DAYLIGHTING ANALYSIS FOR RESIDENTIAL HOSTEL BLOCK WITH INNER

COURTYARD AT S.P.A., BHOPAL

Sonal

School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India

Abstract
Natural daylighting is an integral part of building design. It has an impact on user’s psychological
well-being as well as one the energy efficiency of a building by reducing the cost of artificial
daylighting. The study is based on a residential hostel building were students spends most of
their time. The research tries to explore how natural daylighting help to improve comfort of
students and reduce the usage of artificial daylighting during the day time. The building is
designed with the central courtyard to incorporate maximum daylighting. The courtyard allows
the penetration of daylight in the corridors and room. The amount of daylighting was measured
for the different type of room scenarios facing the courtyard, facing outside and facing the
corridor.

Key words: daylighting, illuminance, comfort.

Aim: To study and analyze daylighting in the residential hostel building.

Objectives

 To study the comfortable ambient daylighting condition for occupants.

 To find out how proper daylighting can reduce the consumption of artificial lighting
consumption.
 Examine the illumination level of different orientation rooms and calculate daylighting
factor

Scope of study
The scope of the research is only limited to the daylighting entering the rooms of a hostel block
and students’ comfort in those rooms.

Limitations
The observations and measurements were done during a specific day on a particular time. A
long-time observation for different time of day would have given a better result.
Methodology

Introduction
Daylighting factor is the ratio of the amount of illumination available indoors with respect to
illumination present outdoors at the same time. Dividing the horizontal illumination indoor by
horizontal illumination outdoor and multiplied by 100 gives the daylighting factor. For example,
if there is 40,000 lux available outdoor and 800 lux available indoor at any given point then the
daylighting factor is 800/ 40,000 X 100 = 2. The daylighting factor is 2. Also, one benefit of the
daylighting factor is stable regardless of the time and day. No electricity lighting is needed if the
space has an average DF of 5 percent or more. The space needs more electric lighting if it is
below 2 percent. The DF of 5 percent or more will make an interior looks great daylight and DF
below 2 percent will produce a dull interior.

DF (Daylighting Factor) = Illumination at a point in interior / illumination outside building X 100

Daylighting involves various parameters such building orientation, design, interiors, lighting,
electrical and mechanical. These are the factors which contribute to daylighting in a building
design to provide comfort to the occupants, ambient lighting and saves energy by reducing
artificial light consumption during day time.

The right amount of daylight can reduce electricity consumption of a room by 50% and using
daylighting as a passive solar design strategy in a building can save up to 10 % of the energy
used. Using less amount of electric lighting during the daytime can reduce the cooling load as
lamps produce more heat than daylighting. Daylighting should not only be looked as a tool for
energy saving but also to provide comfort and increase the productivity of the occupants. LEED
requires a minimum daylight factor of 2% to qualify for LEED-NC IEQ credit 8 for daylighting in
occupied space.

Literature review
DAYLIGHTING: Use of sunlight to reduce the use of artificial lighting is daylighting. High
performance buildings should have energy efficient objectives, and maximum occupant
comfort. Analysis of natural daylighting layouts is easy with the help of some software. With the
help of such software, best performance of building component can be found out like glazing,
blinds, and shades.

What is Passive Daylighting?

Passive daylighting strategies promote the quantity and even
distribution of daylight throughout a building by collecting
natural light and reflecting it into darker areas of the
building. What makes this a “passive” strategy is that the
design elements do not require any special mechanical
equipment or energy sources. As soon as the sun rises, the
passive daylighting strategies collect and reflect light
throughout the building.

Architects use windows, skylights, clear doors, light tubes, mirrors, light shelves and other
reflective surfaces to collect and direct light to key areas in the room. For example, if a waiting
area is located in a dark corner with no nearby windows, architects can redirect light from other
well-lit parts of the room using passive reflecting elements.

Benefits of using passive daylighting techniques are they provide comfort and satisfaction to
the occupants and improve the health of the occupants. It also reduces the electric load and
internal heat gain thereby reducing the cost of artificial cooling.

Case study: Girls hostel, School of planning and architecture, Bhopal

The residential girls hostel block of School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal has four floors
including ground floor and is designed with a courtyard in center to allow light and ventilation.
The measurement of illumination and daylighting factor is conducted in three rooms of the
hostel block on second floor occupied by the students. The rooms selected are one facing the
south, one facing the courtyard and one facing the corridor without any balcony. The outdoor
illumination was recorded on a peek hour of the day and different amount of illumination was
measured for the different types of rooms.
Figure: -Second floor plan of girl’s hostel-1 of S.P.A Bhopal with courtyard in the center

Figure: - view of courtyard (left), view of corridor (right)

Data collection and analysis
Room type Indoor Outdoor Daylighting factor
illumination(lux) illumination (DF)
(lux)
Room A
Outside facing room
41/772 x 100=
41 lux 772 lux 5.31 >5. Hence no
artificial
daylighting
required

Room B
Courtyard facing room
30/772 x 100 =
30 lux 772 lux 3.8<5. Hence
some amount of
artificial lighting
may require

Room C
Corridor facing room with no 5/772 x 100= 0.64
balcony < 2. Hence the
interior will be
5 lux 772 lux dull and high
amount of
daylighting will be
required

(The measurements were taken at 11:00 A.M on 21.11.19)

Results
On the basis on observations and interviewing the people it was find out that people generally
preferred the room facing outside and the least preferred room were the one which don’t have
any access to natural daylighting facing the corridor. They require minimum of two sources of
artificial daylighting during the daylight to have enough lighting during the day time to study. It
was also observed that the room facing the courtyards at the upper level gets the sufficient
amount of daylighting but as you move to lower levels like second floor and so on the amount
of daylighting is reduced.
Conclusions and recommendations

 The study aimed at analyzing the natural lighting in a hostel block. Many times, the hostels
are not designed to provide comfort to the students and reduce the use of artificial
daylighting during the day time. Natural daylighting should be made a priority while
designing residential hostel block by the use of high reflectance surface finish, proper
window sizes.
 The size of internal courtyard should be as such that it provides ample daylight to all the
rooms facing courtyard at different levels. The orientation of building and the rooms be as
such that all the rooms get the sufficient amount of natural daylighting. Corridor facing
opening of windows should be avoided as it doesn’t provide as much of daylighting.

References