Effects of Indoor Lighting on Occupants’ Visual Comfort and Eye Health in a Green Building

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of indoor lighting on occupants’ visual comfort and eye health and to contribute to the management and maintenance of buildings. The illuminance of the working plane and windows at Samsung Corporation Headquarters were measured, and 2744 healthy occupants of Samsung Corporation were surveyed regarding the indoor lighting environment via the company’s intranet for 1½ years. This building was certified with the highest ranking by Korea’s Green Building Council. The cumulative data reflected the management and maintenance of the building, such as screen-type shading devices automatically controlled by seasons and time, improvement of visual display terminal glare by the veiling reflection on monitors, efficiency of artificial lighting arrays, and so on. The data were analysed for occupants’ visual comfort and eye health. The result showed that daylighting could improve the occupants’ psychological health and productivity. The screen-type shading device could intercept direct sunlight and reduce annoyance glare. However, the indoor lighting and visual environment of the building were poor. After examining the questionnaire feedback concerning improvements, the occupants’ annoyance ratio was significantly reduced, and approximately 5% of the occupants’ annoyance ratio was deemed to be caused by personal characteristics related to the lighting of the environment.

Keywords

Visual comfort and eye health Green building Post-occupancy evaluation Indoor lighting environment Questionnaire survey Self-reported health symptoms

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Mahdavi A. , Unzeitig U. : Occupancy implications of spatial, indoor-environmental, and organizational features of office spaces: Building Environ 2005;40:113-123.

Leyten JL , Boerstra AC : Comparison of productivity and absenteeism effects if indoor environmental quality in offices: in Proceedings of HB2003 International Conference, National University of Singapore, 2003, pp. 318-323.

Niemelae R. , Seppaenen O. , Reijula K. : Prevalence of SSB-symptoms as an indicator of health and productivity in office buildings: in Proceedings of HB2003 International Conference, Singapore, 2003, pp. 251-256.

Rohr AC , Brightman H. : Effects of building characteristics on self-reported productivity of office workers: the BASE study: in Proceedings of HB2003 International Conference, Singapore, 2003, pp. 231-326.

Tanabe S. : Productivity and fatigue: in Proceedings of HB2003 International Conference, Singapore, 2003, pp. 88-94.

Stevens RG , Rea MS : Light in the built environment: potential role of circadian disruption and breast cancer: Cancer Causes Control 2001 ;12:279-297.

Maniccia D. , Rutledge B. , Rea MS , Morrow W. : Occupant control of manual lighting controls in private offices: J of the IES 1999;28(2):42-56.

Zonneveldt L. , Mallory-Hill S. : Evaluation of daylight responsive lighting control systems: in Proceedings of the International Conference on Daylighting Technologies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Daylighting ’98, Ontario, Canada, 1998, pp. 223-230.

Boyce PR : The impact of light in buildings on human health: Indoor Built Environ 2010;19(1):8-20.

10.

Tham KW , Willem HC : A principal component analysis of perception and SBS symptoms of office workers in the tropics at two temperatures and ventilation rates: in Proceedings of HB2003 International Conference, Singapore, 2003, pp. 98-103.

11.

Brasche S. , Bullinger M. , Bronisch M. , Bischof W. : Eye and skin symptoms in German office workers: Int J Hyg Environ Health 2001;203:311-316.

12.

Bachmann MO , Myers JE : Influence on sick building syndrome symptoms in three buildings: Soc Sci Med 1995;40(2):245-251.

13.

Yu CWF , Kim JT : Building pathology, investigation of sick buildings - VOC emissions: Indoor Built Environ 2010;19(1):30-39.

14.

Lai JHK , Yik FWH : Perceived importance of the quality of the indoor environment in commercial buildings: Indoor Built Environ 2007;16(4):311-321.

15.

Boyce PR , Veitch JA , Newsham GR , Myer M. , Hunter C. : Lighting quality and office work: A field simulation study, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2003 .

16.

Preiser WFE , Rabinowitz HE , White ET : Post-Occupancy Evaluation. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc., 1988.

17.

Lee YS , Guerin DA : Indoor environmental quality related to occupant satisfaction and performance in LEED-certified buildings: Indoor Built Environ 2009;18(4):293-300.

18.

Li DHW , Cheung GHW , Cheung KL , Lam JC : Evaluation of a simple method for determining the vertical daylight factor against full-scale measured data: Indoor Built Environ 2009;18(6):477-484.

19.

Dahlan ND , Jones PJ , Alexander DK , Salleh E. , Alias J. : Daylight ratio, luminance and visual comfort assessment in Tropical Malaysia Hostels: Indoor Built Environ 2009 ;18(4):319-335.

20.

Li DHW , Cheung GHW , Cheung KL : Evaluation of simplified procedure for indoor daylight illuminance determination against data in scale model measurement : Indoor Built Environ 2006;15(3):213-223.

21.

Definition of green building: Homepage on the web. Available at: http://www.mltm.or.kr/ (accessed February 15, 2010 ).

22.

Veitch JA : Commentary: On unanswered questions: in Proceedings of the First CIE Symposium on Lighting Quality, Vol. CIE-x015-1998, Vienna, Austria, 1998, pp. 88-91.

23.

Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) : Lighting Handbook: Reference and Application, 9th edn. New York, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, 2000.

24.

Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) : American National Standard Practice for Office Lighting. New York, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, 2004.

25.

Moore T. , Carter DJ , Slater AI : A study of opinion in offices with and without user-controlled lighting : Lighting Res Technol 2004;36(2):131-146.

26.

Newsham GR , Veitch JA : Lighting quality recommendations for VDT offices: A new method of derivation : Lighting Res Technol 2001;33(2):115-134.

27.

Acquisition weather data: Homepage on the web. Available at: http://www.kma.go.kr/ (accessed January 11, 2010).

28.

Building Research Institute : Indoor Environment Forum: Evaluation on the indoor environment in office building: Building Research Institute , 1994.

29.

International Energy Agency : POE of daylight in buildings: IEA, IEA SHC Task 21/ECBCS ANNEX29, 1999.

30.

Lee KH , Jo YJ , Ha MK : Affect of indoor environment on worker’s health in office buildings: Focusing on self-reported health symptoms of workers: J Arch Institute of Korea 2006;22(12):37-44.

31.

Korea Industrial Standards Commission : KS A 3011. Korea, Korean Standards Association, 1993.

32.

The Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan : Lighting Handbook. Ohmsha, The Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan, 2006.