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•Education games have the potential to enhance learning about lighting use.•Preschool children perceive the ability to regulate electric lights.•No causal connection between the ...obtained knowledge and turn-off behaviour.•Visual prompts show to have a positive effect on the actual behaviour.•No significant effect of the interventions on energy used for lighting.
In the promotion of energy efficiency in educational facilities, preschool children play an important role since simple energy-saving behaviour can be developed in early childhood. This study aimed to investigate the effects of behaviour interventions, with a particular focus on preschool children’s turn-off behaviour in shared environments. The intervention tools i.e. digital game, paper-board game and visual prompt were developed for 3–6 years old children. The study took place in a preschool in which energy-efficient lighting and combined automatic and manual controls were installed. The data were collected by means of participatory observations of the children’s light-off behaviour (N = 42), measurements of lighting use using data loggers, and interviews with the teachers (N = 11). The overall results point to associations between the interventions and the behaviour specifically, the visual prompts were found to have a significantly positive effect. No significant effect of the games on the behaviour could be identified however, the games were found to have the potential to promote learning about lighting and lighting use. Effects of the interventions on the long-term behaviour and energy saving remain unclear. Design improvements of the interventions are thus, needed considering other related factors (e.g. social norms, habits) together with lighting quality for young children and activities in preschool environments.
Light/dark cycles play an essential role in people's performance, mood and daily rhythm. This study aimed to evaluate an early prototype of a personalised home lighting system including body-worn ...loggers. A convenience sample (N = 28) wore the devices for 23 h in the field and were given a demonstration of the lighting system components. Participants reported on questionnaires their acceptance of the lighting system and experience of physical comfort and visual appearance of the body-worn loggers. Semi-structured interviews were also held. In a hierarchical linear regression, physical comfort of the loggers explained 35.8% of the variance of ‘the behavioural intention to use the system in the future’, and ‘performance expectancy’ explained 50.6%. The interview data helped understand the reasons for the physical and psychological discomfort of wearing the devices. Many participants reported they were not comfortable about using a mobile phone for presence detection in the home.
•Study of factors that predict user acceptance of a dynamic home lighting system.•Expectations of better performance is partly the key to acceptance of technology.•Interviews identified feelings of comfort or discomfort when wearing the devices.•Comfort must be considered when systems involve body-worn devices.
Seasonal variations in physiology and behavior have frequently been reported. Light is the major zeitgeber for synchronizing internal circadian rhythms with the external solar day. Non-image forming ...effects of light radiation, for example, phase resetting of the circadian rhythms, melatonin suppression, and acute alerting effects, depend on several characteristics of the light exposure including intensity, timing and duration, spectral composition and previous light exposure, or light history. The aim of the present study was to report on the natural pattern of diurnal and seasonal light exposure and to examine seasonal variations in the circadian change of melatonin and cortisol concentrations for a group of Swedish office workers.
Fifteen subjects participated in a field study that was carried out in the south of Sweden. Ambulatory equipment was used for monthly measurements of the daily exposure to light radiation across the year. The measurements included illuminance and irradiance. The subjects collected saliva samples every 4 h during 1 day of the monthly measuring period.
The results showed that there were large seasonal differences in daily amount of light exposure across the year. Seasonal differences were observed during the time periods 04:00-08:00, 08:00-12:00, 12:00-16:00, 16:00-20:00, and 20:00-24:00. Moreover, there were seasonal differences regarding the exposure pattern. The subjects were to a larger extent exposed to light in the afternoon/evening in the summer. During the winter, spring, and autumn, the subjects received much of the daily light exposure in the morning and early afternoon. Regarding melatonin, a seasonal variation was observed with a larger peak level during the winter and higher levels in the morning at 07:00.
This study adds to the results from other naturalistic studies by reporting on the diurnal and seasonal light exposure patterns for a group living at a northern latitude of 56° N, with large annual variations in photoperiod length. It seems to be seasonal variation in the lighting conditions, both concerning intensities as well as regarding the pattern of the light exposure to which people living at high latitudes are exposed which may result in seasonal variation in the circadian profile of melatonin.
•Four different lighting control systems were tested in real individual office rooms.•The standby losses for daylight harvesting system were relevant.•There was substantial difference between ...presence and absence detection strategies.•Occupants showed preference for manual lighting controls.
An efficient lighting control systems (LCS) should take advantage of the natural light available, but this presents some technical challenges as well as user related issues. So far, the assessment of lighting energy consumption of LCS has been based on technical features rather than the occupants’ acceptance. This article presents the results of a monitoring study in a real life setting. It provides some recommendations based on the human and technical aspects of LCS in small scale applications. Four identical peripheral office rooms located in Lund, Sweden, were equipped with four different LCS: manual switch at the door, presence detector, daylight dimming with absence detector and LED task lamp. Each occupant performed ordinary office tasks for two weeks in each room in April–May 2013. A subjective evaluation concerning the general lighting experience and the appreciation of the LCS was carried out. The results indicate that the manual switch with absence detector was greatly appreciated and it accomplished good energy performances (75% savings compared to the presence detector). The daylight-linked LCS achieved only slightly higher savings (79%), due to relatively high standby losses. The desk lamp achieved 97% savings, but the lighting conditions were considered unacceptable by the office workers. In general, the participants in this study perceived all automatic controls as stressful.
Indoor lighting is known to affect people’s wellbeing, mood and behaviour. The rapid development of new energy-efficient lamp technologies has enabled new lighting applications in home environments. ...To investigate the prospects of introducing a personalised light emitting diode (LED)-based home lighting technology, a mixed-methods research study was carried out, applying the goal-framing theory. The results, based on a questionnaire survey (N = 536), show that purchasing costs of energy-efficient lamps have little effect on consumers’ lamp choices, and that the degree of consumer acceptance of LED lamps has increased in recent years without resulting in increased lighting use. The results confirm that Swedish homes are characterised by many lamps, an average of 39 per home, but there is a significant variation across tenure type. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with 12 participants, the conclusion can be drawn that residents seem to know what kind of lighting they want, but they do not necessarily have what they want for a variety of reasons. Besides individual characteristics, situational factors influence residents’ home lighting and visual comfort, such as the indoor built home environment and the availability of lighting products. Consequently, responsibility for residents’ actual home lighting also lies with housing developers, lighting producers and providers.
This article investigates the relation between subjective evaluations and objective measurements of daylighting in multi-family residential buildings. More specifically, the suitability of an ...observer-based environmental assessment (OBEA) instrument to assess indoor daylight conditions was tested in a field study conducted in six typical multi-family apartment buildings in the central and metropolitan area of Malmö (Latitude: 55.6 °N), Sweden. The OBEA used self-administered questionnaires based on bipolar semantic scales aiming to capture two perceived daylight qualities: brightness and distribution. Following a factorial approach, one component pertaining to perceived brightness was deducted (“Brightness”, Cronbach's alpha = 0.89) and validated by associating it with outdoor global horizontal irradiance (Spearman's rS = 0.566, p = 0.006), which was monitored during the survey. Subsequently, this component was correlated with key geometric attributes of the investigated apartments to highlight the most important associations between perceived brightness and room geometry. Results indicate that the OBEA displays high internal reliability for the derived component, and is fit for daylight perception evaluations in residential spaces. In addition, the analysis showed a tendency for variables pertaining to window size to associate with perceived brightness, but also contributing to this association was the level of global horizontal irradiance.
•An observer-based assessment tool for daylight in apartments was evaluated.•Field study for 225 rooms was performed by use of semantic differential scales.•Factor analysis identified one dimension for perceived brightness, Brightness.•Brightness correlated with global horizontal irradiance (r = 0.566, p = 0.006).•Geometry pertaining to window size correlated more strongly with Brightness.
Promoting resource- and energy-efficient home lighting through technology and behaviour change requires an understanding of how residents currently use lighting and what they want from it. However, ...users' needs and desires relating to lighting in homes are poorly understood, as research is still limited. This paper aims to provide a fuller picture of residents' experiences with their home lighting. Interviews about how residents perceive the character of lighting and luminaires and lighting use suggest that home lighting has nine capabilities: to enable vision; to facilitate visual tasks; to display objects; to send a message; to support a particular atmosphere; to shape the architectural space; to offer a visual aesthetic experience; to maintain or change rhythmicity; and to evoke memories. Secondary data confirmed five of them. The identified capabilities relate to behavioural goals, psychological wellbeing and social needs. We conclude that seemingly wasted light in people's homes, i.e. lights left on in unoccupied rooms, can serve a purpose for the residents, such as avoiding visual or aesthetic discomfort, making the home inviting, benefitting people outside and providing safety. Findings have implications for the further development of new lighting technologies and design, energy-saving campaigns targeting residents and for urban outdoor environments.
What are inhabitants’ perceptions and uses of windows in multi-dwelling buildings? This paper reports on a field study that explores daylight, the visual connection to the outside and the role of ...windows in the home during the day and night. Qualitative interviews were held with 20 participants living in multi-dwelling buildings. The thematic analysis identified two main components as characteristic of residents’ experiences with their windows. The first, ‘perceived dwelling comfort’, consists of different types of comfort qualities, for example, keeping the body sufficiently warm or cool, blocking exterior noise, enabling visual tasks, perceiving the room to be adequately daylit, visually pleasant and spacious, obtaining visual privacy, and having an outside view to provide information and engagement. The second, ‘preferred exposure to external elements’ (e.g. air, sound, light, people outside) expresses a desire for personal control and reflects variability over time (momentary, daily, seasonal, ageing) and between individuals or groups. Windows represent an enjoyment of the home and fulfil much more than physical needs. They must allow sufficient personal control over fresh and cool air, sound, sunlight, streetlighting and privacy. Practice relevanceAn enabling home environment affords residents opportunities to regulate the visual openness to the outside in order to satisfy individual needs for privacy or social connection. Preferences vary within and between household members, so window treatments must be easy for inhabitants to adjust. Housing designers and developers are advised to include exterior shading devices in the design and optional indoor window treatment to facilitate durable shading and privacy solutions. Further adjustments could be offered by landlords to tenants when they move in. Fenestration and shading devices offer the possibility to make full use of the available daylight, reduce electricity demand for indoor lighting and provide inhabitants with increased control of their comfort.
This study investigated the extent to which perceived physical and social-environment qualities of supported housing facilities (SHF) account for variations in the perceived quality of life of people ...with severe mental illness (SMI). Based on a user-centered approach, people with SMI (N = 72) appraised the environment of their SHF (N = 20). Moreover, it investigated whether place attachment played a role in the relationship established between the environment of SHF and users' quality of life. Perceived physical and social-environment qualities predicted quality of life. Together the two factors accounted for approximately 32% of quality of life variance. Furthermore, attachment to place mediated this relationship. Implications for future planning of psychologically supportive facilities for this vulnerable group in society are discussed.
•The influence of supported housing on the well-being of the mentally ill was tested.•Physical and social environment qualities affect the well-being of the mentally ill.•Place attachment mediates the effect of the environment on their well-being.
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