About Us

Dalglish Daylighting provides personalized service to architects in the creation of high-performance buildings by providing decision-making feedback on the functioning of their designs. Performance improvement is supported with product analysis and recommendations. Information is provided in a timely manner so that decisions can be made early and all team members have time to implement innovative ideas.

We focus on daylighting because it has great potential on both sides of the energy equation. Decisions about fenestration, glazing selection, frame selection, shading devices, lighting and lighting controls can greatly help or hurt the building's energy use. It is one of the most misunderstood aspects of building energy performance. However, we are also an ally in all aspects of the building's energy performance. For example, we will not recommend expensive daylighting products if increased roof insulation is more cost-effective. Our energy modeling alerts our attention to these types of comparisons.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is daylighting?

The short answer is "using natural lighting as the primary source of lighting in a space."

The long answer is that daylighting is the art and science of combining the disciplines of architecture, mechanical engineering, and lighting design to optimized the use of daylight in a space. This involves harvesting daylight which means dimming or turning off electric lighting in a space in response to the amount of available daylight. It also involves planning in all stages of design to best use windows, shading devices and the building itself to heat and light the building when needed and not heat the building when cooling is needed. In addition, all of these aspects need to serve the building occupants needs and wants, to give them a uniformly lit, but interesting visual experience, a connection to the outdoors and a temperate thermal experience.

Why should I hire a daylighting designer instead of an electrical or mechanical engineer?

There are many reasons to hire a specialist in daylighting design. Mechanical engineers (ME) are not trained in lighting. Many electrical engineers (EE) are not trained in lighting. Those that are, are not trained in daylighting. Most ME and EE have no training in human perceptual mechanisms.

Daylighting design is fundamentally different from electrical lighting design. Designers often design for the worst case secenario. In electric lighting design, this is a space that is too dark. In daylighting, this is a space that is too bright. EE's are required to meet minimum footcandle requirements on a two-dimensional (2D) horizontal plane and this usually is their focus. Since most spaces use vertical windows for their primary daylighting source to light a horizontal plane, this puts daylighting design considerations automatically into the third dimension (3D) and daylighting designers are always thinking in these terms. Daylighting is a variable source per the day and per the season. Electric lighting is not. Daylighting designers know what to expect from a daylighting simulation.

Daylighting designers are more adept at saving energy. They don't over-design the electric lighting and they know how to use lighting controls. Design decisions involved in daylighting affect at least eight aspects of building energy use whereas electric lighting design affects only three. Daylighting designers are familiar with energy modeling.

Lastly, ME's and EE's are not used to manipulating forms in the interest of energy savings and/or daylighting improvements. When was the last time your mechanical engineer recommended improvements in your glazing or wall construction? When was the last time your electrical engineer recommended room reflectance values?

What is this going to cost me?

A lot less than you might think. Many architects who hire daylighting consultants are immediately aware of their value to the team and opt to use them again and again.

A daylighting consultant's fees within the cost to build the entire project are often covered by the reduction in unnecessary tubular daylighting devices, unnecessary shading devices, unnecessary glazing or unnecessarily large mechanical systems.