5 Key Areas to consider to maximize natural lighting in building designs/Lavancha

How basic is a quick fix to efficiency than getting proficient in using natural light?  Here's a plan for doing just that.

The benefits of daylighting / daylight harvesting  are clear :

1. Energy saving benefits
2. Healthier Working conditions
3. Greater control on lighting conditions

Amazing right?

But the question is:

How to make full use of daylight in building designs to reap the benefits?

Well, we can effectively maximize the use of daylight by carefully considering the essential factors that make up a successful daylight design.

In today’s post, we will look at these key factors.

Let’s get started.

Key Areas To Consider For Integrated Daylighting In Buildings

Siting And Massing Of Buildings

To start off we look at ways to plan the building so that regular occupant spaces have improved access to daylight.

• Siting and Massing of building refer to how a building is oriented towards the sun for optimum radiation which has an impact on heating and cooling costs

Daylighting Design Goals

Identify and prioritize the daylighting design performance goals. These could be:

• The daylight amount and the quality to suit the functional and spatial requirements.
• Optimizing lighting to minimize heat/glare
• Savings in light energy due to daylight harvesting

Experiment With Different Modeling Techniques To Meet The Design Goals

• You need the right tools for modeling to plan the right apertures or openings for the buildings for optimum daylight. Ex: Using Daylight factor calculation tools such as nomographs and hand methods to simulate proper daylit spaces.

    Other modeling techniques include:

• Physical models that can be used to simulate the light settings at a smaller scale to measure illumination levels as in the real life setting.

• Software animations to help animate natural light conditions over the course of the day showing the illuminance levels(amount of light received on a surface) indoors as the sun path varies over the period.

• Also simulate to check luminance levels(amount of light reflected off a surface) indoors.

Different Daylighting Strategies

Two common daylighting strategies with variations used are:

• Top Daylighting – this technique allows daylight to come from the top of the building through horizontal, vertical or sloped apertures.
• Side Daylighting – This technique allows daylight to come from the side of the building with vertical glazing on building perimeter walls.

Consider different positions to place the fenestrations(openings in a building) / glazing(windows) to get the optimum lighting conditions indoors to balance functional, spatial and aesthetic factors. Various fenestration devices / Glazings and Different shading devices could be considered to create the appropriate amount of shade to maintain optimum heating/cooling conditions indoors.(ex: Windows, Skylights, Solar tubes, Ventilight…)

Integration Of Electric Controls

To ensure the occupants of the buildings get the optimum lighting conditions the daylighting should be integrated with the electric controls so that in case the there is dimness in natural light the artificial lights can take over.

Lavancha’s daylighting products are designed to help maximize the use of daylight which is customized to suit your requirements.

For more information about our products check our daylighting design products or call us at (+91) 80 4120 1452