Quality Assessment of The University Classroom Lighting - A Case Study
Quality Assessment of The University Classroom Lighting - A Case Study
Quality Assessment of The University Classroom Lighting - A Case Study
Abstract - The purpose of this study is to prove that children’s education, hence the strict regulations
the quality of the school environment significantly governing the natural and artificial lighting in child
influences students’ academic performance. The care and educational facilities. The majority of
factors affecting the work environment are accurate children and students spend most of the day in
lighting which plays an important role in visual tasks,
enclosed spaces where the sun penetrates in limited
resulting in either visual comfort or visual fatigue. This
study presents the results of lighting objectification of a
quantities only. Most problematic is the winter time,
selected university classroom. Specifically, it focuses on when the lack of light is most critical, although
detection of the daylight factor, which is a significant a number of buildings struggle with proper amount of
criterion for the amount of daylight in the classroom. daylight throughout the whole year. The main
Its value is a relative magnitude and depends on the struggle of educational buildings in Slovakia
correct spatial layout of the classroom. The results of nowadays is inappropriate thermal insulation,
the study indicate the insufficient values of this inadequate microclimatic conditions in the
indicator. At the end, with a software, the solution for classrooms, absence of mechanical ventilation
replacing the artificial lighting in the classroom is systems or insufficient natural daylight [3]. Besides
designed, which is a possible alternative for improving
lifestyle, genetic dispositions and healthcare quality
the visual comfort of the classroom.
level, environmental conditions are amongst the
Keywords – daylighting assessment, visual comfort, basic parameters that affect human health. The
daylight illumination coefficient, DIALux. impact of environmental factors (15 – 20 %) is the
second most important element influencing public
1. Introduction health [4]. This comes immediately after the
population lifestyle impact (50 %).
Daylight plays an essential and irreplaceable role
Daylighting is considered a resource of primary
in human life. It affects one’s productivity, comfort,
importance in schools: it’s a key factor for
mood and overall health. Its effects apply in mental,
occupants’ health and well-being, enhancing the
as well as physical terms. The controlling body of
indoor environmental quality and reducing the
humans is directly stimulated and regulated by
energy consumption for electric lighting [5]. The
daylight [1, 2]. Suitable illumination is vital in
impact of natural light on learning has physiological,
psychological and behavioural influences on school
children as well as workers [6].
DOI: 10.18421/TEM74-21
Humans are affected both physically and
https://dx.doi.org/10.18421/TEM74-21
psychologically by light [7]. As shown in Table 1.
Corresponding author: Ivana Tureková, there is a multitude of physiological and
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of psychological benefits resulting from building
Education, Nitra, Slovakia daylighting [8].
Email: [email protected] Table 1. Natural light and human body
Natural light and human body
Received: 21 June 2018.
Physically Psychologically
Accepted: 10 October 2018.
Improve Decrease Improve Decrease
Published: 26 November 2018.
Vitamin D Cancer Mood Depression
© 2018 Ivana Tureková, Danka Lukáčová, Possibility
Gabriel Bánesz; published by UIKTEN. This work is Visual Abnormal Mental Stress
System Bone Performance
licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
Formation
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
Circadian Alertness Sadness
The article is published with Open Access at Rhythms
www.temjournal.com Sleep Brain Violent
Quality activity Behavior
There is no doubt that people find daylight more brightness distribution throughout our vision field,
pleasant than electric lighting as their primary source exclusion of silhouette effect or glare). Illumination
of light. Foreign studies confirm [9, 10, 11, 12, 13, quality can be impaired at any state of sky, however,
14], that a high percentage of respondents surveyed mainly at direct sunlight. For instance, evenness
prefer working in daylight. Similarly, people prefer evaluation according to STN 73 0580-1/Z2 brings
to sit at tables located next to windows as opposed to inaccuracies because it is based on daylight factor
further in the room, especially when these windows values set for evenly cloudy sky [22]. Therefore, at
have access to direct sunlight [15, 16, 17, 18]. this time there is no exact evaluation method, due to
Thanks to light we are able to receive visual instable daylight.
information about the environment that we are The daylight factor D (%) is determined by the
surrounded by 75 % to 90 % of these are received daylight rate coefficient in conditions of a cloudy
through eyesight. The mental state in which the winter day according to formula [23]:
visual system fulfils its function optimally is called
visual comfort. Suitable lighting is an essential (1)
element here. Visual comfort is directly affected by
the lighting source, type and layout of the lights,
evenness, and level of luminance and brightness Where E (lx) represents illumination at the
distribution in space [14]. observed location on a levelling plain and Eh (lx)
In terms of evaluation of work conditions, the represents external illumination of the horizontal
geometrical parameters of the space and surface unshaded plain (Figure 2.).
features, including colour, matter as well as whether The daylight rate coefficient D (%) is a relative
or not there is glare [19]. Lighting should be value and therefore, unlike luminance E (lx), its
sufficient and even, without excessive brightness or value is not so much subject to changes in the
contrast. If there is proper lighting distribution, brightness of the cloudy sky [19]. Relative simplicity
objects appear to be plastic. In suitable lighting of the winter-cloudy model and its independency of
conditions one has a feeling of clear vision even after sun position or point of the compass enables us to
a longer time. The opposite of visual comfort is estimate D (%) by calculation and mathematical and
visual fatigue. This is a complex state due to graphic methods [24] as well and by using a software
shortcomings in lighting. Symptoms include burning or measurements [25].
eyes, headaches and conjunctivitis [20].
Even when it’s cloudy the lighting changes rapidly
over the course of the day. This is done to a greater
extent than we are able to realize as a result of the
adaptive ability of our vision (Figure 1.).
2. Method
The aim of our study was to determine the values
of illumination, the daylight illumination coefficient
Figure 1. Changes in daylight illumination throughout a
and the expression of similarity or inaccuracy of the
cloudy day and the perception of these changes results achieved with the limit values in the
representative classroom. Using the DIALux model a
The variability of daylight is an advantage to us, as new lighting system was designed [26].
in a physiologically acceptable course it forces our For our experiment we selected a small university
vision to adapt [21]. However, in terms of lighting classroom located in the building of the Faculty of
evaluation, the instability of daylight is a problem Education at Constantine the Philosopher University.
most relevant in quality assessment (evenness, The room is situated on the ground floor and lectures
take place here frequently. It holds 24 students and 1 Located 15 meters from the researched classroom,
teacher. 15 meters far from the building there is there is another building which significantly affects
another building which could have an impact on the the daylight intensity in the school.
daylight intensity in the measured classroom (Figure Particular measurement was performed by a light
3.). The foreside of the building where the classroom meter Testo 545 (Figure 4.). It was extremely
is located is heat cladded and the whole building has accurate measurement since the permissible
plastic windows. deviation defined by producer was ±2% (according
to DIN 5032, part 6).
902.63
835.25
476.25
790.38 312.25
466.63
1000.00 559.57
785.25 297.63 170.63
439.71
800.00 187.38
438.50 302.29
210.63
600.00 443.13 290.88
193.63
400.00 243.13
176.875
200.00
0.00
Figure 5. Average daylight values in the classroom from 8 am to 3 pm
Table 4. presents daylight values, measurement At the same time, measurement of combined light
uncertainty and illumination requirements by STN was carried out by turning on every light source in
EN 12464-1 : Light and Illumination. the classroom in the same measuring points. We have
determined the average illumination of the classroom
Table 4. Measurement results and Illumination (Ē) based on the arithmetic mean of the measured
Requirements. values of the overall scaled horizontal illumination in
Ē U Ē–U Ē+U Illumination the whole of the measured space or combined
requirements by illumination on the comparison plain (Figure 6.).
(lx) (%) (lx) (lx) STN EN 12464-1 The lowest values were on average about 1000 lx,
426.13 34.09 392.04 460.22 500 lx which meets the illumination requirements
(minimum of 500 lx) for educational spaces [28].
1557.38
1488.63 1243.50
1277.63 1046.50
1184.38
1214.25 781.50
1413.13 1172.75 933.63
1044.13
1600.00 1563.63 1147.88 905.63
1400.00 1189.38 978.25
882.38
1200.00
958.25
1000.00 831.38
800.00
600.00
400.00
200.00
0.00
Figure 6. Average combined illumination values in the course of a day in the classroom.
Table 5. presents the values of combined Table 6. summarizes the values of 20 measuring
illumination, measurement uncertainty and points of average daylight values, external
illumination requirements by STN [28]. illumination at cloudy sky in winter (there was a set
of 20 measuring points constructed, similar to the
Table 5. Combined Illumination Values. one in the classroom) and artificial lighting in the
Ē U Ē–U Ē+U Illumination classroom by using only the existing lighting sources.
(lx) (%) (lx) (lx)
requirements by The last column contains the daylight illumination
STN EN 12464-1 coefficient D (%) calculated by using the formula
1140.71 91.26 1049.45 1231.97 500 lx
(1).
Table 6. Results of measuring daylight and artificial light, calculation of daylight illumination coefficient
Table 7. present artificial daylight values, Table 7. Artificial daylight values and illumination
measuring uncertainty, and illumination requirements requirements
by STN EN 12464-1: Light and Illumination.
Ē U Ē–U Ē+U Illumination
Daylight illumination coefficient D (%) as one of requirements by
the criteria of daylight amount has to meet the (lx) (%) (lx) (lx) STN EN 12464-1
following requirements: 857.95 68.64 789.31 926.59 500 lx
Inside the premises or in their functionally
specialized parts where employees spend a lot of The values of average illumination we obtained by
time the minimum values of the daylight illumination the measurements and calculations were rectified by
coefficient must be: measurement uncertainties set against the
illumination requirements. Technical solutions for
a) At side illumination Dmin = 1,5 % improving lighting systems are relevant while project
b) At top and combined illumination Dmin = 1, 5 processing and reconstruction. Various modelling
% and Dm = 3 %, where: Dmin is the minimum programmes offer a range of lighting system
value of the daylight illumination coefficient solutions. Through DIAlux programme a new
on the comparison plain (%);Dm – the average lighting system was drafted using LED lights, while,
value of the daylight illumination coefficient preserving the arrangement of the existing lighting
on the comparison plain (%). system (Figures 7., 8.).
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