Daylighting offices: A first step toward an analysis of photobiological effects for design practice purposes

The research presented in this paper reports an analysis of daylight in three offices with different exposures and characteristics located in Naples (Italy). The goal was to fully investigate daylight characteristics, also considering the circadian impact of daylight entering these offices, with the hope to develop guidelines to better assess daylight quality in built environments. One of the main findings of this research is that the spectral distributions and CCTs of the light reaching the eye of a person seated at the desk in these offices are similar irrespective of the offices’ different characteristics (dimensions, surfaces’ spectral reflectances, external obstructions, etc.) and different sky’s conditions. Moreover it was found that eye level irradiances and their circadian impact is similar to those of D50 and D55 CIE standard illuminants. The same measurements will be carried out in other seasons and a comparison between measured values and software simulated ones is also planned. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.