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Daylight Factor

Kapil arora
Calculating the Daylight Factor
Daylight admitted into a building through `holes in external
fabric (windows, roof lights, etc.), which in adverse
climates generally incorporate glass or an alternative
transparent material to heat loss and/or inclement
weather spaces. The amount of light received inside a
building is usually only a small fraction of that required -
because of modifications imposed by the size and position
of openings - and will also constantly vary owing to the
influences imposed on the `whole sky, illumination level
by clouds, buildings and/or other reflecting planes.
Therefore, it is impracticable to express interior day
lighting in terms of the illumination actually obtainable
inside a building at any one time, for within a few minutes
that figure is liable to change with corresponding changes
in the luminance of the sky.
For practical purposes, use is made of the daylight
factor. This is a percentage ratio of the
instantaneous illumination level at a reference
point inside a room to that occurring
simultaneously outside in an unobstructed
position.

This can be more usefully represented in calculation
of the natural illuminance at the reference point
inside a building by applying the following formula
Both factors of E are measured in lux (lumens
per square metre), with Eo taken as a
standard 5000 lux for unobstructed sky in the
UK. So transposing formula to make Ei the
subject
Ei = ( D x Eo ) 100
Ei = ( 2 x 5000 ) 100 = 100 lux

Day light reading at a reference point in a room can be
made up of three components:
sky component, or the light received directly from the
sky
externally reflected component, which is the light
received after reflection from the ground, building or
other external surface
and internally reflected component, which is the light
received after being reflected from the surfaces inside
a building
The design of a building must take into account these
three factors if the correct' amount of daylight is an
essential factor in its function and if the design and
construction method are closely related.

Components of the Daylight Factor

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