Proceedings of: Workshop on Improving Building Design for Persons with Low Vision

Issue 17: What design guidance on artificial/electric lighting for low vision persons can be provided in the short term?

Question by [Participant]: The other question I have is: [are there state chapters of the IES]?

Response by Robert Dupuy: Extrapolating from my need, the staff at my state organization [of IES] is monitoring stuff like a hawk, anything that’s coming up that might potentially impact our profession. I mean, they’re on this; they’re lobbying, so on and so forth. I mean, you have state associations or state providers that can look for this stuff, like this little classified here. Or they [are] linked in so that the rule-makers in the state government, know their contact at IES and say, “Hey, let’s take a look at this.”

Response by Jeanne Halloin: Right. What’s happening right now relative to ASHRAE 90.1 is that we got a hold of them and we said, “Look, right now lighting for care facilities is exempt from the energy code because we’re asking for higher light levels than typically you would find in an office environment. And so when they started ratcheting down the energy, they snuck it in there that [health care facilities] were exempt.

Now we have people who are trying to light the spaces with incandescent light because it’s more residential. That’s not where we wanted to go with it. So we’ve got to head those guys off at the pass, and so ASHRAE has said, “Look, we want to establish appropriate lighting power density for older people with partial sight.” So they are going to be meeting the light levels required in this, and then they’ve got probably 25 different facilities that they’re looking at that are well designed lighting-wise for this population group. So they’re going to establish an appropriately higher density [LPD] for senior care.

But the very person that took that on and was willing to do it [for health care] says, “But I can’t be doing that for the office environment because it’s like – they’d just be throwing it all away.” But because we have a restricted population group in the senior care facilities, they’re willing to do it for them.

Comment by Vijay Gupta: I wanted to say something on the low vision lighting level. From my experience, not including the recently experienced conditions, has been bad. But earlier, five years ago, the best time for lighting [for me was] outside dusk time, before sunrise or after sunset. Or not after sunset but close to sunset, that’s the outside best lighting, gives the best contrast. But inside, the contrast in here today is a lot better for me than it was yesterday. I think because lighting levels have been dimmed. But I don’t know what candlepower this is.

Question by Jim Woods: I’d like to [hear opinions] around the table: How good is the correlation between illumination level or luminance and power density?

Response by Jeanne Halloin: There’s not a good correlation, because it’s again, it’s still related to the three-dimensional qualities of the space, the finishes in the space.

Question by Jim Woods: So how can ASHRAE make these changes in LPDs if they don’t know what the consequence is going to be with regard to illumination?

Response by Jeanne Halloin: That’s one reason why you have to get in really early [during the design process] because if they have dark flooring or dark walls, there’s no way you’re going to get there [i.e., lighting levels for the assigned LPDs]. So what you have to do is get into the project really early and start telling them that we need light reflectance values on all the large spaces. So that’s why a lot of recommendations that you hear lighting people say for low vision people, but they’re really the only way we can get the light levels up. You have to actually change things in the building itself.

Comment and Question by Jim Woods: Let me push on a little bit. Everybody’s been talking about 30 percent below ASHRAE. I’ve played this game plenty of times. I can make that ASHRAE number go about anywhere I want it to go so I can get 30 percent below my “baseline design.”’ I can do that. So I think what you’re saying, Jeanne, is if we get in early in the design process, you can influence what the lighting level is for the baseline ASHRAE design, because now you have a level that includes the power density level on the base.

So the baseline ASHRAE number would also reflect the illumination that’s necessary for low vision or for other aspects. Is that kind of what you were thinking about?

Response by Jeanne Halloin: If you get in on it early enough, you can do better in the design process. Yeah, and early in the design process, not the building. Early in the design process you can affect the power density.

Comment by [Participant]: Lighting is often an afterthought. It’s not part of the initial [project budget] breakdown.