Lighting Windows, Day and Night

In this article, I will discuss some of the tricks andsource of glare. Therefore, great caution needs to be
pitfalls involved in designing windows. Windows areused when lighting near windows. First, ensure that
one of the trickiest things to light in the home. Onyou have no direct light on the windows. There
the one hand, during the day they provide the singleshould be no direct line from a bulb to a window,
greatest source of light to your room. On the otherunless the reflection would only be upward toward
hand, during the night, they don't produce any light atyour ceiling. Fortunately, this nicely combines with
all. Moreover, because they are reflective and usuallyyour daytime lighting strategy that lights the areas
large, they can cause a lot of glare within your room.least covered by the solar light.
On top of all of this, they serve as virtually mirrors atAnother way to avoid glare, however, is to use
night if there are no offsetting external light sources.external lighting. Windows only provide glare if you
During the day, there is no need to light yourare on the brighter side of the window, not on the
windows. Indeed, during the day, they are lightsdarker side of the window. As a result, one way to
themselves. However, this doesn't mean that youreduce or even eliminate glare is to have diffuse
should ignore them. Instead, you should be consciouslighting outside the window that reduces the
of how they light your room with ambient light. Evenreflectiveness of the light. There are some words of
during the day, solar lighting doesn't completely lightcaution, though. First, be sure to not create glare
your room. So, during the day, the goal is to ensurefrom external lights that is even worse than the
that you can light around your windows, in the sensereflections you are trying to avoid. Second, be
that your other lighting serves as a corrective for thecautious of energy bills, as external lighting can be
spaces not covered by the light.expensive. The lights you use should also some sort
At night, however, windows become a completelyof external function like security. Fortunately, done
different story. Not only do they cease to beright, external lighting can actually give you the ability
sources of light, they actually become your worstto see out of your window at night.