Editing Daylighting (architecture) (section)

====Light reflectors and shelves====
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{{see also|Architectural light shelf}}
Once used extensively in office buildings, the manually adjustable light reflector is seldom in use today having been supplanted by a combination of other methods in concert with artificial illumination. The reflector had found favor where the choices of artificial light provided poor illumination compared to modern electric lighting.

Light shelves are an effective way to enhance the lighting from windows on the equator-facing side of a structure, this effect being obtained by placing a white or reflective metal light shelf outside the window.<ref name="The SLL Lighting Handbook"/> Usually the window will be protected from direct summer season sun by a projecting eave. The light shelf projects beyond the shadow created by the eave and reflects sunlight upward to illuminate the ceiling. This reflected light can contain little heat content and the reflective illumination from the ceiling will typically reduce deep shadows, reducing the need for general illumination.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Littlefair |first=P.J. |title=Light shelves: Computer assessment of daylighting |journal=Lighting Research and Technology |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=79–91 |year=1995 |s2cid=111215708 |doi=10.1177/14771535950270020201}}</ref>

In the cold winter, a natural light shelf is created when there is [[snow]] on the ground which makes it reflective. Low winter sun (see [[Sun path]]) reflects off the snow and increases solar gain through equator-facing glass by one- to two-thirds which brightly lights the ceiling of these rooms. Glare control (drapes) may be required.