A new report, commissioned by the National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers (NARM), has been published by Elmhurst Energy. The report is entitled: ‘Analysis of Improving Daylighting and Lighting Controls on a Number of Existing Non-Domestic Buildings’ and provides a detailed insight into the affects of rooflighting on building energy consumption and emissions.
At the beginning of this century, the government set about improving the building stock of both new and existing non domestic buildings by addressing the Building Regulations Part L to reduce carbon emissions, by saving energy consumption on heating and lighting.
In the early phases, the emphasis was on improving the building fabric by improving insulation. There were serious considerations at this time to reduce the windows and rooflights since these materials did not provide the same level of insulation as opaque areas.
At this time, drawing on independent research carried out by De Montfort University, NARM was able to demonstrate that the absence of natural daylight into buildings resulted in an increase in power use due to the need for more electric lighting during the day which far outweighed the savings in energy that would result from reductions in rooflighting and glazing.
The purpose of this new report is to focus on the existing stock of non domestic buildings and to demonstrate the effects of refurbishing/increasing rooflight areas and increasing the efficiency of electric lighting on three specific buildings: an industrial premises, a retail building, and a school.
Each building type shows significant savings in both running cost and carbon emissions can be achieved using these improvements. The report details the overall savings available, together with the savings achieved by each measure independently, for each building type.
The report can be downloaded free of charge here.