Talk:Daylighting (architecture)

Clerestory Windows

One important element of creating daylighting is the use of clerestory windows. These are high, vertically-placed windows oriented to the south to admit sunlight for daylighting.

Am I correct in assuming that this definition is only correct in the Northern hemisphere? --Brion

Yes. - Kollision (talk) 13:15, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Another ligting type not described

Passive light not described; see Ted Bears passive solar light. Include in article.

Thanks. 87.64.163.124 (talk) 10:34, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Aerogel transparent insulation?

This article suggests (without citation) that aerogel is used as transparent insulation. I find this highly improbable. While aerogel is transparent and insulative, it is also phenomenally expensive. I suspect this to be original research. I am removing it. If anyone finds a source, feel free to put it back. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.119.56.245 (talk) 06:55, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Poorly "worded" you might say

Daylighting is a technical term given to a common centuries-old, geography and culture independent design basic when "rediscovered" by 20th century architects

An awkward sentence with little context; the quotation marks make the passage sound pompous and patronising. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.6.142 (talk) 02:18, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Alternate Meaning

Hi, I am very inexperienced at Wikipedia so have no idea what would be the best way to implement this, but "Daylighting" also refers to exposing underground utilities (to daylight). This is done to ease large-scale excavation and for safety. See the following:

Badger Inc. Central Hydro Vac Ltd. Precision Daylighting Atlas Daylighting

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.90.175.103 (talk) 20:59, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to explain 'snow' as in "As the outside temperature drops below freezing, moisture in the atmosphere precipitates out, often in the form of snow". Really? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.65.95.151 (talk) 20:51, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

North-South

Article says: "There is no direct sunlight on the polar-side wall of a building from the autumnal equinox to the spring equinox[citation needed]. Traditionally, houses were designed with minimal windows on the polar side but more and larger windows on the equatorial-side."

This is gobbledygook and should be reworded or removed. A north-facing window (in the northern hemisphere) receives no direct sunlight. A south-facing one may receive none if it's across the road from a very large building. Traditionally, blocks of flats have been built with windows all round.

Later in same paragraph: "Even so, during mid-winter, light incidence is highly directional and casts deep shadows." Light incidence is highly directional all year round (the direction being from the Sun). Long shadows always occur near dawn and dusk.

The whole paragraph could reworded as: "The availability of sunlight depends on the position of the Sun in the sky. In the northern hemisphere the Sun is at its highest when due south, so a south-facing window catches most sunlight (and similarly for a north-facing window in the southern hemisphere)."

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Unwanted Heating

Need a section quantifying unwanted heating in summer from daylighting, how to factor this cost in balancing daylighting & artificial lighting strategies. Rtdrury (talk) 22:40, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

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Merger proposal

I propose to merge Passive daylighting and Active daylighting into Daylighting. I see a substantial overlap in content in that the passive daylight page offers little more than a definition and some examples, while the active one has a definition and a list of companies. I believe the distinction between passive and active is actually clearer when introduced within the broader discussion of the daylighting article. The specific examples can be identified as "passive approaches to daylighting" or "active approaches" when mentioned on the daylight page, and/or in their own articles if applicable. The daylighting article is of reasonable size, and clarifying the distinction between active and passive means would improve the article without causing problems with size.Adabhael^Talk 21:27, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

  Y Merger complete. Klbrain (talk) 19:36, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Passive ‘Heliostats’ for domestic use

Heliostats could provide some useful daylighting and heating for rooms with windows in the shade. This could be very desirable at times.

Compromises need consideration to make them cheap enough and practical for domestic use.

Heliostats need to be active to reflect the sun in the desired direction using a plane mirror.

For high temperatures heliostats can be concave, ideally parabolic, for all radial directions perpendicular to direct sunlight.

Such mirrors can create very high temperature’s at their focal point and are used in solar furnaces. Safety is a major issue for such heliostats.

These heliostats require motors in 2 directions to control the mirror. This is a significant cost.

This can be simplified by having one motor to control mirror movement each day and having manual, say, adjustment of the angle of the motor to reflect the month.

This can be simplified again by using a convex mirror to capture the light through much or all of the daylight hours. Again, manual adjustment of the mirror for seasonal changes would help.

The disadvantage of this approach is that the light is reflected in an arc, rather than just one direction. This reduces the intensity and value of the reflected light. However, it can remove the need for a powered mirror.

This option can be simplified further by having a totally static spherical or elipsoidal mirror, but this further reduces the power reflected in any one direction.

Using a saddle shaped mirror. This could be convex to reflect sunlight through the day. It could have a concave shape at right angles to that to concentrate the solar energy, to compensate for the energy dispersed by the convex direction. For domestic use, care is needed to not concentrate too much heat at the focal point of such a saddle shaped mirror, but to deliberately not have a tight focus. This could be done by deliberately linearising the concave profile to spread out the location of greatest solar power and avoid serious danger.

I believe such a saddle shape mirror located outside could achieve useful daylighting in many buildings if well designed.

The saddle shape can be simplified by using fresnel reflectors, allowing simpler and sturdy mounting.

Has this saddle mirror option been considered and calculations been done to demonstrate it’s viability?

I believe there must be some original research that would identify scenarios where this could be useful.

CuriousMarkE (talk) 17:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)