The Effects of Daylighting for a Building Occupant

Everybody can feel a big difference between working in a room without windows that rely on artificial lighting versus a room with access to ample natural daylighting. Nevertheless, it is usually more than a ‘feeling’. Research has shown that spending long periods in buildings with artificial lighting could have detrimental effects on the buildings occupants’ psychological and biological wellbeing, while buildings with natural lighting could have more benefits. Below is an outlook of how daylighting affects both the building occupants and the building owners.

Benefits of Daylighting for a Building Occupant

The following are some of the benefits of daylighting to a building’s occupants:

Workplace Efficiency

According to many studies on how daylight impacts workplace physical activities, it is clear that there is a strong relationship between daylighting in the place of work and the office worker’s activity, sleep, and quality of life. Due to these findings, it was duly noted that daylighting reduces stress, promotes healthy circadian rhythms, and improves productivity, mood, and attentiveness.

Overall Well-being

Occupants with natural daylight receive about 170 percent more white light exposure throughout the day. They also sleep on average 45 more minutes during the night. Workers without proper daylight are reported to have poorer results for overall sleep efficiency, sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime dysfunction. This, therefore, results in continuous absenteeism and weary staff who are less focused.

Students in Class

Studies have also shown that students with ample daylight in their classrooms were found to improve twenty percent faster on most tests, mainly math, and twenty-six percent faster on reading tests over the year. This is to show that daylighting has a direct impact on everyone’s well-being, bringing productivity and an overall sense of satisfaction.

Economic Benefits

Besides physical advantages, daylighting also has its economic benefits. They come principally from energy savings due to reduced cooling loads and electrical lighting. Since sunlight has less heat per light unit than electrical lighting, cooling loads would become smaller if the windows are oriented and sized appropriately, and electric lights are switched off automatically. Smaller cooling loads mean less costly HVAC systems.

Daylighting with Glass for a More Efficient Workplace

One way to supply greater access to daylighting is through the installation of glass windows. By optimizing daylight to avoid fading, overheating, and glare, dynamic glass enables building occupants to maintain steady access to enough natural daylighting without the need to lower blinds or shades to rely on artificial lighting.

Basic Principles on a Daylighting Plan

However, instigating daylight in the room is not as simple as it seems. It does not mean placing a lot of clear glass on the face of the building. If building owners and architects fail to comprehend how daylight operates, they could all run the danger of failing the building occupants. Architects should be knowledgeable enough to know the right amount of daylight, its distribution, penetration, and intensity, and should also be able to incorporate it in the building, which is where we at FreMarq Innovations come in.

Glare is another element known to be a large impediment to work performance and visual comfort. Thorough daylighting design techniques, integration between daylighting and the operation and design of other building systems, and cautious consideration of the building occupant behavior and perception are all necessary to recognize the potential energy savings from daylighting. They also help to support the health, performance, and comfort of building occupants. Further, the location or fenestration of windows in a building should be designed in such a way that avoids the remittance of direct sunlight into the occupant’s eyes or task surfaces.

You can get in touch with us to learn more about how you can improve your building occupants’ welfare with daylighting.