The Reality of Assessing Actual Daylighting Performance in Occupied Classrooms

THE REALITY OF ASSESSING ACTUAL DAYLIGHTING PERFORMANCE IN OCCUPIED CLASSROOMS

Abstract

Current research confirms that daylight is important not only to vision but also general wellbeing. Little is known, however, about how building users perceive daylight indoors and their specific visual needs. This holds true particularly in classrooms, where obstacles prevent the collection of data from classrooms in-use and advances in display technologies (such as smart-boards, laptops) cause the visual environment to change rapidly.

This work employs a mixed method approach in order to provide evidence of how occupants of current classrooms in-use perceive daylight; how they respond to the performance attributed to the building design; and how their needs and actions shape actual long-term daylight performance by means of blinds and electric light use. Monitoring of the luminous environment is based on High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, as it overcomes monitoring limitations of live education environments and allows long-term, multipoint measurements. Four UK secondary school classrooms are used as case studies with data collected every 10 minutes, during school hours, for a full year. Quantitative data is complimented by student subjective responses in order to explore the reasoning behind the measured daylighting performance in the four spaces. Qualitative data is gathered by means of a questionnaire (n=412) and three focus groups with student participants.

The output of this real world research project is important as building design becomes increasingly reliant on building simulation tools and predictions. Informing classroom designers and policy makers about long-term daylighting performance of real classrooms and the current visual needs of students contributes toward predictions that closer match reality and subsequently toward the improvement of visual comfort and general wellbeing in future classrooms.

(267w)

NAFSIKA DROSOU

3rd year LoLo PhD Student, Loughborough University

Supervisors:

Prof John Mardaljevic, School of Civil and Building Engineering

Dr Victoria Haines, Loughborough Design School