American School & University - Daylighting

“A daylighting strategy that is not quite good enough may not result in energy savings because the electric lights will not be turned off,” says the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers' (ASHRAE) “Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings.”

The guide offers school facility planners detailed advice on doing daylighting the right way:

Start early
View vs. daylig
Avoid direct lightht
Just enough light

Classrooms should have 45 to 50 footcandles of average illumination for general instruction. When daylighting is not sufficient, electric lighting can make up the difference. Designers will need to conduct an in-depth analysis to maximize the daylighting without making the windows too large

http://asumag.com/daylighting/

ust as traditional miniature, scale-model building and 3-D computer modeling help represent what a finished design will look like, climate-based daylight simulation demonstrates clearly the impact of the size, type and placement of skylights, windows or translucent wall systems.

Results can be compared and changes made in the early design stages before final recommendations are made.

Using computer-generated charts and light-level schematics, daylight modeling simulates the effects of daylighting and enables designers to analyze the behavior of light within the space

http://asumag.com/daylighting/daylight-modeling-benefits-200910/