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4 Lighting, Performance, and Health
Pages 34-41

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From page 34...
... can provide low cost, long life, high efficacy, good color, low noise, and low flicker. Other sources of illumination, including incandescent and HID, can be specified in schools to best accomplish specific design objectives, from outdoor applications such as sports fields to illuminating pictures or works of art (Rea and Bullough, 2001)
From page 35...
... The visual system is fairly well understood for normal adult populations in regard to the effects of light on both appearance (what things look like) and visual performance (how well 35
From page 36...
... In general, given the characteristics of the visual response functions, it can probably be concluded that most lighting and task conditions are adequate for normal student visual performance. Going the next step, however, is more tenuous because there is no evidence that the quality or quantity of light directly affects student learning performance (Larson, 1965; Demos et al., 1967; Boyce et al., 2003)
From page 37...
... Formulas do exist for calculating discomfort glare, and these are often used to characterize the lighting layout for a space using commonly available lighting software. However, collective understanding of the mechanisms underlying discomfort glare is rather poor (Boyce, 2003)
From page 38...
... analysis to see whether they could gain some insight into why the Daylight Code was not significant in Fresno as it had been in earlier studies. Among the authors' conclusions were that sources of glare negatively affect student learning; direct sun penetration into classrooms, especially through unshaded east or south facing windows, is associated with negative student performance, likely causing both glare and thermal discomfort; blinds or curtains allow teachers to control the intermittent sources of glare or visual distraction through their windows; when teachers do not have control of their windows, student performance is negatively affected (Heschong-Mahone, 2003, p.
From page 39...
... . Light treatment, typically provided with bright light from electric lighting systems, is recognized by the medical community as the preferred method of treating SAD (Rosenthal et al., 1985)
From page 40...
... · There is, however, concern that a significant percentage of students in classrooms do not have properly corrected eyesight, and thus, the general lighting conditions suitable for visual functioning by the average student may be inadequate for those students without properly corrected eyesight. It could be hypothesized that daylight may benefit these children by providing higher light levels and better geometries than would otherwise be present from electric lighting alone.
From page 41...
... Recommendation 2: To determine the potential and actual performance of a lighting system, the entire system should be assessed because the total performance cannot be effectively evaluated based solely on the source of illumination or on the individual components needed to create the entire lighting system. Recommendation 3: For green schools in which the lighting strategy is to use daylight extensively, control systems that can be easily operated, such as manual blinds or other types of window treatments, should be specified in order to control excessive sunlight or glare.


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