Calculating

the
Daylight Factor

Deepa Ananthakrishnan
and
Jason DeCaestecker

ABS 643 Interior Lighting Design

Outline

I. What is Daylight Factor?

Definition of the components
II. Purpose and Uses
III. Graphical methods
IV. Step-by-step calculations using Protractor Method
Derivations of Components
V. Building a tabulated Chart
VI. Contour chart
VII. Comparison
What is Daylight Factor?

The ratio, in percent, of workplane illuminance (at a given point) to the

outdoor illuminance on a horizontal plane. Evaluated under cloudy sky
conditions only (no direct solar beam).

The daylight factor is defined as

DF= (Ei/Eo) x 100%

Where,
Ei = illuminance due to daylight at a point on the indoor’s
working plane
Eo = simultaneous outdoor illuminance on a horizontal
plane from an unobstructed hemisphere of overcast sky
There are three possible paths along which light can reach a point
inside a room through glazed windows.

(a) light from the patch of sky visible at the point considered,
expressed as the sky component (SC),
(b) light reflected from opposing exterior surfaces and then reached
the point, expressed as the externally reflected component (ERC),
(c) light entering through the window but reaching the point only
after reflection from internal surfaces, expressed as the internally
reflected component (IRC).

The sum of the three components gives the daylight factor:

DF = SC + ERC + IRC

SC – Sky Component
ERC – Exterior Reflectance Component
IRC – Interior Reflectance Component
Purpose and Uses

•It helps as a guideline for determining the quantitative characteristics of

daylight in a particular work space.

Based on these guidelines, It can be determined whether a room has

sufficient daylight.

In certain cases may even dictate a change in the design.

Methods for determining the SC
There are four popular Graphical Methods used for determining the Sky
Component for interior spaces. They are:

 The BRE overcast SC protractor

 The Pilkington sky dot Method
 The Waldram diagram Method
 The Bryan sky component protractors
Graphical methods

1. The BRE overcast SC protractor 2. The Pilkington sky dot Method

Graphical methods

3. The Waldram diagram Method

Protractor Method
The Building Research Establishment BRE (formerly the Building Research
Station BRS) developed a set of protractors which give direct reading of the
sky component in percentages. There are ten such protractors, of which five
are for the uniform sky and five for the CIE sky
Series 1 Series 2
Uniform Sky CIE Sky
VERTICAL GLAZING 1 2

HORIZONTAL GLAZING 3 4

SLOPE 30 DEGREES TO HORIZONTAL 5 6

SLOPE 60 DEGREES TO HORIZONTAL 7 8

UNGLAZED OPENINGS 9 10

For Vertical glazing with overcast sky we use the Series 2, #2 Protractor
What else do we Need?
- Plan, and Section Elevations showing all the work surfaces and
obstructions.
- Nomograph for the IRC calculation
Sky Component derivation and Correction factor
1. Take a section of the room, mark the working plane and on it the point to be
considered.
2. Connect the limits of the window opening to the point.
3. Place the Protractor with the scale A facing up and on the point with base
line on the work plane.
4. Read the values where these lines intersect the outer perimeter: the
difference is the initial sky component.
5. Read where these line intersect the inner angle of elevation and take the
average of these.
Scale A
6. Switch to the plan view, and mark where you would put the point on this
view. Stay the same distance from the window.
7. Again connect the limits of the window with the point.
8. Place the protractor with scale B towards and parallel to the window and on
the point.
9. Select the semi-circle that corresponds to the average elevation found in
step 5.
10. Find where the limit lines intersect the semi-circle, and read the values
along the inner semi-circle.
11. If the two points were on either side of the centerline, then add the values, if
the are both on one side then subtract them, this is the correction factor.
12. Multiply the initial SC in step 4 with the correction factor to obtain the Sky
Scale B
Component. (Correction factor)
Exterior Reflectance Component

Simply, If there is no outside obstruction then there will be no ERC.

However, if there are, then this needs to be expressed by the ERC.

First, the Sky Component is found using the previous steps.

Then since we are using the series 2 protractors we must multiply the SC
by a factor of 0.2, this is our ERC value.
Interior Reflectance derivation & Correction factors
Use of the Nomograph
1. Find the window area and find the total room surface area
(floors, ceiling, and walls including the windows. Calculate
the window: total surface area ratio. Find the value on Scale
A.
2. Find the area of the walls and calculate the wall area: total
surface area ratio. Find this value in the first column of the
small table.
3. Locate the wall reflectance and read the average reflectance
where the column and row meet. Note that ceiling reflectance
is assumed to be .7 and floor to be .1
4. Locate the average reflectance on scale B and lay a straight
edge from B to A, the value obtained in step 1.
5. The intersection of scale C is the average IRC if there are on
external obstructions.
6. If there are external obstructions locate its angle on scale D
by measuring it from the horizontal at the center of the
window.
7. Lay a straight edge on D through the point on C and read
the value on scale E.
8. An average Maintenance factor(0.75) is applied to the IRC as
a correction factor.
9. The DF is obtained by adding SC+ERC+IRC
If there are obstructions outside the building,

IRC is given by the average

I = 45° IRC = .9%

II = 29° IRC = 1.25%

III = 21° IRC = 1.4%

IV = 16° IRC = 1.5%

Average IRC = 1.26%

Average IRC x Maintenance factor = 1.26 x .9

= 1.134

Min IRC = Average IRC x Conversion factor

= 1.134 x .78
= .88
Final Correction Factors
The DF is multiplied by the product of three other correction
factors; GF, FF, D (the glazing factor, framing, dirt on the glass)

1. If glazing is something other than clear glass there are

various correction factor. Other types of glass will inhibit
the maximum allowable light to a room.
2. An average value of 0.75 is used for the framing around the
window.
3. Finally we can account for the accumulation of dirt on the
Glass.

LOCATION VERTICAL SLOPING HORIZONTAL

CLEAN 0.9 0.8 0.7

INDUSTRIAL 0.7 0.6 0.5

VERY DIRTY 0.6 0.5 0.4

Dirt Factor
Protractor Method
Tabulated Chart: multiple locations
The Previous example was done for one point in the room. To characterize the
whole room a series of points has to be determined and following the steps
for each of these points. They can be organized in a tabulated form a follows
Scale ‘A’ Scale ‘B’ GF= 1
FF= Correct
Readings Angles Readings SC D= ed DF
Initial Average Correction IRC
Grid point 3*9 SC 12 + 13
reference SC Altitude Factor
10*11
1-2 Lowe 4+5/2 Lef 7+-8 GF* FF*
Upper Lower Upper Right
r t D

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

A .4 .1 .5 9.58 6.46 7.34

I B 20.2 .24 19.96 64.5 4 34.25 .4 .15 .55 10.3 6.9 7.78

10.5
C .15 .4 .55 7.11 7.99
4

D .25 .15 .4 4.36 2.94 3.82

II E 11 .1 10.9 48 2 25 .15 .3 .45 4.9 3.3 4.18

F .15 .25 .4 4.36 2.94 3.82

0.675 .88
G .15 .1 .25 1.48 .99 1.87

III H 6 .1 5.9 37 2 19.5 .05 .2 .25 1.48 .99 1.87

I .1 .15 .25 1.48 .5 1.87

J .25 .05 .2 .73 .5 1.38

K .05 .15 .2 .73 .5 1.38

IV 3.7 3.65 3.65 31 1 16
L .15 .05 .1 .37 .25 1.13

M .2 .05 .15 .55 .37 1.25

Final Contour Chart

Daylight factor contours

If the overall distribution of daylight in a

room is to be predicted, the best method is
to set out a grid and calculate the SC and
ERC for each of the grid-points. The average
IRC can then be found, corrected by factor
D, and added to each value, after which the
factors M, G and B can be applied. By
interpolating between grid-point values, a
set of daylight factor contours can be
drawn, indicating the distribution of
daylight.
By interpolating between grid-point
values, a set of daylight factor contours
can be drawn, indicating the distribution
of daylight.