I'm currently working on an arena and aquatics complex, and I'm having trouble dictating if a lot of these spaces are included in the calculations as "regularly occupied spaces". The issue with having windows and daylight in an arena is that it creates glare on the ice, as well as heat gain in the space, potentially melting the ice forcing the cooling systems to work harder to accommodate. Does anyone have experience with rinks for the IEQc8.1 - Daylight and Views—Daylight credit??
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TODD REED
Energy Program SpecialistPA DMVA
LEEDuser Expert
890 thumbs up
July 19, 2018 - 8:31 am
If the arena is solely used for ice skating you might be able to make an argument. If its not, then its just like a gym and must be included. If its solely used for ice skating you will have a hard time arguing glare and heat gain issues because thats what you should be looking at for every space. There are outdoors ice skating rings and you need to provide glare control devices to handle high glare conditions. With heat gain, diffuse glazing, glazing with good SHGC and fixed shading device are methods to handle any heat gain in the space. It would take a very detailed analysis and proof to show that daylighting for your arena just will not work.
Eddy Santosa
Director of SustainabilityDBR Engineering Consultants
376 thumbs up
July 19, 2018 - 10:18 am
I can't agree more with Todd. I did few daylight analyses for ice rink with skylight although I never did for LEED application. There are many ways to control heat gain and glare.
Jill Dalglish, PE
Lighting EngineerMKK Consulting Engineers
LEEDuser Expert
440 thumbs up
August 1, 2018 - 10:09 am
I disagree with the outdoor ice rink analogy. Having windows in a room is not the same as being open to the sky. 1. Eyes adjust to ambient light level. The reason you don't need to wear sunglasses inside is the light coming through windows is a much smaller portion of your view and it also filters the light with Tvis values and/or by being translucent. 2. Heat is trapped in a building where it is no on an exterior ice rink.
That all being said, you CAN daylight an ice rink quite nicely without glare and heat issues by minimizing your wall-to-window ratio and using translucent glazing (ideally with high clerestory windows). It takes a surprisingly small amount of glazing to provide usable light this way.