Saving Energy with Daylighting Design

Posted by: GreenCE Sustainable Design and Construction // Sustainable Content Creator at GreenCE

In a previous five-part series, Climate Change: It’s All About the Straws, Isn’t it?, I explored the five main things that are effecting climate change, according to Bill Gates. He lists electricity (25%), agriculture (24%), manufacturing (21%), transportation (14%), and buildings (6%) with a final miscellaneous category contributing 10%. The categories on this list weren’t as surprising as the ways in which those categories contributed. Most of us know that transportation contributes to climate change, but often, people think the blame is only on cars and “commuter” transportation, when it’s not. Also, the assumption is that transportation is the biggest contributor, which is also false. I was surprised to learn that electricity and agriculture were neck and neck for the number one position, with manufacturing not too far behind and transportation barely eking out its fourth-place position. I had always understood that turning off the lights in my house when not in use was good for the environment, but I never understood that it is more than that. Generating electricity through the burning of fossil fuels that is the major player in climate change, as discussed in part 3 of my blog series, but this post also focuses on the larger scale “gloom and doom”—essentially, the WHY of this issue—making it hard to see HOW we can affect positive change daily. So, is turning off the lights the only way to conserve electricity?

In the rest of this post, I list some great tips I learned and discuss touch on the benefits of daylighting as a design technique to conserve energy. To continue reading or to join the discussion, follow this link:

https://www.greence.com/Spec_Shaman/Saving-Energy-Daylighting