LIGHTING

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SPECIFYING COST EFFECTIVE LIGHTING

With the cost of energy having reached its highest ever levels, there is no doubt these surging price hikes are having a major impact on budgets. While this is frustrating, there are considerations that can be made at the lighting design stage to keep these costs to a minimum.

To deliver true energy savings, there are several aspects of a lighting installation that need to be considered.

LUX LEVELS

Every project has a minimum lux level that it truly needs to offer comfortable lighting. If lux levels are too high or too bright, not only can this be unpleasant for those exposed to that lighting, but it also uses more energy than is necessary.

“CIBSE recommendations for offices are 300 lux for screen-based work and 500 lux for paper-based work. Yet data shows most offices are 20 - 40% over-illuminated, creating discomfort and using energy unnecessarily”

LUMEN OUTPUT

Lumen output is effectively how much light is emitted into a space by the luminaire.

To work through an example, let’s look at a 12m x 12m office space where LED panels are being used. There are multiple options when looking at the lumen outputs that could be selected to illuminate the space.

“Using a higher lumen level, such as 3500 lumens but fewer panels, this makes not only the cost of the panels lower, it also delivers a better return on investment, when taking into consideration the cost of energy consumption”

By working through this for each installation, it can be clear to see which lumen output and quantity of luminaires will deliver the best results.

LIGHTING DISTRIBUTION

The next aspect is selecting the correct light distribution. In certain applications where luminaires have multiple light distributions, the overall lighting result, energy consumptions, and ultimately the ROI is hugely affected. There are examples where two luminaires, both offering 1,000 lumens, can deliver vastly different light levels into a space.

By choosing a wider beam angle, less luminaires could potentially be used, which then in turn uses less energy – delivering cost savings.

PRODUCT PERFORMANCE

It’s widely recognised that the performance of a light fitting is a direct correlation to the makeup of its components. The focus here is the amount of light that a luminaire puts out, and how this can be maximised. The performance of raw LED chips is continuously growing, with the average raw LED lumens now sitting around 160 Lm/W. Once this is surrounded by metal casing and covered with a diffuser, the amount of light can be significantly reduced in lower cost products.

“The amount of light that can be achieved through a better-quality product will mean less luminaires can actually be used, once again showing where cost savings can be achieved”

LIGHTING CONTROLS

An important consideration for commercial buildings is the use of lighting controls. Now mandated under Part L of the building regulations, these are no longer a nice to have. However, they can save an additional 30 - 40% of energy, on top of the savings outlined earlier.

Due to luminaires being off or dimmed for longer, lighting controls enable the life of luminaires to be extended - offering further cost savings. Luceco Lighting offer a range of commercial lighting controls that can be specified as part of a lighting project.

FREE LIGHTING DESIGN SERVICE

Luceco Lighting offers a free lighting design service to provide contractors and end users with free lighting design solutions for any lighting projects, compliant with the latest British Standards and CIBSE lighting guidelines. As part of this service, return on investment estimates can be provided to indicate potential return and energy savings.

PIR Sensor

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INNOVATIVE LIGHTING

The following range of innovative downlights and robust floodlights have been designed to make installation as easy as possible.

FTYPE COMPACT LED DOWNLIGHTS

The Luceco FType Compact downlight range is designed to make installation easy. Speedfit™ loop-in loop-out push fit terminals help to speed up the wiring process, by eliminating cable cross-over. And the Clip&fit™ cable clamp housing tightly secures both solid and stranded cables.

As the name suggests, the range is designed around a compact 43mm height and uses the latest Samsung chips, with up to 100Lm/W output on selected variants. Smart, Colour Changing and Dim2Warm variants are available alongside the standard fixed, adjustable and regressed versions. The range is NHBC Certified for I-JOIST applications and new 4W versions that are Part L exempt.

See the FType Compact range at: www.ftype-compact.com

CASTRA ADJUSTABLE SECURITY FLOODLIGHTS

The Castra range of residential LED floodlights have been designed with innovative features to aid installation. Floodlight positioning can be adjusted with the use of a unique, rotatable ball joint bracket, which enables not only up and down adjustment, but side to side also. This allows contractors to accurately position the floodlights at exactly the right position for each installation.

Castra LED floodlights offer a high Lm/W output and include an adjustable PIR with settings and override functionality, allowing dusk till dawn use only. Both the floodlight and PIR are IP65 rated and are supplied pre-wired with 1 metre of cable, to save installation time.

See the Castra range at: www.castra-floodlights.uk