Daylighting Strategies that Maximize Benefits

Low energy bills, high quality indoor environment, low construction costs — daylighting is one sustainable building strategy that can help achieve all these goals. Based on a calculation I did for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), daylighting strategies can potentially reduce our nation's total energy consumption by 1% with a one- to three-year simple payback. When approaching daylighting design, the project design team needs to understand and consider the various elements that can help maximize daylighting benefits. This is part one of a three-part series on sustainable strategies. The first part focuses on daylighting; subsequent parts discuss water and integrated design.