erview introduces lighting and daylighting in schools and reviews important design criteria. This
is followed by a primer on daylighting and a primer on electric lighting. The primers review principles and
concepts that may not be familiar to all readers. The guidelines listed below then follow this material.
The guidelines include both daylighting guidelines and electric lighting guidelines, presented in that
order.
Guideline LG1: View Windows
Guideline LG2: High SidelightingClerestory
Guideline LG3: High SidelightingClerestory with Light Shelf or Louvers
Guideline LG4: Classroom DaylightingWall Wash Toplighting
Guideline LG5: Central Toplighting
Guideline LG6: Patterned Toplighting
Guideline LG7: Linear Toplighting
Guideline LG8: Tubular Skylights
Guideline LG9: Classroom LightingConventional Teaching
Guideline LG10: Multi-Scene Classroom Lighting
Guideline LG11: Teaching Board Lighting
Guideline LG12: Lighting Controls for Classrooms Lighting and Daylighting Overview
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Guideline LG13: Gym Lighting
Guideline LG14: Corridor Lighting
Guideline LG15: Lighting for a Multi-Purpose Room
Guideline LG16: Lighting for a Library or Media Center
Guideline LG17: Lighting for Offices and Teacher Support Rooms
Guideline LG18: Lighting for Locker and Toilet Rooms
Guideline LG19: Outdoor Lighting
Some of the material that would otherwise be repetitious in the guidelines is included in the Overview,
such as information on codes and standards and references.
Daylighting is the cornerstone of energy efficient, sustainable, and high-performance school design.
Windows and skylights, if properly designed, can provide high quality interior illumination without
excessive solar heat gain, and they can also be used to provide natural ventilation. Electric lighting
systems can then be extinguished or dimmed for most school hours, saving significant electric lighting
and cooling energy and extending the useful life of the electric lighting components. In addition to energy
benefits, daylit schools have been shown to improve
learning (see the Daylighting Primer below).
Daylight is provided via windows and glazed doors,
and skylights. These glazed openings are referred to
as "fenestration." See the Building Envelope chapter
for information on fenestration performance criteria.
The placement, design, and selection of fenestration
are extremely important and can tip the balance
between a high- and low-performance school.
Fenestration has an impact on building energy
efficiency by affecting cooling loads, heating loads, and
lighting loads. Visual comfort is strongly affected by the
window location, shading, and glazing materials. Well-
designed windows can be a visual delight. But poorly
designed windows can create a major source of glare.
Thermal comfort can also be compromised by poor
fenestration design. Poorly insulated windows add to a
winter chill or summer sweat, while windows with low
U-values keep glass surface temperatures closer to the interior air temperature, improving thermal
comfort. In addition, east-west windows and unshaded south windows can cause excessive cooling
loads. And although windows and skylights provide opportunities for natural ventilation, they must be
designed to ensure a safe, secure, and easily maintained facility.


Classroom with Balanced Illumination
Central toplighting from a saw tooth monitor with sun
baffles is combined with view windows to provide
balanced illumination in a classroom. Source: Barbara
Erwine Overview
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Moreover, daylighting provides opportunities for architectural creativity, such as the creation of
structures and shapes that produce filtered or indirect daylighting while serving as visually stimulating
elements of the design.
Daylighting design today is very similar to electric lighting design. Rather than selecting fenestration
simply for view or aesthetics, architects must now carefully consider the amount and distribution of
daylight. Some daylighting techniques have limted applications and often it is best to combine two or
more daylighting techniques to achieve a good design. Selection criteria for some common daylighting
strategies are summarized in Table 10. A guideline is provided later in this chapter for each of the
referenced daylighting patterns.
Table 10Selection Criteria for Daylighting Strategies
Daylighting Patterns
Design Criteria
View
Windows

High
Sidelight
High Sidelight
w/ Light Shelf
or Louvers
Wall
Wash
Toplight
Central &
Patterned
Toplight
Linear
Toplight

Atria & Light
Well
Tubular
Skylights
Uniform Light
Distribution








Low Glare







/
View





/


Reduced
Energy Costs








Low First Cost








Cost
Effectiveness








Safety/Security
Concerns


/



/

Low
Maintenance








Extremely good application Good application Poor application
Extremely poor application Depends on space layout
and number and distribution of daylight apertures / Mixed benefits
While many of Californias climate zones provide ample daylight for most school activities, there will
always be a significant need for good quality electric illumination. Schools are operated early in the
morning and late in the afternoon in winter months, and during inclement weather. Also, many schools
are used at night in support of adult education, community activities, and other events. While daylighting
serves to save energy when daylight is abundant, the electric lighting system remains necessary and it
should be of good quality overall.
In a high performance school, electric lighting systems should:
Use T-8 and T-5 fluorescent lighting systems in most spaces, using the latest electronic or
electronic dimming ballasts and efficient luminaires.
Use ceramic metal halide, compact fluorescent, or other efficacious sources when fluorescent
systems cant be used.
Be carefully designed to meet modern lighting design criteria while operating at lower lighting power
density than allowed by Title 24.
Achieve an aesthetic appearance that is in balance with architecture and interiors elements. Lighting and Daylighting Overview
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Address multiple function spaces with additional layers of lighting designed to achieve the right
mood for each use.
Employ automatic daylight controls to harvest daylight whenever it is available.
Employ motion sensing controls to appropriately turn off electric lights in response to occupancy.
Employ time of day controls for public spaces that ensure lights are off when not needed.
Provide manual switching and dimming controls that permit teachers and staff to configure lighting
for the needs of the room.
Employ carefully designed exterior lighting that prevents artificial sky glow, glare and obtrusive light.
In order to achieve the substantial energy savings possible in high performance schools, all members of
the design and construction teams must collaborate more than ever. For instance, in the programming
and schematic design of the school, architects will need to seek the input of electrical and mechanical
engineers and other consultants who traditionally become involved later in the project. In particular,
daylighting analysis is mostly performed in early schematics as the architect evaluates possible basic
massing and site plan options. Proper decisions made early in the design can minimize more difficult
choices later as the whole building energy modeling process is undertaken.
While the design of electric lighting can be undertaken later in the process, keep in mind that the
principal objective of integration is to turn off as many electric lights as possible. The lighting designer
must understand the performance of the daylighting on a daily and annual basis. Then, design lighting
with the knowledge that specific luminaires are intended to be off or dimmed during daylight hours.
Lighting Design Criteria
The primary purpose of lighting, whether electric light or daylight, is to provide a visual environment that
enhances teaching and learning, provides an appropriate mood and atmosphere and allows students
and teachers to perform their visual tasks quickly and comfortably. In setting lighting design criteria, it is
important to consider all of the possible issues involving lighting. In its Ninth Edition Lighting Handbook
(2000), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) has devoted an entire chapter to
the complex criteria that are involved in modern lighting design. The IESNA recommends consideration
of all of the following criteria, varying the importance of each on a project:
Appearance of space and luminaires.
Color
appearance.
Daylighting integration and control.
Direct
Glare.
Flicker and Strobe.
Light distribution on tasks and surfaces (illumination). Overview
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Light distribution on task place (uniformity).
Luminance of Room Surfaces.
Modeling of faces or objects.
Points of interest.
Reflected
glare.
Shadows.
Source/task/eye
geometry.
Sparkle/Desirable reflected highlights.
Surface
characteristics.
System control and flexibility.
In a classroom, illumination, di