This article develops a unique and extensive daylighting design program for home lighting design to address code and much more. Home lighting design policy for most homes these days: Letting in daylight with qualifications: maybe not too much, not too little, depends on where, depends on how, how about when, depends on what that is shining, etc. It is a natural lighting design program.
The Home Lighting Design Code – IRC 303.1 effectively and strongly states that for daylighting design, at least in a bedroom, “added glazing area” should not be less than 8% of the floor area of that room. (CABO is more difficult, fewer exceptions). [Please note that this presentation has no direct connection with emergency egress.]
Home Daylighting Design Practice? Who knows. The author has had reactions from “exactly, right” to “not so important around here” to “what are you talking about” from building authorities having jurisdiction. If others consider it at all, it would be for sleeping areas only, it is my expectation.
AGGREGATE GLAZING AREA
For starters, the otherwise undefined term aggregate glazing area is interpreted as a translucent surface: glass, clear plastic, etc. and unassociated frames, frames, crosspieces, moldings and the like. What Marvin Windows and Doors defines as “Lite”, Pella as “Visible Glass”, Loewen as “Exposed Glass Area”, etc.
Please note that if some people weren’t interested in these surface areas, the big window players wouldn’t figure it out in print. This custom home designer is interested.
THE DAYLIGHT HOME PROGRAM FOR DAYLIGHT DESIGN
A daylighting program for home lighting, or lighting program, accomplishes four purposes.
First, it defines the ratio of the glazing area added to the interior surface area in each main space of a residence, including habitable rooms, hallways, dressing rooms, service spaces for workshops and laundry rooms, garages, etc.
Second, it compares the actual added glazing area to the calculated code target for each primary space and presents the difference in square feet of glazing area or, increasingly likely, in percentage of target glazing area; the latter seems easier to understand.
Third, it selectively comments through suggestions, prompts, and definitions on important aspects of daylighting as warranted by the designers’ opinions.
Fourth, it provides an opportunity to identify persistently dark spaces or parts of spaces distant enough from a natural light source to be considered unilluminated or unpenetrated by a natural light source, for example, a space considerably removed. of daylight from a covered porch, an exceptionally deep interior space.
The schedule structure is presented as a multi-column table. From the left, let’s see: a space to give; its square footage; 8% of that area in square feet; aggregate glazing area of that space in square feet (usually to one decimal place); the arithmetic and percentage difference between the 8% and the added glazing column; and comments as appropriate. Comments may include, but are not limited to, modular, obscure, code-compliant (for sleeping areas), etc.
Home lighting experts place definable limits on the amount of usable natural light that can penetrate a space. These limits can be found, for example, in Lighting Design Basics by Mark Karlen and James Benya, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004, p.34 and Interior Lighting For Designers 4th Edition by Gary Gordon, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. . . ., 1957, p.53ff. While this daylight penetration aspect of daylighting analysis can be critical, consideration of daylighting-related adjustment is, in the author’s opinion, well worth the effort as a preemptive design alert. for comfort and safety.
The Home Daylighting Design Program features several bases or inputs for home design analysis – 16 in all.
1. Of itself for natural light, in the compass orientation of the house and, where appropriate, its adequacy and in the personal assessment of the infiltration and adequacy in the daytime spaces.
2. Ventilation as a cross-control of quality in the cross-ventilation of bedrooms and more occupied rooms, in addition to the dimensioning and indicative location of both supplies and returns.
3. UV intrusion indicator of where it can be determined to be less welcome and its power diminished.
4. Indicator of natural heat buildup for professional HVAC care and various design means of abatement.
5. Defining daylight glare, especially in areas, such as stairwells, where glare threatens safety.
6. Qualification for area code compliance of glazing added to space surface area in sleeping areas, notably more problematic in such spaces within L2 one-and-a-half story structures.
7. Suggestive guidance on artificial lighting at all times, in particular ambient lighting and lighting controls.
8. Final cross check of window and door size and site in elevations, plan view(s) and window schedule (and possibly door schedule).
9. Excellent insight into the consequences of exterior design on interior functionality, occasionally leading to marginal to major design changes.
10. Guide to increase layers in spaces with little natural light.
11. Guide for the qualification of continuous service in spaces without and with very little natural light.
12. Guide to modify the dimensions of the fenestration.
13. Guide to modify the location of the fenestrations.
14. Motivation in deep spaces on one level with exterior roofs to penetrate those roofs with niches in the roof, sun protection, skylight, clerestory, etc.
15. Motivation in deep single-story spaces with or without exterior covers to add clerestories and light shafts by means of dormer windows and other window design modifications.
16. Motivation, particularly in story-and-a-half designs, to necessarily add dormers, skylights, skylight tubes, clerestories, light wells, and other window design modifications.
Comment: Please note major bug fixes in recent days for convenient and safe window size and placement, exterior door composition, light fixtures, and light-reflecting and absorbing features they can be expensive to repair and a major physical inconvenience.
