45-Year Anniversary logo

Columns

Daylighting Opportunities: There’s nothing greener than off

By Administrator Daylighting offers an excellent opportunity for builders, contractors and installers to expand their business in the pre-engineered metal building industry. With the emphasis on green and sustainable buildings, daylighting is fast becoming part of the metal building landscape. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), lighting in commercial buildings accounts for about… Continue reading Daylighting Opportunities: There’s nothing greener than off
By Administrator

daylighting-bayDaylighting offers an excellent opportunity for builders, contractors and installers to expand their business in the pre-engineered metal building industry. With the emphasis on green and sustainable buildings, daylighting is fast becoming part of the metal building landscape. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), lighting in commercial buildings accounts for about 40 percent of electricity consumption. Convincing building owners to daylight is becoming less of a challenge. In addition to reducing energy costs, daylighting has been shown to increase productivity, improve morale, reduce absenteeism and improve product quality. When one considers daylighting existing buildings, as well as new construction, the potential is enormous. A building that offers daylighting, resulting in reduced energy costs is more attractive to a potential buyer, tenant or owner.

 

Lighting Measurement

Lighting is measured in foot candles. Thirty foot candles are recommended for a warehouse, 40 to 60 foot candles for manufacturing, 45 to 70 foot candles for office/school and 60 to 100 foot candles for retail space. For a warehouse, this equates to a 2 to 3 percent skylight to floor ratio (SFR), for manufacturing a 3 to 4 percent SFR, and a 4 to 5 percent SFR for schools/office and retail. How do you determine how many skylights are needed for a particular building? There are software programs available to determine the skylight to floor ratio based on various factors.

 

One popular software program is SkyCalc found on the web. SkyCalc uses data you input to describe the building and analyze possible daylighting strategies to achieve maximum lighting and HVAC energy savings. What kind of savings can one expect to achieve using daylighting? The savings is dependent on several factors including geographic location, the season of the year and electric and gas rates in a particular area.

 

Lighting Controls

A frequently asked question is whether lighting controls are necessary when installing skylights? Simply put, the answer is yes. How do lighting controls work? Depending on the control system used, light sensors are placed at various points in a daylighted building. Foot candles of light are measured on a continuous basis and when light reaches a pre-determined level, say 30 foot candles in a warehouse, the lighting control sensors turn off the lights in that section of the warehouse. Lighting controls can also utilize a timer. At predetermined times, lights are turned off or on to take advantage of sunlight. SkyCalc incorporates lighting controls and uses a table with average daylight foot candles by month and time of day, based on location.

 

Expanding Your Business

Armed with a basic knowledge of daylighting and a vendor you can call on to help answer the tough questions, what approach should you take to expand your business with daylighting? First, make a list of all the customers you currently do business with. Identify those who you feel would be good prospects for daylighting, either new construction or retrofit. Then, using a program like SkyCalc and your knowledge of the customer and the building, input information into the program. The SkyCalc program, using the geographic location and local utility rates will show the energy savings. Plugging this data into a payback analysis will show how long it will take to recover the investment in daylighting. The shorter the calculated payback period, the more likely a building owner will invest in daylighting.

 

Be aware that certain geographic areas are better suited to daylighting. Typically, southern states have more days of sunlight, and depending on utility rates may show a faster payback. For new construction there are a number of manufacturers who can supply you with a curb. Likewise, there are a number of companies who can supply you with the skylight dome. Other companies offer both curb and skylight. One to three LEED points are offered for daylighting under LEED IEQ 8.1 (Indoor Environmental Quality). According to the USGBC 2009 LEED Reference Guide, the intent is to provide building occupants with a connection between indoor spaces and the outdoors through the introduction of daylight and views into the regularly occupied areas of the building.

 

Tax Incentives

On Aug. 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The Act established a new deduction for expenses incurred for energy-efficient commercial building property. The deduction is equal to energy-efficient commercial building property expenditures made by the taxpayer, subject to a cap of $1.80 per square foot. Tax deductions are available for achieving a 50 percent energy cost savings as compared to the 2001 ASHRAE Building Energy Code Standard. On Oct. 3, 2008, President Bush signed into law a five-year extension of the deduction through Dec. 31, 2013. For more information on the tax provision, you might want to check out the Commercial Building Tax Deduction Coalition website, www.efficientbuildings.org. However, it is always best to seek advice from a qualified tax professional.

Dean Johnson is sales service manager with Bay Insulation Co. and Carl Lewis, LEED AP, is a product manager with Bay Insulation Systems, Green Bay, Wis. For more information about daylighting, visit www.bayindustries.com.