Natural light every day is better than the artificial light Say… Right or Wrong? Natural light in home can make your room look lighter and brighter and gives the feeling of more space!
Light is the one of the most valuable resource of nature and sunlight is the most common and important natural source of light. Natural light is the first feature people look for, when they are buying their new house. Remember light is energy. Its Sanskrit counterpart “Jyoti” has a great meaning.
Hence, for the darker room, you need to find the ways and means to bring in more full-spectrum natural light in home. Want to know why? When your body is in exposure to sunlight, it allow the brain to release a hormone called serotonin, which makes you “feel good” and it increases your serotonin levels.
Think How Great is that?
Furthermore, the natural light has been proven to offer the health benefits like:
- Benefits your vision
- Improves your mood
- Helps you sleep better
- Boost your body’s Vitamin D storage
- Lead to higher productivity
Also, let us understand its significance in our life:
- Food – Light is the sole source of food generation for all living organisms on the earth.
- Vision – Because of light, the eyes can receive the image of the objects and send the information to your brain.
- Colours – This whole world looks beautiful due to colours. But in darkness we see no colours. The light has many spectra. Each spectrum has its own colour and are broadly referred as VIBGYOR.
- Maintenance of temperature – Light is a form of energy. And sunlight has huge energy by which the temperature allows the earth to be warm. Due to this only, the life exists on the earth.
- Drying & evaporation – Sunlight helps in the drying of the soil, forests, etc., surfaces due to its ability to heat-up (scavenging) and also helps the water to evaporate from oceans and water ponds (water cycle) and continue water cycle.
- Solar energy – Natural light from the sun helps to generate the green energy or renewable energy through solar panels.
With the help of good lighting, one can perform his/her task easily. It makes you feel safer and more comfortable which allows you to enjoy your space with its best potential. Good lighting enhances your mood and desirability of these spaces.
If the room does not have sufficient natural lighting, you may feel cramped. This is more worsened by close-proximity furniture arrangements, such as sofa, chair, coffee table, end table, etc. in a smaller setting!
According to National Building Code (NBC): A Good Lighting is necessary for all type of buildings and any building should achieve these three satisfactory aims.
Aims of Good Lighting
- The first aim is to promote work and other activities carried out within the building.
- The second aim is to promote the safety of the people using the building.
- The third aim is to create, in conjunction with the structure and decoration, a pleasing environment conducive to interest of the occupants and a sense of their well-being and happiness.
If you want to flood your home with the natural light, read these effective values of Natural light in home or any other building, that you need.
Importance of Natural Light in Home
Natural light is usually given a low attention in most discussions of lighting design! Despite the fact that sunlight is usually the brightest natural source of light in any room with placement of windows. Instead, most of rooms are made to well-lit at night, when there is very little natural light. Let us discuss how best to apply the natural light to properly integrate it with your home lighting design.
Understand the Phases of Light:
Direct Sunlight – Direct sunlight provides slightly yellowish light that forms light objects using beams of light. It can cause glare, and can potentially damage objects in your room through UV radiations.
Indirect Sunlight – Indirect sunlight is slightly bluish and forms only soft shadows. The light created by indirect sunlight is not very bright and therefore requires the additional artificial sources to create illuminance.
What you can do is:
01. Trim Your Trees
Never forget the impact of greenery outside your home that can affect the light levels inside the room. Turn your attention to your garden and trim your trees, bushes or climbing plants that are growing around your doors and windows. They mostly block your windows – entering sunlight in the home.
02. Enlarge or Reglaze your Existing Windows
Larger windows are the obvious way of getting more light entering into your home. You can enlarge or reglaze your existing windows with high performance glass to allow light getting in! Thanks to innovative design techniques, the modern windows are available in highly-rated energy efficient options, and it is possible to maintain a very comfortable temperature all year round!
03. Never Place Furniture in Front of Window
Avoid placing furniture or any decorative elements in front of your window. They will block the light entering your room and simultaneously also fade your furniture.
04. Use Light Colours in Room
Let me tell you, nothing is brighter than white, even if you hate white wall colour! You can also introduce lighter colours to your walls by expelling statement wallpaper a softer shade white colour. Shades of white will make your space feel brighter, as it reflects the natural light entering the room, rather than absorbing it.
05. Add Mirrors in Front of Window
Adding mirrors in front of window will help to reflect the natural light into different parts of the room. Mirrors are excellent for reflecting natural light in home without changing its light quality. In the rooms that requires more natural light, you can consider more reflective surfaces on your walls to increase the natural source of light.
06. Adopt Open Plan Concept
Of course, even more light will get through your home if the home is designed in an open-plan concept. However, except bedroom and toilets where people actually need privacy, you can design your living-dining-kitchen in a manner of open plan concept.
Note: Natural light will spill from room to room, granting natural light to as many spaces as your home allows, but sometimes it will create a “dark cave”. The “cave” is a negative lighting effect that occurs when your room is too deep for your windows. The most straight-forward way to avoid this “cave effect” is to install a skylight or a solar light tube in the portion of the room that is not receiving natural light, but this can be very expensive and is sometimes not possible!
07. Add Skylights
Skylights are the effective way to allow natural light in home. Skylights refer to windows that are fitted into the roof space. These are a great way of bringing light into an attic bedroom or bathroom when it is impossible to build any other type of window!
Having a skylight on the roof provides far more light than a window on the side of the house. This is a particularly good solution for rooms which are north facing where the skylight can be built in at the planning stage!
08. Replace Wall With Glass Blocks
It is not the easiest fix but it’s an effective one! By simple replacing sections of your exterior wall with glass block can bring a fair amount of natural light in a home.
09. Go for Glossy Finish
Go for glossy finish in your kitchen and bathroom with shiny surfaces on units, this will reflect light filtering into the room and make the space look brighter and bigger.
With these natural lighting options in mind, you will be in a better position to make the best use of sunlight in a home.
Share your experiences about how you feel by adding the above given options in your home.
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