Daylighting: Maximize Indoor Lighting

Aside from the obvious benefits of natural lighting, daylight triggers our body clocks and influences our moods. By maximizing the use of daylight in your home, you can enjoy:

Direct and Ambient Light

Properly-positioned replacement windows in York, PA, can provide enough natural indoor lighting and lessen the need for artificial lighting. While direct sunlight is bright and provides heat, it has limited practical use. Ambient light, on the other hand, is perfect for illumination. Daylight on a cloudy day is ambient light, but it could also be the sunlight reflected on your home’s interior spaces.

Good Daylighting

A good balance between direct sunlight and ambient light indoors results in good daylighting. Several factors, such as house orientation, furniture arrangement, and reflective surfaces are among the considerations.

Nevertheless, an important factor is the selection and positioning of your replacement windows in York, PA. If you find yourself often needing to use artificial light on a particular spot in your home, that area needs better access to daylight. One the other hand, an area that has too much glare may mean making some changes to control the amount of daylight in that space.

House Orientation and Window Selection

Knowing your home’s orientation in relation to the sun helps you decide what kind of windows to install in each direction.

• North-facing windows get the least amount of direct sunlight, but are a great source of soft ambient light. This is perfect for a home office or reading space, with our bay or bow windows to maximize the soft, glare-free light.
• East and west-facing windows directly face the sunrise and sunset, respectively. Being in the sun’s path most of the time, these windows get the most amount of direct light. A combination of shades and blinds on the inside takes care of the glare. Fortunately, Renewal by Andersen® of Central PA windows come with High-Performance™ Low-E4® glass installed. They can help reduce the amount of UV rays that enter your home.
• South-facing windows are the best source of ambient light throughout the day, at any season. Large-paned windows like our bay or bow, picture, and casement windows in York, PA, provide maximum ambient daylight in this direction.

Whatever window type you select, make sure you choose our replacement windows with their energy efficiency features and excellent limited warranties. For more information, call Renewal by Andersen of Central PA today at (717) 591-4900 or fill out our contact form.