Daylight and visual comfort in office buildings

Brotas, Luisa; Nicol, Fergus

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Brotas, Luisa and Nicol, Fergus (2017) Daylight and visual comfort in office buildings. In: PLEA 2017 Conference: Design to thrive, 2-5 July 2017, Edinburgh (UK).

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Abstract

In an era of climate change and the depletion of scarce resources, daylight harvesting can play an important role in the energy performance of buildings. Whilst there is strong evidence of the energetic benefits of utilising natural light in buildings to reduce lighting loads there is now also growing interest on the impact of daylight on the health and well-being of the occupants. Good daylight design is therefore imperative to ensure good visual acuity, comfort and performance of occupants as well as contributing towards energy efficient buildings and sustainable cities. As a part of this dialogue, new metrics and tools have recently been developed related to daylight, and its interaction with people, buildings and cities. However, daylighting cannot be seen in isolation. A good indoor environment will also need to be successful in terms of thermal and other aspects. If a space is overheating people may rate the visual environment poorly because they are uncomfortable. Quality daylight design, that reduces glare, provides useful diffuse light with a view outside have been shown to improve the occupants’ satisfaction, mood and productivity. An integrated approach is therefore needed and more field
studies are needed to validate assumptions. This paper presents real data collected under the SCATS project.
Ultimately a well daylit space achieves higher satisfaction rates. It will also prevent occupants taking action to restore comfortable conditions e.g. by opening windows or switching on lights which can avoid unnecessary use of energy in buildings. This paper attempts to draw insights into this debate.

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