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\nHere is a simplified plan of the house:<\/p>\n
\u00a0 And here are a couple of images of the existing living room.<\/p>\n Below is a series of sectional cuts through the house.\u00a0 We believe the best way to bring natural daylight into the living room would be to puncture the roof creating a pathway to bring light in from above.<\/p>\n However, because the ridge of the roof runs east \/ west over the middle of the living room and to keep the project as simple as possible the opening should avoid the ridge because this is the forces of the roof intersect.\u00a0 These are not prefabricated roof trusses that we are working with.\u00a0 This is a built up roof system which works like a truss, utilizing the ceiling joists as tension elements.<\/p>\n As such there are two cost-effective locations to place the opening to the sky: Either on the north side of the ridge allowing more consistent, indirect light to enter the room…<\/p>\n or on the south side of the ridge allowing direct sunlight to enter the space.<\/p>\n The owner of the home prefers for the opening to the sky to be on the south side.\u00a0 We agree with this assessment.\u00a0 We will explain why further on in this post.\u00a0 Our design considers removing several ceiling joists.\u00a0 If this is deemed not feasible, the concept will be nearly as strong with the ceiling joists remaining.<\/p>\n The effects of placing a large skylight into the roof of a home in Portland Oregon will change the quality of the space whether the light comes from the north or south.\u00a0 We will use time-lapse renderings to understand the effects of daylight on the space at the spring equinox and the summer solstice, both with and without a shading device.\u00a0 Please take a look at our video below to see how the daylight tracks through the room.<\/p>\n First we will look at the spring equinox without a shading device.\u00a0 We picked this event to study because its when the days are as long as the night.\u00a0 We chose to align the opening with the path of the sun at this time of the year because the equinox roughly represents the midpoint of the sun\u2019s altitude difference throughout the year.\u00a0 That means for roughly half the year, specifically throughout the winter months, the sun will be at a lower altitude than the central axis of the opening allowing daylight to bounce off the more vertical face of the shaft as the sun passes from east to west throughout the day.\u00a0 The opposite will occur during the summer months: the sun will be at a higher altitude, more vertical, and bounce off the horizontal face of the shaft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next we take a look at the summer solstice -the longest day of the year.\u00a0 This is an important point in time to investigate because it is when the sun is at the highest altitude during the year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We see the difference in solar altitude as compared to the spring equinox.\u00a0 We notice that the space is significantly brighter which is expected.\u00a0 Notice how much light bounces around in the space.\u00a0 This contributes greatly to the brightness of the space.<\/p>\n Next we look at the equinox again, however this time a shading device is employed.\u00a0 We tested a series of approximately 30 mm wide concave strips of reflective material running parallel to the face of the skylight glazing.\u00a0 Note that a significant amount of natural daylight is allowed to pass through at this time of year.\u00a0 The objective is to block most of the natural daylight during the summer months.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next we look at the summer solstice again, this time with a shading device employed.\u00a0 Most of the direct sunlight is reflected away reducing the mean radiant temperature of the space during the warmer months.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Plan with indication of opening in ceiling, centered on room (below).<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>