Field study to analyse luminous comfort in classrooms

Abstract

This study analysed current daylighting conditions in terms of luminous comfort in the classrooms of Balikesir University in Turkey. This was managed through a questionnaire survey and numerical simulations in 16 different classrooms of the Faculty of Engineering-Architecture. The simulation study considered the differences in the performance parameters daylighting level, illuminance uniformity and daylighting factors in order to compare them with the values defined in the standards. Collected for the survey were 818 questionnaires, and these were analysed to understand the students’ perception of luminous comfort in classrooms by using SPSS 22.0 and Minitab 16. The simulation results showed that performance factors in all classrooms were lower than the standard values. Therefore, daylighting can be necessary together with artificial lighting based on the distance from window at the same time. This result revealed that design of artificial lighting is as significant as the design of classrooms. According to the survey results, the perception of luminous comfort is mostly affected by orientation, distance from windows and difference in gender. Furthermore, the students mostly preferred both natural and artificial lighting. This matched well with the simulation results. In conclusion, this paper proposes guidelines for designing high-performance classrooms in terms of luminous comfort.