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Jennifer A. VeitchQuantifying Lighting Quality Based on Experimental Investigations of End User Performance and Preference Guy R. Newsham National Research Council Canada Bldg M-24, 1500 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, Canada Abstract Codes and standards mandating the use of energy-efficient lighting are being adopted world-wide; however, critics fear that as the power used for lighting drops, the quality of the lit environment will decline. One problem facing lighting designers and engineers is that there is no commonly accepted metric of lighting quality that predicts the effects of the luminous environment on the occupants. It is commonly assumed that poor lighting quality has a negative impact on the abilities of people to perform their work; however, few studies have attempted to quantify lighting quality as a whole, and none of these has attempted to relate quantified quality to task performance. This paper offers a definition of lighting quality in terms of the success or failure of a lighting design to meet the needs of end users, and outlines an experimental approach to the quantification and prediction of lighting quality based on behavioural research data.
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