turtle codes VLT testing

turtle codes VLT testing

Artificial lighting leads young sea turtles away from water, resulting in their demise. Therefore, many jurisdictions in Florida have adopted a Turtle Nesting Protection Ordinance. The intention of this ordinance is to protect sea turtles and other nocturnal animals along the coastline during the nesting season by reducing light pollution. One of the associated requirements is use of a dark vision glass.

How do you know whether your vision glazing is dark enough? You need to test it.

Building Enclosure Consulting, LLC is an independent diagnostic shop, which specializes in  architectural glazing of building facades. We conduct bench and field testing, as well as computer simulations.

We provide field-testing services of beachfront glazing in order to determine the Visual Light Transmittance (VLT 45) as required by Sea Turtle Protection Ordinances. The code requires all glazing facing beaches to be dark enough to avoid wildlife confusion. In practice, the typical old glazing would not meet the requirement, and require darkening. This can be accomplished by many different methods, including installation of permanent insect screens, meshes, nets, storm windows, or replacing the glass. Laminate films are generally not recommended due to deleterious effect they may have on the existing glazing, and their use would typically void the original glass warranty.