The perception and benefit of rooflights, and more importantly daylight, has evolved to such extent it has become a fundamental element of contemporary architecture. ‘Daylight’ might be a simple word, but for many years it was given little thought or high consideration during the design or construction process. With architects, clients and consumers all searching and wanting the latest offering, what steps can specifiers take to find the best rooflight product which offers the most benefits at an affordable price, whilst being aesthetically pleasing to the eye?
Naturally, with this evolution of opinions and desire comes product development. Manufacturers work hard to launch new products regularly, with a solution available for whatever the requirement may be. This has resulted in an infinite variety of rooflight shapes, sizes, colours and glazing options to suit flat, pitched and curved roof applications. Irrespective of the number or extent of rooflights required for residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural structures, if the basics are followed the process can be as easy as 1-2-3: design and specification, a market leading manufacturer and finally installation.
Design and specification
The choice of daylighting holds the key. With so many options available, the early involvement of a rooflight manufacturer or daylight consultant at the design and specification stage of a project is critical as they can provide good advice and influence the right rooflight decision. This could be in terms of the rooflight area required, benefits on energy saving or ventilation options as well as ensuring the most appropriate type of product is chosen for the individual requirements of a particular project. Working together during this time will ensure all requirements and benefits are achieved.
While a part of this requirement is meeting current legislation, it is also about meeting budgets whilst at the same time choosing the best product for the application that is quick and easy to install. This is not always an easy task when regulations need to be adhered to. Smoke extraction, airtightness, u-values, solar gain, wind-loadings, watertightness are just some of the many considerations and requirements. It is therefore important to work with a rooflight manufacturer that can demonstrate, support and back-up their product’s performance and technical claims.
Compliance with the differing national regulatory frameworks must be considered, with rooflights subjected to mandatory legislation and standards covering key performance factors including fire, thermal insulation, safety, and in certain applications, security. Care should be taken to ensure that any specification and installation meets the relevant standards, with a hierarchical approach often best practice. Meeting the relevant fire standards is paramount, insulation standards are important to meet energy efficiency standards, while safety requirements must also be satisfied.
In particular, in the UK and Ireland, much assistance in meeting regulatory requirements is provided in extensive industry guidance, for example NFRC, MCRMA, NARM, ACR.
Manufacturers at the top of their game
Using a manufacturer which has a wide range of products will ensure the most reliable and cost effective option can be selected for any roof type or project requirement as they can offer unbiased advice on differing product types and applications to ensure that the project’s requirements of performance, aesthetics and budget is most appropriately met. A company with a more limited range of products could be more likely to recommend only the product that they supply rather than what is best for your project. A project can often benefit from using different rooflight products on the same roof, where specific performance, budgetary and aesthetic requirements can be matched to individual areas of the roof to ensure the most cost-effective overall budget.
The perfect fit
In a world where health and safety is paramount and with site labour, welfare and plant potentially so expensive, choosing the right manufacturer or product for your daylighting is crucial. For contractors wishing to reduce site time on a roof and enhance safety, factory assembled rooflights are manufactured to tight tolerances, ensuring an accurate and reliable fit on site leading to time saved on installation, and reduced fitting costs. They say time is money, and costs can spiral out of control if the wrong choices are made.
With margins low and budgets tight, it’s important to recognise the value of UK quality standards for rooflights and check the origins and evaluate objectively the credentials of rooflight products. Selecting an apparently lower cost rooflight might well compromise performance requirements and lead to higher costs in the long term.
Choosing the right rooflight manufacturer will ultimately give you peace of mind. They can offer great quality, long lasting and compliant products that are quick and easy to install and backed up and supported by superb technical support. Through the synergy between rooflight manufacturers and specifiers working together and by taking a simple three step approach, it is possible to design, produce and achieve some of the most beautiful ‘daylight enhancements’ ever dreamt of on a building.
Visit: http://www.brettmartin.com/
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By Talk. Build Natural daylight is a highly sought after commodity when it comes to designing buildings. In commercial, educational and industrial buildings, the benefits of natural lighting include improving mood, creativity and concentration – with rooflights a highly effective way of utilising this free and unlimited resource. The importance of natural light – and rooflights – should not be underestimated. While windows or vertical glazing let daylight in, this light will only travel six metres into the room. However, with a well-designed rooflight system the interior will capture light no matter where the sun is and help to deliver three invisible benefits: Healthier environment Improved productivity Reduced energy costs The introduction of natural daylight into a building clearly has enormous benefits. Exposure to sunlight makes us feel happier, while the impact of Vitamin D reduces the risk of, and improves resistance to, disease and keeps the immune system functioning properly. As a result, it makes us feel better and leads to more positive and proactive behaviour. Rooflights that bring the right level and quality of light into a building will improve mood and performance. Natural light can lead to improved eye and brain function and a subsequent increase in an individuals’ success. Daylight is an essential natural asset and improves concentration so working and learning environments will generally see an increase in productivity. Daylight is scientifically proven to improve performance in schools, reduce absenteeism in the workplace and enhance recovery rates improve in hospitals. Research into retail environments has also shown that sales tend to be better in naturally lit locations where products seem more attractive to the customer. Also, natural light encourages customers to spend more time in these areas. So it’s no surprise that more and more major retailers – such as the big UK supermarkets – are turning to rooflights to keep people shopping for longer. In fact, a number of these leading retail organisations now include large areas of rooflights at all new build projects to ensure a high percentage of evenly distributed natural light within the interior. Today, the increased use of rooflights is one of the major tools that architects and designers use to reduce energy use, CO2 emissions and overall running costs. Brining natural light into the building can dramatically reduce the use of electric lights – which is often the biggest single use of energy and cause of CO2 emissions. Over the years independent research has proved conclusively that the installation of rooflights can save energy, and the greater the rooflight area the greater the savings. The amount of energy needed to light a building artificially is often much greater than the amount of energy used to heat it, and is often the greatest single energy use in operating the building. A recent report commissioned by the National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers (NARM) shows that increasing or improving rooflight areas in non-domestic buildings can make a huge impact. Its results show that savings can be achieved of up to £5.92/m2/yr in running costs and savings of up to 28.7 kg CO2/m2/yr in CO2 emissions. The rising cost of energy bills, legislative changes and environmental regulations all played their part an increase in rooflight specification. But it is often the benefits that you can’t see which have the biggest impact. The infusion of free, abundantly available natural daylight will not only meet Building Regulations or reduce energy bills, it can also help occupants to feel and work smarter. Visit: http://www.lonsdalemetal.co.uk/Jul 22, 2017 0 -
By Talk. Build Brett Martin Daylight Systems has produced a new RIBA-approved CPD seminar for architects and construction professionals, Specifying Rooflights to Meet the Demands of the Next Generation, which looks at the rationale behind designing with rooflights to achieve sustainable, low carbon buildings. The hour-long CPD seminar is designed to improve the level of understanding of the benefits of daylight and why rooflights are a fundamental design consideration for energy efficient buildings. The presentation takes an in-depth look at some of the technical issues that need to be taken into consideration such as rooflight thermal performance, solar overheating and ventilation, and how rooflights must be installed in-line with manufacturers’ instructions to ensure buildings perform as designed. The seminar also covers industry guidelines and requirements to meet stringent fire classification and safety standards, and concludes with guidance and practical advice on specifying rooflights using case study examples. Delivered by Brett Martin’s Area Business Managers, who are frequent collaborators with architects, specifiers, designers and local authorities, the seminar can be delivered to architectural practices nationwide. Brett Martin can either host the seminar in the architectural practice own premises or in any one of the company’s offices situated throughout the UK or Ireland. The seminar sits within the RIBA Core Curriculum - Designing and Building it, along with Climate and Compliance. Other seminars offered by Brett Martin Daylight Systems include the RIBA-approved CPD: Polycarbonate - The Natural Choice for Design Flexibility and Freedom. To arrange a Brett Martin Daylight Systems CPD seminar, complete the online form at www.bit.ly/cpd-rooflights Call +44 (0)24 7660 2022 or email: daylight@brettmartin.comJul 16, 2017 0
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By Talk. Build In an ever-changing world of design and our eager desire for the latest products, we often find ourselves reaching for the latest trends and fashions. Believe it or not, this is also very much the case in the world of rooflights. The want for new, sleek, modern-looking products is forever something that rooflight manufacturers seek to provide and serve. This is particularly the case when it comes to the choice of glazing with many different options, colours and versatilities available from polycarbonate to GRP to glass. It is commonplace on existing and new builds to find daylight beaming into a building, the benefits of which have been reported widely for many years, particularly in the world of health and education. While the health, productivity and wellbeing benefits remain, the trends change. Glass has become very prominent within today’s wants and designs, and has become a trendsetter across the rooflight industry. Many options exist from Flat Glass Rooflights, Curved Glass, Mono Pitches, Dual Pitches and Atria. Designability When glass is combined with a quality rooflight system it can look exceptional, work well, be energy efficient as well as offering a whole host of additional features and benefits. From stunning, jaw-dropping architectural masterpieces snaking their way across a roof to huge atria systems which catch your eye the moment you are beneath them; to the more commonplace flat glass and modular systems available, glass rooflights play a major part in contemporary architecture. Designed to meet a myriad of project requirements, glass rooflights offer versatility so it’s imperative that specifiers look at the options available to assess the most appropriate product for a project. When looking around for your best solution it is vital to look at all factors or noted ‘benefits’ of the product including thermally broken frames, U-values, acoustic performance and even self-cleaning glass. It’s also vital to consider the safety issue. Many of us spend time, often without actually realising it, standing beneath or working on a roof within the vicinity of glass. Glass rooflights may look the same to the untrained eye but there can be stark differences between the costs of these units. There is usually a good reason for this and more often than not, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find significant differences in the glazing specification, which makes big differences to both thermal performance and safety. The most economic solution is often not the best, or as efficient as you first thought. Safety first When assessing the options available and whilst trying to find the best product at the best price, it’s important to take time to understand the following: glass rooflights should always be specified to consider the safety of both building users beneath the rooflights, and anyone above who may inadvertently step and fall onto the rooflight. Industry regulatory guidance (for example see NARM Glass specification guide, at http://www.narm.org.uk/products/glass/specific-guide states that all glass rooflights should have a laminated inner pane to minimise risk of any glass falling into the room if the inner pane should break, even though BS5516 does set out certain circumstances/locations when a toughened inner pane can be used, subject to satisfactory risk assessment. In addition to using a laminated inner pane to protect building users, rooflights can be specified and designed to be non-fragile to CWCT Technical Note 92, and ACR[M]001. This is intended to ensure the safety of anyone on the roof in the vicinity of the rooflight and to ensure that anyone accidentally walking or falling onto the rooflight will not fall through, even if the glass is broken or the rooflight is damaged. The preferred specification should always be for rooflights which are both non-fragile and which have a laminated inner pane, protecting both anyone beneath the rooflight and anyone on the roof in the vicinity of the rooflight. Across the industry, there is now an infinite variety of rooflight shapes, sizes and glazing options to suit flat, pitched and curved roof applications, whether it is a small dome-light in a domestic kitchen or polycarbonate and GRP sheeting used in stadium canopy applications. To summarise, choose a rooflight manufacturer that provides a great looking product at a reasonable price and one that can back up and support their claims of performance and service. This might appear to be a time consuming exercise, but this is far outweighed by the safe and long-lasting benefits of a great product. Through the synergy between rooflight manufacturers and specifiers working together, it is possible to design, produce and achieve some of the most beautiful ‘daylight enhancements’ ever dreamt of on a building. Visit: http://www.brettmartin.com/May 10, 2018 0