Abstract:
Recent research has shown that environmental conditions in classrooms, and namely
daylighting conditions, can influence students health, well-being and performance. In the last years several
studies, dealing with the effects of environmental conditions in classrooms in the learning process, have
been published (Winterbottom, & Wilkins, 2009; Barret, Zhang, Moffat, & Kobbacy, 2013).
The daylight factor (DF) is the most used parameter in the characterization and quantification of daylight in
buildings. The DF at a point of a plane inside a room is defined as the ratio (expressed as a percentage)
between the daylight illuminance at that point in the interior of the room and the simultaneous exterior
horizontal global illuminance due to a hemisphere of a sky of known or assumed luminance distribution
(usually, a CIE overcast sky luminance distribution is considered). The DF reflects the effectiveness of
daylight penetration in a particular room or space. The exterior daylight conditions may vary, but the DF
remains constant, since the interior illuminances change proportionally to the simultaneous changes in the
exterior daylight conditions (Santos, 2006).