Influence of the Adaptation of Balconies to Loggias on the Lighting Climate inside an Apartment Building under Cloudy Sky

Abstract

The reconstruction of balconies and loggias is a key element of the renovation of apartment buildings. Artificial light will never replace natural light. Every day, one must make full use of the potential of daylight and enjoy an advantage—free-of-charge natural light entering the interior. When renovating balconies, people often change the character of this protruding structure from a façade to a loggia. This is also the subject of this paper. For the evaluation of the daylighting conditions prevailing in residential building, the Daylight Factor (DF) was considered as the parameter for indicating the quantity of admitted daylight. The DF values and illuminance—CIE overcast sky were calculated using DIALux 9.1 software. The aim of the paper is to compare two variants of the level of daylight in the rooms of the residential building. One option to bring in even more natural light than a window is a variant with balconies. Loggias are satisfactory in terms of static and thermal technology, but daylight conditions are deteriorating. The article provides an insight into the solution of the renovation of balconies and loggias in a specific apartment building. The result shows their influence on changes in the conditions of natural daylight in the interior of two selected rooms.