Do we gain some commercial benefit from investing in daylighting?
Daylighting is an effective way to reduce carbon consumption, because for every watt saved 3 watts need not be generated. Daylighting investment is often preferable to investment in renewable energy, because the inefficiencies of local renewable generation are avoided and the standby capacity not required – pure light energy is converted directly into pure electricity savings. Savings in CO2 are significant and the value of these in carbon costs will rise in the coming years. Meanwhile savings in energy consumption costs provide some immediate payback. The last, but not insignificant, benefit can come through an improved asset rating for the building on its EPC (via an improved LENI, which incorporates daylighting data from EN15193).
