Post-occupancy Evaluation Study of the Impact of Daylighting and Electric Lighting in the Workplace

ABSTRACT

Post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) have been recognized for documenting occupants’ well-being and responses to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions. The Sustainable Post-Occupancy Evaluation Survey (SPOES), an online questionnaire, provides a quantitative analysis of occupants’ satisfaction in workplace, classroom, and residence hall buildings. This article analyzes occupants’ (n = 886) perceptions of daylighting and electric lighting from POE studies conducted across 13 workplace buildings. Further analysis was conducted to explore occupants’ perceptions of how daylighting and electric lighting affect their health and work performance. The results indicated that occupants were more satisfied with the amount of lighting than the adjustability of lighting and that the amount of lighting had a stronger association with overall lighting satisfaction than the adjustability of lighting. Regarding perception of work performance and health, the adjustability of lighting, visual comfort, and quality of task lighting are strongly associated. Lastly, the proximity of occupants’ primary workspaces to a window also affects lighting satisfaction. These results show that lighting as an IEQ factor is clearly related to the amount and adjustability of both daylighting and electric lighting.

KEYWORDS:

• Daylighting
• electric lighting
• indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
• post-occupancy evaluation (POE)
• satisfaction
• workplace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant and the University of Minnesota Agriculture Research and Extension (AES) program. Project title: Sustainable Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Occupant Well-being and Lighting as prime driver for evidence based design.