted in favour of indoor work
environments and as the efficiency of artificial light fittings has increased, the use of
daylight has decreased. The primary historical daylighting device is the window, which
at its most basic is simply an opening in the building fabric. The window is still the
dominant source of daylight globally today. For a variety of reasons, however, the
vertical glazing unit is not always an ideal source of illumination. Direct sunlight is often not a
good source of illumination in the built environment as its intensity and
directional nature generates glare for building occupants. Diffuse light, however, does
not penetrate far into rooms fitted with windows. The challenge, therefore, is to
develop means of utilising both direct and diffuse natural light in buildings while
maintaining and improving occupant visual comfort, particularly at greater distances
from the external walls.

1.2 The benefits of daylighting

Meeting the challenge of sustainable living in a world with fast-diminishing finite
resources calls for a fundamental change in the way we use those resources. The use of
renewable energy to power our modern lives is intended to obviate the need for
damaging fossil fuels and hence slow or halt global warming.

1.2.1 Energy saving

Fig. 1 - 4: Energy use and wealth generation per country

Fig. 1 - 4 shows that there are vast disparities in the quantities of energy consumed and
the wealth generated from this consumption (www.newscientist.com, 2002). This
leaves the responsibility for investigation and exploitation of renewable energy sources,
which are generally more expensive, to the countries that can most afford it.

Few, however, confidently predict that renewable energy will have soon solved the
problem. Hence, not only must the sources of power be shifted away from fossil fuels,
but the amount of energy used must also be reduced. The concept of increasing energy
efficiency is being actively pursued by the UK government and others globally.
Daylighting falls broadly into the category of energy efficiency, as it does not generate
power, but reduces the demand for it. The amount of energy demand generated by the
use of electric lights is considerable and gives the possibility of significant savings by
daylighting. Peak demand for electric lighting occurs at the same time as peak
availability of natural light.
An additional saving that is associated with natural lighting is a reduction in cooling
load for air-conditioned buildings. Because the luminous efficacy (number of lumens
per watt) of natural daylight is higher than the majority of artificial light sources, fewer
radiant watts of power are required for a given level of illuminance. In an artificially lit
office building, a considerable percentage of the heat that requires removal is generated
by the light fittings and overall savings through daylighting are significant (Bodart and
De Herde, 2002).
Although the use of natural light to reduce electricity consumption has been proven
many times, the reduction of the use of artificial light as natural light becomes available
generally relies on users. This is not always done efficiently, so automated controls
have been developed. This involves the monitoring of light levels and automatic
switching between natural and artificial light, which is done using dimmers to provide
gradual change between the two sources.

1.2.2 Health and wellbeing

Daylight allows people to see well and to feel some connection with their environment
(Boyce, 1998) and when allowed to express a preference, occupants choose natural over
artificial light. Long-term studies have found that people prefer the varying levels of
light provided by a daylight cycle to the constant light levels provided by artificial lights
(Begemann, Van den Beld et al, 1997). The same study showed that people chose high
levels of natural light that corresponded to levels of light at which biological stimulation
occurs. The work concluded that a wide range of health problems might be due to a
lack of access to natural light throughout the day. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is
a well documented biochemical imbalance resulting from low levels of natural light in
the winter season, for which the remedy is exposure to levels of illuminance of 2500lux
or more (www.sada.org.uk, 2003). Greater exposure to natural light is known to lessen
the effects of this disorder, thus giving a non-visual, biological reason for daylighting.