Site visit 1, Tuesday January 21, 2003:
Notes:
- Tour of building
- Our team noticed markedly different lighting levels from classroom to classroom as well as throughout each classroom
- Some teachers expressed discontent with lighting levels
- Preliminary illumination level measurements taken in classrooms
- Developed hypothesis
On Tuesday, January 21 we made our first visit to Ash Creek Intermediate School with the goal of making an initial survey of lighting conditions and identifying topics for further investigation. We toured the building and developed a preliminary understanding of the systems in the building, in particular, the lighting controls and daylighting strategies.
Our initial tour revealed the complexity of the interaction between the various lighting systems and the extent to which they were integrated with other building systems.
We made a preliminary survey of illuminance levels throughout the school using Sylvania illuminance meters, focusing particularly on the classrooms.
We also considered our subjective impressions, noting, for example, the apparent unevenness of illumination in the classrooms and problems with the integration of electric light and daylighting. Because the lighting in the hallways seemed satisfactory and even very successful, we shifted our attention toward the classrooms, which comprise the bulk of the program and seemed to have the most issues.
At this point we finalized our hypothesis and developed our methodology in preparation for the next site visit.
