Info-to-Build-On Lighting Naturally by Patsy Hennin Co-Founder Shelter Institute August 6, 2003 Passing light from room to room inside the house reduces heating, cooling and artificial lighting costs - and creates a more pleasant, natural living environment.

This past spring the utility company began working down our wooded country road trimming branches and trees that were reaching for the power lines. At first I was miffed because of the change in the wondrous tree-lined canopy that hovers over our meandering road. But in morning runs, I began to notice an unexpected benefit in the newly cut openings. The spills and splashes of light that now filter through the leafy canopy highlight new treasures every day. Beyond the edge of the road thicket, invited sunlight bursts merrily in at different angles with varying highlighting, dancing, piercing, sometimes hazy effects.

The idea of a room that has lighting coming in from a variety of sources is also a delight. During the day it feels silly and wasteful to have to turn lights on in every room in order to be able to see. Skylights provide welcome natural lighting. They add a surprise. We are not solely dependent on them for lighting because there are usually other windows in the room, and there is always the light switch that turns on our electric fixtures. But the experience of a splash or bath of light from above, that can reflect and change with the atmosphere outside, reconnects our inside life to the real world.

I was recently at a house designed and built by one of our Shelter Institute Graduates and was pleased with their choice of highlighting surprises. They purchased sashes from a local supplier of old-house-wares. They cleaned up and repaired and repainted the single pane windows with true divided lights and placed them in fitting places in interior walls around the house. These panes are not for viewing through from either direction, rather for adding light from an unusual source. The rooms have an added dimension that piques your interest and allows natural light to flow through the house from room to room.

My favorite window inside the house brings light from the living room into the first floor master bedroom suite. This transom is placed high so there is full privacy in the bedroom as the sun passes from the east living room in the early morning into the west bedroom later in the day. Mornings, the bedroom reaps the benefit of the special indirect early morning rays. As the sun proceeds westerly, the living room enjoys filtered, cooled westerly rays that pass through the bedroom first. The living room is sheltered but not dark. By bed time, the sun is down and the bedroom enjoys a hint of dusk.

Other places that can benefit during the day and on moonlit nights are stairways, closets & pantries; halls and daylight basements can also enjoy natural lighting from interior windows. A seven foot wide walk-in closet with two rows of clothes and a walkway between benefits greatly from a window. Be wary of fading that can occur and remember that low-e glass (now standard in most windows) helps to protect fabrics from UV - but some still gets through. Even the diffuse north light has powerful fading characteristics. An interior window can further reduce the transmission of UV rays to interior space. It's easy to bring sunlight to interior spaces by creating openings whether in the canopy of trees or through windows on the roof, walls or interior walls. Note where the sunlight enters your house, on your plans or in an existing structure, at different times of year and trace the path of light through solid walls that would be glass windows. Diffuse lighting can be even more pleasant than direct sunlight.

Since windows readily conduct heat energy, passing light from room to room inside the house reduces heating and cooling costs as well as the need for artificial light. In my morning run down the road now I can see the new vegetation that has grown this month due to the openings in the canopy. We know how important sunlight is in any house and that we can have that same surprise feeling in the house as we welcome sun into new places.