Daylighting is a form of general lighting used to create aesthetically pleasing spaces that maintain visual performance capabilities while reducing energy consumption.  Effective daylighting requires integration of electric lighting and appropriate control strategies to compensate for the variability of daylight and for use of the space during evening, nighttime, or early-morning hours.
            Daylighting provides several advantages; however, the design of daylit spaces is fraught with challenges.  A number of tradeoffs among design parameters must be considered, including room size and orientation, window size and placement, energy consumption, psychological effects, and more.  This installment of the “Workplace Illumination” series explores design tradeoffs and the evaluation of a space’s potential for effective daylighting.

            Area lighting is used to ensure safe navigation throughout a space and to perform simple tasks.  For these purposes, relatively low illuminances are sufficient; visually-demanding tasks require higher illuminances and may also require stricter control of light distribution, color characteristics, or other parameters.
            Area lighting often refers to the illumination of a large, open space, such as a factory or warehouse.  This may also be called general lighting, as it is “all-purpose” illumination; it is not customized for a specific task or area within the larger space.  Here, “general” is also used to denote the relevance of much of the information presented to application-specific lighting systems.  Specialized applications, such as office spaces, and adaptations required are discussed further in future installments of the series.