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

  • Year-Round Schools Require Year-Round Indoor Air Quality Planning

    While many schools are out for the summer, year-round schools follow a more “balanced” schedule with shorter, more frequent breaks spaced throughout the school year. Even though this offers educational benefits, these facilities have less downtime for building maintenance. This can become an issue when facilities managers overlook the importance of routine HVAC maintenance and air duct cleaning services.

  • Wyoming District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    Laramie County School District #1 in Cheyenne, Wy., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Mountain View Elementary School, according to a news release. The facility has an estimated completion date of summer 2028, and it will have the capacity for 650 students in fifth and sixth grade.

  • University of Pennsylvania Releases Design of Future Physical Sciences Building

    The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia, Penn., recently released renderings of an upcoming 350,000-square-foot Physical Sciences Building, according to news release. The facility was designed by CO Architects and will unite the university’s departments of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, and Earth and Environmental Science.