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Teachers Preferred Natural Daylight Inside PA Elementary School

“When the renovation was complete, it was unbelievable. Students were astonished by the results.” — Ken Fibbi, Director of Buildings for the West Allegheny School District.

The distribution of survey to school staff came back with notable findings. Seventy-one percent of the teachers expressed keen interest in having natural interior daylight in their classrooms. Partly as a result of the survey, large domed skylights were installed on the roof of the school to illuminate classrooms and communal spaces.

LED lighting was installed throughout the building in addition to the skylights. The LEDs are controlled by automatic dimming photocontrol sensors connected to the skylights, reducing electrical load. Wilson incorporated the Acuity Controls nLight® network lighting controls with the Lithonia Lighting® luminaires. nLight is a networked digital lighting controls system that provides both energy savings and increased user configurability by integrating time-based, daylight-based, sensor-based and manual lighting controls. .

Regardless of calculated energy savings, everyone was pleased with the outcome. “Everyone is very happy with the skylights and the amount of light provided,” said Fibbi. Principal Chris Shattuck adds, “It was worth the investment.” Beyond the health and human performance benefits skylights provide, Wilson Elementary was able to halve their annual electricity consumption by effectively incorporating daylighting and upgrading outdated heating and cooling systems.