Intelligent natural lighting - employee comfort and energy efficiency for sustainable buildings

Properly designed natural lighting will provide users with psychological comfort and productivity as well as make the building more energy efficient.

Psychological comfort is achieved through a sense of belonging to the surrounding world - observation of the changing times of the day, the availability of views of nature from the windows. It is also known that natural diffused light is the most comfortable for human eyes, while artificial lighting can lead to increased fatigue, eye discomfort.

The amount and quality of daylight indoors is determined by the size and orientation of window openings, the light transmission of glazing, the reflectivity of surfaces indoors and outdoors, and obstacles in the form of canopies and nearby trees.

The following recommendations for natural light should be taken into account during the design stage:

☑️ It is important to provide shading for all openings, especially those facing east and west, to mitigate the effects of the bright morning and pre-sunset sun.

☑️ Daylighting can be effective for lighting workplaces that are twice as deep as the window height.

☑️ The ceiling and back wall of the room are more effective at reflecting and distributing daylight than the side walls or floor.

☑️ Light-colored surfaces reflect and distribute light more efficiently, but large areas of bright surfaces can create visual discomfort.

☑️ Skylights create soft lighting and can also be an additional source of ventilation.

☑️ For commercial buildings, ribbon glazing is an effective solution - the ability to place racks at the walls is not limited.

Conducting natural light modeling at the design stage will help to avoid the cost of correcting errors during the construction phase, and it will also improve the energy efficiency of the building at an early stage.

ESG Factor offers daylight simulation services - a specialist will perform calculations for your building with the help of accredited BRE Global software - #designbuilder.

It also helps to get more points in the BREEAM and LEED assessments.

Photo: Khimki Business Park, BREEAM In-Use Very Good