Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Can TDDs impact funding?

  • By Neall Digert
  • 09/01/15

As more states move from enrollment to performance-based funding systems, colleges and universities need to find ways to fuel student achievement.

Numerous studies have shown that daylight in classrooms plays an important role in student performance. Its natural brightness, variability and perfect color rendition help students stay alert, work more productively and perform better.

Yet unlike conventional daylighting options (e.g., windows and skylights), tubular daylighting devices (TDDs) deliver natural light without solar heat gain. The result is a brightly lit, comfortable learning environment that allows students and instructors to excel.

When looking for systems that bring in the most light with the least amount of heat, the light-to-solar-heat gain (LSG) ratio is a key metric. It quantifies the amount of usable light to solar heat transmitted into a space. The higher the LSG ratio, the better. A high-performing fenestration system will have an LSG ratio between 1.0 to 1.5, although recent technological advancements have resulted in breakthrough ratios of 3.0 and higher for TDDs.

Innovations prompting this include patented and proprietary daylight-collection domes, lenses and reflectors that maximize light capture and reject heat at the rooftop. Reflective tubing with integrated heat-filtering (cooling) properties further increases performance by transferring large amounts of daylight while minimizing heat gain.

Systems with daylight collectors raise the LSG ratio even higher because they capture natural light that typically bypasses the daylight collection system. In such instances, previously unattainable values nearing 5.0 are possible.

With TDDs, higher education facilities now have a viable solution that promotes student achievement and offers an advantage when it comes to performance funding.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

About the Author

Neall Digert, Ph.D., MIES, is vice president of Product Enterprise for Solatube International, Inc., Vista, CA (www.solatube.com).

Featured

  • Round Rock ISD Completes New Early College High School

    Round Rock ISD near Austin, Texas, recently announced that construction is complete on a new, 46,500-square-foot campus for Early College High School, according to a news release. The new facility will allow the school’s students and staff to move from portables into a permanent building and increase its enrollment to 500.

  • College of the Desert Hits Construction Milestone on New Campus

    College of the Desert recently announced that the construction of its new Palm Springs Campus in Palm Springs, Calif., recently reached a major construction milestone, according to a news release. The college is partnering with general contractor C.W. Driver Companies, which recently “topped out” the facility by placing the final beam in its structure.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.