Lighting Journal May 2021 by The ILP

Professional best practice from the Institution of Lighting Professionals

May 2021

TRANSITION VAMPED Why lighting designers need to learn to love transition spaces SPACE TO BREATHE, PLAY, AND RESET Coventry’s continuing UK City of Culture transformation FAITH AND FUNCTION Lighting for worship, lighting for the community

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MAY 2021

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Contents CORROSION 06 ATKEEPING 32SEEN AND HEARD BAY

New products, corrosion-protection techniques and specifications have meant an update to corrosion protection guidance for lighting columns was long overdue. A new PLG from the ILP is therefore now offering updated comprehensive advice, as Peter Harrison explains

SPACE TO BREATHE, PLAY, AND RESET

With Coventry set to become the UK’s City of Culture from this month, Andy Hart and Jo Shore examine how lighting is transforming its public spaces, in this case the city’s Bull Yard shopping precinct

DON’T SETTLE FOR 14 THE EASY OPTION

With their sophisticated electronics and circuitry, when LEDs do fail the knee-jerk reaction can often be just to swap out wholesale and replace, even if the luminaire itself is not at the end of its life. A recent ILP webinar looked at whether there are better options

TRANSITION 20 VAMPED

Transition spaces – corridors, lifts, lobbies and so on – are often ignored, unloved or simply overlit when it comes to lighting design. But if you want to bring real cohesion to your scheme, it can pay to pour a bit of design TLC into these oftoverlooked spaces, argues Neil Knowles, and it may be an opportunity to get your creative juices flowing

The ILP’s new ‘Light, Seen’ events are a way for Premier members and ILP members to network and learn from each other digitally just as you might have done pre pandemic on an exhibition stand. With successful events already completed, could your organisation be next?

36 CONNECTED DEVELOPMENT

After more than a year of on and off lockdowns and disruption, the ILP has had to get creative and innovative in how we support your CPD needs and keep you connected. And much of this is set to continue even beyond the pandemic, as Jess Gallacher outlines

As take-up of electric vehicles continues to accelerate, Phil Shadbolt argues that lighting engineers may need to play a key leadership role in discussions around how to manage, and balance, the growing demands this will place on our electrical infrastructure

IN YOUR 42 HISTORY HANDS

In the first of a two-part series about smart streetlights and CMS, David Orchard looks back over the past decade of CMS in the UK and what can be learnt from this about changing attitudes and adoption strategies by local authorities

Lighting manufacturer Holophane is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, during which time it has lit everything from coronations at Westminster Abbey through to enemy bombers during the Blitz and, with colour-changing lighting, music hall organs during the ‘Roaring Twenties’

46 LOW BURNER

LOCALLY RESPONSIVE

THE 38 SPREADING LOAD

AND 24 FAITH FUNCTION

Lighting churches brings with it all the usual constraints and permissions that come with heritage lighting schemes. But, with more and more churches now acting as community as well as faith hubs, it is important any scheme balances the needs of worshippers with those using or renting the space, writes David Burch

It was one of the anomalies of the pre-war period that the adoption of low-pressure sodium (LPS), despite being prototyped in 1932, only took off slowly. However, technological advances meant that, by the start of World War Two, LPS was on an even footing with its mercury counterparts. Simon Cornwell looks back in the archives

xLIGHTING, COVID AND CYCLING

New ILP Vice President – Local Authority Michala Medcalf outlines her vision, including the importance of the ILP stepping up its engagement with councils. She also talks about her passion for cycling and how it saved her life when she fell seriously ill with Covid-19

xPLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT

The ILP in March announced a new benefit for members, the ability to use your membership to apply for a ‘Construction Skills Certification Scheme’ (CSCS) card to help you when on site

p COVER PICTURE

An office transition space in Moorgate, London, with a lighting design by Elektra Lighting Design. Neil Knowles explains from page 20 how to make the most of, and have fun with, transition spaces

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Editor’s letter Volume 86 No 5 May 2021 President Anthony Smith IEng FILP Chief Executive Tracey White Editor Nic Paton BA (Hons) MA Email: nic@cormorantmedia.co.uk

Lighting Journal’s content is chosen and evaluated by volunteers on our reader panel, peer review group and a small representative group which holds focus meetings responsible for the strategic direction of the publication. If you would like to volunteer to be involved, please contact the editor. We also welcome reader letters to the editor. Design Tolu Akinyemi B.Tech MSc Email: tolu@matrixprint.com

Advertising Manager Andy Etherton Email: andy@matrixprint.com Published by Matrix Print Consultants Ltd on behalf of Institution of Lighting Professionals Regent House, Regent Place, Rugby CV21 2PN Telephone: 01788 576492 E-mail: info@theilp.org.uk Website: www.theilp.org.uk Produced by Matrix Print Consultants Ltd Unit C,Northfield Point, Cunliffe Drive, Kettering, Northants NN16 9QJ Tel: 01536 527297 Email: gary@matrixprint.com Website: www.matrixprint.com © ILP 2021

The views or statements expressed in these pages do not necessarily accord with those of The Institution of Lighting Professionals or the Lighting Journal’s editor. Photocopying of Lighting Journal items for private use is permitted, but not for commercial purposes or economic gain. Reprints of material published in these pages is available for a fee, on application to the editor.

ipeaking to Michala Medcalf, the ILP’s new Vice President – Local Authority, was eye-opening and refreshing. Eye-opening because her account of catching Covid-19 (twice, in fact, but the first time the most seriously) really brought home just how nasty a disease it can be, and how it has touched so many people and families over the past year. Refreshing because of her passion for street lighting, its role in shaping and place-making (especially potentially post pandemic), the pivotal role local authorities can play in this, and the important job the ILP has in representing and engaging with the industry. Do check out our conversation with her from page 50. Another element of our chat that resonated for me was how the ILP, through then Membership Services Manager Chantal O’Sullivan, came to her rescue when she found herself all at sea in her first senior lighting role within Derby City Council. From my own experience of seeing the amazing work the ILP team does day in and day out in terms of supporting members, I can vouch for the fact this ethos remains very much at the heart of what the ILP does. Yes, the ILP is about professional guidance, standards, best practice and CPD, but it is also about creating a community, a family, of lighting, one where everyone looks out for everyone else, both professionally and personally. This comes through, too, in Jess Gallacher’s update on ILP member engagement and communication, from page 36. It is clear that, while we are all hoping one day to be able to get back together at face-to-face events, this may yet still be some way off. Even when it does return, the forced experiment of digital working over the past year means things will have changed, and in some ways for the better. The fact that regular ILP events such as ‘Hi Lights’ and ‘How to be brilliant’ will continue to be available digitally post pandemic, come what may, and that the ILP now has a burgeoning archive of digital resources to build upon is, I feel, positive for the future. Even when physical events can restart, I won’t be at all surprised if many do still take place digitally, simply because of the convenience and time-saving factor. I think there will be a mix, for sure, as there really is no substitute for the richness of face-to-face interaction at the end of the day, but my suspicion is digital interaction is going to be an increasingly important additional string to the ILP’s bow as time goes on. Finally, I’d like to point you in the direction of two other articles this edition. First, I very much enjoyed listening in to ILP Vice President – Infrastructure Rebecca Hatch’s advice on luminaire and LED repairs (from page 14). Her discussions around the circular economy, whole-life costs, recycling and sustainability are also, I feel, well worth taking on board. I was also taken this edition with Neil Knowles’ reflections on illuminating transition spaces (from page 20). I’m sure I’m not the only one who tends barely to notice these often-overlooked spaces – lifts, lobbies, corridors and so on. Yet, clearly, more fool me. From a lighting design perspective too, the fact they are, as Neil terms it, ‘the silent glue’ connecting a space means that, first, they are in fact critical areas to get right and, second, they will often be a space where you can bring a bit of creative flair to bear. Whenever I do finally get back to spending some time in a hotel, event space or large building, I’ll definitely take more note. Clarification: Allan Howard in last month’s article ‘“CE” the difference’ (vol 86, no 4, page 28) highlighted how difficult it is to tell between the genuine EU CE mark and the Chinese ‘China Export’ mark. We inadvertently emphasised his point, as the right-hand figure 1 logo showed a genuine ‘CE’ mark rather than the very similar-looking Chinese one. The image we then used of a CE mark on blue product, which we captioned as having the genuine EU version, was actually showing the Chinese mark. Our apologies for any confusion. It shows you need to be super vigilant!

Nic Paton Editor

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ILP members receive Lighting Journal every month as part of their membership. You can join the ILP online, through www.theilp.org.uk. Alternatively, to subscribe or order copies please email Diane Sterne at diane@theilp.org.uk. The ILP also provides a Lighting Journal subscription service to many libraries, universities, research establishments, non-governmental organisations, and local and national governments.

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KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY www.theilp.org.uk

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KEEPING CORROSION AT BAY New products, corrosion-protection techniques and specifications have meant an update to corrosion protection guidance for lighting columns was long overdue. A new PLG from the ILP, PLG26, is therefore now replacing previous guidance and offering updated comprehensive advice on all aspects of corrosion protection

By Peter Harrison

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Street lighting

ver the years lighting columns have been manufactured in many materials, shapes, sizes and protective finishes. The only common theme for all of them is that they are not fit and forget, far from it. Apart from structural inspection and testing, they have had a variety of protective finishes, so there has been a fair degree of variety in terms of the advice for maintaining those coatings. In the 1960s, steel lighting columns would probably have been primed in a variety of single-pack materials then finished off by painting on site with single-pack paint, often alkyd-type finishes. Additional root protection would have come from the application of a Bitumen solution. However, steel lighting columns were mainly manufactured from the structural sections available, and this would generally result in the column having a high residual strength even after some corrosion occurred.

ADVANCES OVER THE DECADES

The early 1970s saw the introduction by some manufacturers of a metal spray system applied to the external surfaces of steel lighting columns. This required the surface to be cleaned by mechanical abrasion, which was, at the time a major step forward in surface preparation. While it would be fair to say the molten aluminium or zinc used in the metal spray process would have improved root protection externally, it did not address the internal corrosion of lighting columns. At this time, it was still common practice to apply a bitumen solution to the internal and external surfaces of the root of the column as additional protection. However, while the bitumen solution was applied internally when required, the way in which this was applied could not give a consistent or guaranteed coverage. Modern lance spray equipment has now improved this when a coating is required internally on top of the galvanising. In the early 1980s, with the introduction of BS 5649, cold-formed metal sections were

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Street lighting being offered with a wider range of thicknesses. This resulted, generally, in thinner column sections with lower tolerance for corrosion compared with earlier examples. This was enabled through the use of hotdipped galvanising providing corrosion protection to both the external and internal faces of the lighting column. However, additional root protection did not appear to be high on the agenda in the discussions taking place on the protection of galvanised lighting columns. By the early 1990s, the Highway Agency Series 1900, Protection of Steelwork Against Corrosion, was being readily used and made some significant changes to the way galvanised lighting columns were to be protected. In particular, the introduction of epoxy primers and pitch epoxy or coal tar-free epoxy as the additional root treatment was designed to offer improved performance and durability, extending the life of galvanised and metal-sprayed lighting columns. The development of polyurethane coatings at much the same time also gave a significant improvement in corrosion protection and expected life. However, the isocyanate content has since meant these coatings are no longer used in the factory although they are still available for on-site coating.

TR26 GUIDANCE

In 2003, Technical Report 26: Painting of lighting columns, was produced by the then Institution of Lighting Engineers (the precursor, of course, to today’s ILP). It offered advice to street lighting managers on the options available for the protection of steel lighting columns. The document begins by describing the relative benefits and problems of two primary corrosion systems or substrates; hotdip galvanising or thermally metal-sprayed coating. At the time, metal-sprayed lighting columns had been a popular form of protective coating, but their use stopped due, mainly, to shortcomings in the treatment that only applied material to the outside surfaces of a lighting column. TR26 also examined paint problems, past and present. This section discussed issues of paint failure, suggesting it is mainly due to poor preparation or incompatible products and the effects of environmental problems caused by dogs, birds and weedkilling solutions. Preparation of substrate was, and still is, the key to adhesion of corrosion protection systems to the column. By way of assisting lighting asset managers responsible for writing contract documents, TR26 had a series of appendices for protective coatings, for application at the factory and on site. www.theilp.org.uk

The range of finishes and options was sufficient to suit most, offering advice on surface preparation, application conditions and application systems that would offer minor maintenance periods of eight to ten years and major maintenance interventions of up to 25 years. After the publication of TR26, there was concern regarding the adequacy of root protection for steel columns. Reports of corrosion causing early failure of galvanised steel columns were an industry concern. Through the Lighting Column Technical Forum, the ILP and the Highway Electrical Association, supplementary advice was published in 2015: Hot Dipped Galvanised Steel Lighting Column Root Protection Systems ‘Protecting the vulnerable root’. The scope of this document was ‘to provide up-to-date guidance on the root protection of galvanised steel lighting columns in the light of developments in available paint systems’. The document also mentions root protection for other column materials, such as aluminium. This update was intended to offer advice to asset managers and specifiers regarding a range of new more durable protective systems. These were, in part, alternatives to coal tar-based products that had been withdrawn from use by Highways England. Another aspect discussed in the update was information in the form of a report by Galvanizers Association following the publication of updated BS EN ISO 14713 Zinc coatings. Guidelines and recommendations for the protection against corrosion of iron and steel in structures. This included looking at improving environments with reduced ‘acid rain’. Acid rain of course results when sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents. The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water, typically rain, and other materials before falling to the ground. This mildly acidic liquid accelerates steel corrosion, a problem across industrialised countries predominantly. The Galvanizers Association report demonstrated significant reductions in the corrosion rates compared with BS 5493 1977 Code of Practice for protection of iron and steel against corrosion. New products, corrosion-protection techniques and specifications such as those produced by Highways England meant an update to corrosion protection guidance was long overdue.

NEW CORROSION PROTECTION PLG

The ILP’s Vice President – Technical Haydn Yeo therefore approached the Lighting Column Technical Forum and, with its assistance, a new PLG has been developed: Professional Lighting Guide 26: Corrosion protection of minor structures. Lighting columns are a structural element, so the principles for corrosion protection equally apply to other equipment; hence ‘minor structures’ is used rather than lighting columns. The new PLG26 replaces both TR26 and the LCTF’s 2015 supplementary guidance Protecting the vulnerable root. It offers updated comprehensive advice on all aspects of corrosion protection. It begins by examining corrosion, both atmospheric and underground. It goes on the discuss hot dip galvanising and ISO 1461 Hot dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel articles. Specifications and test methods. The new PLG then goes on to examine the main coating systems, their preparation and application, and then testing and maintenance. Finally, like its predecessor, PLG26 contains a comprehensive step-by-step process and specification for both shop-applied and site-applied protective systems. I would therefore strongly recommend any ILP members who are working with coating systems to take some time to check out the new guidance and reflect on what it may mean for their day-to-day practice as lighting engineers and lighting professionals.

FIND OUT MORE

The new PLG26: Corrosion protection of minor structures will be available to download at h t t p s : // t h e i l p . o r g . u k / resources/#professional-lighting-guides For any questions or advice on lighting columns or corrosion protection systems for minor structures, please contact Lighting Column Technical Forum on lctf@theilp.org.uk

Peter Harrison is the ILP’s Technical Director

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

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T O BRE ATHE, PL AY, AND RESE T With Coventry set to become the UK’s City of Culture from this month, we return to the city to examine how lighting is transforming its public spaces, in this case the city’s Bull Yard shopping precinct

By Andy Hart and Jo Shore

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Public realm lighting

n the February edition of Lighting Journal, we outlined how lighting is at the heart of Coventry’s year this year as the UK’s City of Culture, with projects either complete or near completion in Greyfriars Green, Bull Yard, Pepper Lane, Upper Precinct and our three cathedral spires: Holy Trinity, Christchurch and St Michael’s (‘Lighting Coventry’, vol 86, no 2). We promised at that time that we would be revisiting our work as it unfolded and, in a series of articles throughout the year, focus on various aspects of what has been, and still is, a massively ambitious regeneration project. With the City of Culture 365-day cultural and events programme getting underway this month, for this article we shall be looking at how Bull Yard, a previously somewhat neglected shopping precinct, despite being the city’s ‘shop window’ for visitors arriving from the train station, has now been transformed. Within Bull Yard there is a now a new illuminated water feature and, working with Urbis Schréder, we’ve installed bespoke three-legged lighting columns which, in fact, are now being marketed as ‘the Coventry columns’. The project includes a new playground, seating and benching, and now offers a completely unique space within the city, one combining a mix of family-friendly spaces and night-time economy opportunities.

RETHINKING PLAY AND RELAXATION

The lighting in Bull Yard previously was standard functional lighting; just 10m columns with 150 watt Cosmopolis on them. It lit the area well enough but was all just very functional. Yet it is now also adjacent to the ‘The Wave’, a multi-million-pound eye-catching indoor water park. So, when we were thinking how best to bring the area up to date, we wanted to create a scheme that complemented and transitioned through seamlessly to The Wave. Our initial thinking was about going right back to basics. What did we do before we had the distractions of the internet and smartphones? How did children play? Well, of course, they made their own play, they made things happen through their imagination and their friends. So, when we were looking at the lighting columns we asked what is it about a column that can be different, what can we do with it that makes it different, makes how it is used with a space a bit special? After all, if we’re being honest, a lighting column can be pretty boring and functional; just a structure that does what it says on the tin. So we wanted to bring an element of fun back to the space, for children, but also for adults. That’s why the columns are three-legged; children can play in, around and on them totally safely. They are also wood-clad to make them more tactile within the surroundings. Columns normally tend either to be at

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Public realm lighting everything that you would find in a flame, even bits of green. There is also catenary lighting that is very simple but really effective. We have got three lines of 50mm catenary, with LED colour-change bulbs inside, so again hugely multifunctional. We can create an array of colour-changing effects across the walkway, which all works phenomenally well. Now, when you arrive at the train station and walk up through Greyfriars Green towards and then into Bull Yard, it is a genuine lighting experience; it is playful (quite literally, again), fun and welcoming as a space. Being UK City of Culture is all about putting Coventry on the national and international stage; and public realm lighting has allowed us to do that in Bull Yard, to holistically use the space, to placemake through light. Bull Yard is an exciting visual transformation but, of course, just one element of a wider, lighting-led vision for Coventry, one that we shall return to in the July/August edition. So watch this space! Andy Hart is consultant project manager and Jo Shore is head of public realm at Coventry City Council

COVENTRY AS UK CITY OF CULTURE

the back, middle or front of the footpath or in the verge, as needed. With the Coventry columns it was all about, ‘right, let’s make them big enough and wide enough so that people can walk through them if they want to’. People can walk around them (obviously) but it is also possible to walk through them; kids can swing on them. As structures, they are hard enough and durable enough so that kids can enjoy them. We’ve also mixed things up to create that seamless transition with The Wave. Because there wasn’t the space for tripod columns around the structure, there we have singular columns but in a very similar style. The lighting for the columns is LED (naturally) and is in fact now the city’s first LED street lighting. It is a warm white colour temperature, 3000K, and dimmable so that we can have part-night lighting or reduced lighting during periods of the night, so saving money and energy.

‘LIKE WAR OF THE WORLDS’

The feedback has been amazingly positive. People say they look like something out of War of the Worlds or the video for Another www.theilp.org.uk

Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd. For us, one ground-breaking element of the project has been that there are columns in the play area. In some respects, that could be considered quite controversial. Why would you do that? Because, for us, it is all part and parcel of play. We wanted to give kids something to enjoy and which they could get their hands on, quite literally, a structure they can grab hold of and swing round; there is no reason why they can’t do that. Beyond the tripod columns, there is bench lighting and illuminated bollards, in-ground lighting and ground-mounted lighting to illuminate the trees. Then there is, of course, also the fountain where the patterns, colours and flows change all the time. We wanted something that has lots of interest and colour and it does everything from fog rings through to colour-changing scenes. The LED lighting is RGBW, which means there are something like 52 million-plus scenes available. If we, for example, want the water to look like flames, we can do that because we can mix the colours. We can have reds going all the way through into oranges, yellows and bits of blue,

You can follow Coventry’s year as City of Culture through the Coventry City of Culture website, which is publishing regular updates on activities and events. For example, forthcoming events include the city-wide ‘Coventry Moves’ on 15 May, which will showcase the city, its stories and its people. Terry Hall, lead singer of iconic Coventry ska band The Specials, will curate ‘Home Sessions’ in July, a weekend of music and arts. In August, there will be a radical three-day arts activism festival curated by young people in the city with Positive Youth Foundation and the rapper JAY1. Then, on 27 October, ‘The Walk’ will arrive in Coventry, a 3.5m-tall puppet of a young refugee called Little Amal, documenting his 8,000km voyage from the Syria/Turkey border, across Europe and into the UK. For more information on all that is happening (and the above is but a snapshot) go to: https://coventry2021.co.uk/

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

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DON’T SETTLE FOR THE EASY OPTION

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Street lighting

control electronics. But what happens when any part of this sophisticated lighting solution does fail? What is the best action to take? Is it best to replace the entire luminaire wholesale, even if it’s not yet at the end of its life? Or are there other, better solutions you should be looking at first, in terms of cost, safety and environmental impact? These important questions were at the heart of an LDC Bristol webinar, ‘Luminaires, repairs and taking the easy way out’, held earlier this year, where the ILP’s Vice President-Infrastructure Rebecca Hatch reflected on these issues and answered specific questions put to her by LDC Bristol Chair Ian Clemetson and Vice Chair Claire Gough. For those able to spare the time, the full webinar is now available to view via the ILP website (details are at the end of this article) but what follows is an abridged overview of some of the themes and discussion points that were teased out during a thoughtful and thought-provoking debate, and which will hopefully feed into wider valuable conversations taking place across the industry.

UKRLG REPORT

By Nic Paton

s ILP members, you don’t need me to tell you LEDs are now prevalent within public lighting, thanks to their sophisticated circuitry, long life and reduced maintenance and

Rebecca opened the event by recapping on some of the findings from the UK Roads Liaison Group’s (UKRLG) State of the nation report into street lighting, as reported on within Lighting Journal in March, (‘Light after the dark?’ vol 86 no 3). In particular, she highlighted the finding that, while there has been much progress on rolling out LED, there is still a way to go in terms of conversion, and progress is variable. As such, there is potentially a real opportunity here for the industry. ‘It goes without saying that, if we accelerate that conversion, the quicker we can realise those savings. It is also great the UKRLG has considered the job opportunities. We often talk about the skills gaps within our industry. By continuing with this conversion, and continuing to invest

in the upgrade of our road lighting to LED, we could see in the region of 9,000 jobs being created,’ said Rebecca. ‘There are still a significant quantity of lamps out there that are either no longer in production or would be pretty difficult to get hold of, leaving the asset owners with no choice really but to replace with LED, either on a mass scale or ad hoc through reactive maintenance activities,’ she added. ‘We know that we have got an ageing lighting stock out there, 45% that are still not LED and need to be converted. LED lighting has brought with it drastically increased numbers of variants. The number of SKUs (stock keeping units) that we have available to us, the number of optics, the lumen outputs being more specific, the colour temperatures, drive currents and so on. Visiting an asset has always been expensive, regardless of whether it is LED or not – traffic management and lane closures, disruption and so on – and of course time spent working on any asset, at height, next to a live carriageway; we try to minimise that to improve our safety factor and make sure our operatives are not out on the road unnecessarily. ‘LEDs also bring with them sophisticated electronics; often more complex componentry. Often this makes it more difficult for the maintaining crews to repair and replace on site, potentially. We have the addition of other features on our luminaires now, CMS, smart-sensors and so on, which are additionally adding to this complexity,’ she pointed out. But this then created its own new challenges, especially around the question of whether to repair or replace when something does go wrong. As Rebecca highlighted: ‘What we are seeing, generally across the board, is that when we come to looking at what is being put into our WEEE recycling bins, we are seeing whole luminaires, complete fittings; there tends to be a very small amount of parts, components that are removable or replaceable, so drivers, LED modules, other components.’

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Street lighting CONSIDERATIONS WITHIN CONFLICT ZONES

Moving to the Q&A section of the event, Rebecca was first asked: when considering the use of maintenance luminaires, what considerations should be put in place for conflict areas/conflict zones? ‘When it comes to a conflict area, so junctions, intersections, roundabouts, where the visual task is more difficult, we call for higher luminance levels and improved uniformity in the standards to be able to make sure those conflict zones are lit optimally to assist the driver in navigating through those areas,’ Rebecca highlighted. ‘It would therefore not be sensible to use a generic maintenance lantern for those areas, and it would be recommended by most to carry out full designs in accordance with BS5489 to ensure that those lighting levels are being achieved,’ she added. Could there be a conflict issue with CMS or photocell and a maintenance luminaire? ‘If we’ve got a CMS already installed, then, yes, there are a few factors at play,’ Rebecca agreed. ‘The first thing would be that, within the various CMS on the markets, there is variance, obviously, between the node type. I don’t mean system to system, I mean in terms of the actual receptacle used to connect the CMS to the luminaire. ‘So it is about looking at the compatibility. If we have, say, an existing HID luminaire with a conduit-style node but for your new LED luminaire you’ve decided to go down a different socket-based specification, you are then not going to be able to transfer that existing node that is on the asset on to the new luminaire. You would have to take down the luminaire with the node and install new and then, obviously, make sure that you have got it updated on your asset inventory and on the CMS database,’ she added. As most CMS nodes have GPS, if you can’t maintain the existing node to keep that history of the asset, then once you install the new node, you are able to identify the asset location and update the asset information relatively easily, she pointed out. ‘The best approach is to work with your CMS provider and your luminaire manufacturer and make sure you are being open and sharing that data about how the assets are currently powered and being controlled and work out a rollout plan as you would for any other piece of equipment on to the network,’ Rebecca said. www.theilp.org.uk

Refuse RESPONSIBLE USE AND MANUFACTURING OF PRODUCTS*

PRESERVE AND EXTEND LIFE OF PRODUCTS

USE WASTE AS A RESOURCE

* Including food and non-tangible products (services or systems)

Redesign

Prevent the use of products and raw materials used in products Design products and materials in line with circularity and ecological boundaries

Rethink

Reconsider ownership and use of products (for instance sharing)

Rethink

Decrease the use of products and raw materials used in products

Rethink

Use of products by a second owner for the same purpose as designed

Repair

Maintaining and repairing existing products

Refurbish

Restoring and improving products to a satisfactory state

Remanufacture

Using parts of discarded products to make products with the same purpose

Repurpose

Use discarded products or parts to make new products with a different purpose

Recycle

Processing waste into materials that can be used for new products

Recover

Incineration of materials to recover energy

Figure 1. The ‘R’ Ladder

EXPECTATIONS OF THE CONTRACTOR/ ENGINEER

Ian and Claire now asked: given the complexity nowadays of LED, when the maintenance engineer is called out to a fault, when they get there, what will be expected of them? Yes, the engineer might be bringing a maintenance fitting with them, but should we be expecting them to undertake more tasks or assessments to ascertain the right course of action? ‘You’re right,’ said Rebecca. ‘Do we repair it? How long do we spend trouble-shooting or fault-finding? Do we just replace it because that is quicker and, arguably, lower cost and safer through reducing our time on site? ‘I think it comes back to consider what is the useable or useful life left in that fitting? What we’re trying to determine, and it may be a bit difficult for an operative to do this while they are on site, is that question of, “is it economically viable to repair this luminaire?”. We’re not just talking about the direct cost of buying a maintenance LED lantern, we’re talking about the total cost of the activity, of being on site visiting that asset.

‘We can’t really be expecting the operative to be making that call. That will probably be something that will need to be considered by the overseeing authority, written into their lighting policies and/or maintenance contract that has been set out with the contractor. ‘We also need to consider the age of the assets here. If we’re called out for a fault on, say, a low-pressure sodium asset, once we’ve ruled out that it’s not a power failure, that it is a fault with the luminaire, then really, even if we have got a stock of low-pressure sodium lamps, by the time we’ve factored in all the other costs for replacing that asset, is it justified because of the life left in that luminaire? After all, the contractor might go to the effort of going up to the luminaire, open the fitting and then the hinge or the clip or the seal has gone and it has been a wasted visit. ‘It is really a judgement about knowing what the state of your assets look like and deciding what is the best course of action depending on what is there, and giving our maintenance crews some guidance as to how we want them to handle that,’ Rebecca continued.

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Street lighting ‘Of course if, when they reach the asset, it is an LED luminaire then that is a completely different set of questions, and we would probably expect more from our operatives to understand what is causing that fault. Because we have gone to the time and expense of putting an LED luminaire up and we’d expect it to be lasting for 25 years. So that is where balancing that cost, safety and environmental factors really start to come into play,’ she added.

CONSIDERING WHOLE-LIFE COST

The next question was: does the maintainer need to understand the whole-life costs/benefits of the products? How do you make that decision of whether to go for a replacement or whether to try and recycle? How does the maintainer determine what essential maintenance is required? ‘Whole-life cost should, absolutely, be the evaluation criteria that we’re using for proceeding with product selection, proceeding with a scheme. But by the time the installation is with the maintainer that is maybe a little bit too late to be thinking about those aspects,’ said Rebecca. ‘But, sure, the maintainer does need to understand the maintenance scheduling, the expected life of each part of the system. It is likely the maintaining contractor is going to be the one highlighting early failures that need warranty claims to be raised. Equally, we don’t want the maintainer to be decommissioning products or parts unnecessarily early in the life of the product because, again, we are trying to reduce waste. But often it is not down to the maintainer to make that decision unless you’re in a service agreement/service partnership-type contract. ‘With LED lifetime being so much longer than traditional light sources, and we’re talking 100,000-hour plus as a minimum now, many authorities are now choosing to combine their maintenance activities into a six-year cycle, because that is in line with the electrical testing required and combining that with a structural assessment of the column, and doing a luminaire clean. So you are having to only carry out one maintenance visit to cover those three aspects. Once the lifetime and reliability of the other parts of the system are understood they can also be built into that, for example, in year 12 replacing a driver’, said Rebecca. The conversation then turned to the reasons you may have for visiting an asset and the value of, and increasing www.theilp.org.uk

importance being put upon, taking a circular economy approach. Rebecca highlighted the value of using the ‘R ladder’ in your considerations (figure 1 on the previous page) and not just moving straight recycling or disposal. This uses 11 ‘Rs’ to work through a series of questions encompassing ‘refuse’, ‘redesign’, ‘rethink’, ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’, ‘repair’, ‘refurbish’, ‘remanufacture’, ‘repurpose’ and ‘recycle’ and ‘recover’. For her, however, the middle rungs of the ladder were the most important part of the discussion. As she put it: ‘Reusing parts of the product. Repairing the existing luminaire; so, taking it down and then in a safe, controlled environment to upgrade, repair, refurbish existing parts of the system and get those luminaires back out on to the network. Refurbishing/upgrading the LED module, seeing that efficiency gain; perhaps upgrading the driver or the circuitry because we now want to take advantage of advancements in other IoT areas. Or remanufacturing, so taking those parts, and it might not be that we can refurbish them and use them back in a streetlight purpose but we can remanufacture for a use, for another purpose. ‘There are lots of stages that we are starting to move towards, and we are starting to see a more modular design approach coming through our products to be able to make use of some of these stages. Recycling needs to be encompassing of all of those middle rungs, right the way through to repurposing our product rather than our environmental objective being met because we’ve recycled our product through a WEEE waste scheme,’ she pointed out. This, in turn, fed into the need to be thinking in terms of whole-life costs of a product. ‘The total lifetime cost of a product needs to include not only the capital and installation cost and the energy but also those routine maintenance schedule costs, the reactive maintenance costs. They can be estimated and calculated but then what are we going to do with it, either during its life when we want to upgrade, or what are we going to do with when we get to that point of considering decommissioning?’ Rebecca emphasised.

WHAT CAN THE INDUSTRY DO?

The event concluded with a discussion of what, in practice, can the industry – engineers, specifiers and manufacturers – do here? ‘We can continue campaigning for that investment that we saw outlined in the State of the nation report,’ highlighted Rebecca. ‘If we can get our

LED upgrades through as quickly as possible, we can put that investment into our networks to realise those energy and carbon savings. ‘We can improve the sustainability of our lighting systems, right from the original decision to light through to use of raw material through to the end of life. Using smarter maintenance by visiting our assets less. And in doing so improving the quality of light along the way. ‘But everybody in the supply chain needs to play their part. It is not just something that the manufacturers can drive, and it is not just something that the designers can build into their schemes. It starts with the client and really the client needs to value the whole-life cost. ‘The designers’ role comes in with their due diligence, really understanding the products, the maintenance, the decommissioning aspects. And utilising all the resources that are available. Learning from other industries. Taking on board some of the suggestions in the various green public procurement documentation available,’ Rebecca pointed out. Within this, contractors needed to be factoring in post-installation aspects into their pricing and whether, for example, the training needs for contractors have changed. ‘If they are now faced with sophisticated electronics, do we need to think about what training we are offering to our operatives, our maintainers?’ Rebecca questioned. For manufacturers, there was an imperative to reduce raw material use, move to a modular design approach and think about end-of-life or take-back schemes. ‘What can we do as manufacturers when those products are either at the end of their life or we are looking for an upgrade? And support that with having clear and unambiguous returns and warranty policies,’ emphasised Rebecca. ‘By us all getting invested in moving towards a more circular economy we will see more sustainable lighting products and systems coming on to our networks; it is not just about the lumen per watt figure,’ she added.

FIND OUT MORE

The full LDC Bristol webinar is available to view and listen to at: h t t p s : // t h e i l p . o r g . u k / ilp-bristol-cpd-webinar-led-luminaire-repairs-taking-theeasy-way-out/

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TRANSITION VAMPED Transition spaces – corridors, lifts, lobbies and so on – are often ignored, unloved or simply overlit when it comes to lighting design. But if you want to bring real cohesion to your scheme, it can pay to pour a bit of design TLC into these oft-overlooked spaces – and it may be an opportunity to get your creative juices flowing

By Neil Knowles

ow do you judge or evaluate the interior design in a place? Take a hotel for example; do you stand at the entrance, take it all in with one brief glance and think ‘nice!’ to yourself? Do you instead look at the detailing, the colour choices of the lobby, the material selection of the reception top? Or do you do, as I do, withhold any judgment on the time, care and money that has been lavished on a space until you arrive at the secondary or tertiary spaces, the toilets, the lift lobby? You can tell a lot from a lift lobby. They’ve got your money already; it could be utilitarian and cheap. It often is. Or it could be an extension of the brand identity. In the 40 seconds before your lift arrives, you can look around you. I’m very keen on lighting design in

transition spaces. Often under-designed, often a victim of the dreaded ‘value engineering’, often a last-minute throw-in-acouple-of-downlights school of lighting design, transition spaces nevertheless offer an opportunity to make a clear and bold statement about a brand or building or your life choices. So, what counts as a transition space? I think, simply, anywhere that you don’t go to, but often find yourself transiting through. This definition therefore includes corridors, stairwells, lift lobbies and, to a lesser extent, arrival zones such as door lobbies, as well as not-really-transition-spaces such as small breakout zones. They are easy to light badly. Boring, flat, cold, tedious lighting, quashing your soul. But have no fear! I am here to tell you how

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Architectural and interior lighting to avoid this grim destination (figuratively and literally), with my handy cutout-and-keep guide: ‘Four don’ts and one do for transition spaces’. 1. Don’t treat it as an afterthought. The space is designed; you’ve done the detailing of the bar with the interior designer, the MEP team is on board with the control strategy and it’s out for tender tomorrow. But wait! What about this lift lobby? We don’t seem to have any lighting in it? What to do? Quick, throw in four downlights in a grid, thank you very much. No. Don’t do this. You’re better than this. Make it a space. At the Andaz hotel in Delhi, for example, we used linear lines in the wall and across the ceiling to create a space with its own identity. There are no linear profiles in the ceiling like this anywhere else in the project; it is a design approach just for this area. Look at the image overleaf closely and you see the profiles don’t line up; they are not goalposts. Some go up the wall, others one wall and a ceiling. Some start at floor height and others start at 1m off the ceiling. It’s all detailed very carefully with the wall and ceiling finishes so it’s recessed. This space is not an afterthought; it was integral to the design from the beginning. The profiles echo the verticals of the main stair, seen through the red glass at the end. 2. Don’t resign the space to uniformity. With a long narrow corridor, the worst thing you can do is uniformity. It’s as if the long grey path stretches ahead of you to eternity; a lifetime walking to your room or the toilet. Try to break things up instead. Pools of light are good, perhaps picking up on the doors if it’s a hotel guestroom corridor, for example. Or perhaps some neat circles on the floor, which will mean your space is now not one infinite walk but a small series of steps and, look, we’ve done three already. We used this approach recent used in the hotel nhow in London, with carefully shuttered and controlled fittings giving distinct accent and pools of light rather than a general wash. Beware, however, problems with this approach can include the over-zealous application of brand standards by people who think lighting is an engineering discipline rather than an art. If the client guidelines say 100 lux, then this means 100 lux on every single square centimetre of the corridor, no more and no less. No matter that this is undesirable and, in fact, unachievable in reality. No matter that if you ask the client, they’ll tell you they love the pools of light; this person says if there

are gaps, fill them in! Resist this person, for they are wrong. 3. Don’t overlight the space. How bright to make a transition space? Well that depends on what you do in it. With a lift lobby, all you are doing is pressing a button and whistling. Do we therefore need 300 lux here? It seems unlikely. These areas, in fact, can be gloriously, deliciously dark. With judicious application of focal points picking up an artwork or the inspirational corporate quote that is calligraphed across the wall, we need very little else. This approach also allows you to create focal points, either along the line or at the end – a destination to walk to. With a hotel corridor, however, you need to make sure you can see the room numbers as well and we’ve often used a tiny 1 watt downlight for this purpose, so throwing a tiny pool of light on to the tiny numbers. Discretion is my middle name. Dark spaces are a chance to rest. They allow us to direct attention elsewhere, either within the space or to outside it. The light at the end of the tunnel might be a restaurant but, if the tunnel is uniformly lit to 500 lux, you probably won’t even notice it. If the client wants 500 lux, gently ask why. Chances are it’s a poorly remembered thing they heard once in a meeting and have adopted ever since. Part of our mission therefore on lighting design projects is to educate as much as it is to design. This extends to staircases that are often overlit by risk-averse clients. Huge light levels are not needed. As long as the start and end of the flight is lit, you can safely have low lighting on the runs. After all, if you only need 2 lux on emergency staircases to allow people to safely transit them, why do you think you need the CIBSE-mandated 100 lux the rest of the time? A lower level allows you to create interesting spaces, with for example uplights to the bannisters. We did a staircase a few years back with crystal bannisters, each of which had a 2 watt uplight on the base, and nothing else. No prizes for guessing where in the world. 4. Don’t assume the ‘wow’ factor needs to stop. What’s the point of the entrance being amazing, the restaurant looking chic, the toilets being the very latest in design – if the corridor linking them looks like it has escaped from a 1950s’ Soviet gulag? A series of spaces that are all ‘wow’ in themselves do not make a ‘wow’ venue. The space is holistic; it all needs to wow. A coherent purpose, where clearly the spaces are a consistent theme is the aim www.theilp.org.uk

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Architectural and interior lighting

The Andaz hotel in Delhi. Linear lines in the wall and across the ceiling create a space with its own identity

here. Authenticity is the current buzzword in design, and for a space to be authentic it needs to be consistent, or the mask slips For example, at a large office space in central London we used a pattern of linear lights over the reception ceiling and, again, an interestingly arranged pattern of linear lighting in the main work seating areas. How to light the space between them? The image of the corridor here (opposite) shows a continuation of ‘wow’ along this area; there is a linear streak of light angling across the floor, walls, and ceiling on its way to the far end of the corridor. In fact, even though it is ‘just’ a corridor, it is one of my favourite images from this project. Note, too, that it is a little darker than the areas at either end of the corridor, both of which are lit to around 400 lux. We felt we didn’t need that much in a corridor space (see above), although it would have been off brand to drop much below 150 lux plus it risked appearing comparatively gloomy when you came straight off the reception area. Similarly, the staircase at nhow hotel is simple bulkhead fittings (there was very little budget for this area) but we made it

For this office space in Moorgate, London, a linear streak of light angles across the floor, walls, and ceiling on its way to the far end of the corridor

into a feature through the use of a carefully arranged conduit and an on-board interior designer who splashed green circles on the wall. Very low cost, great feature, great stairs. 5. Do get involved and push actively to ‘design’ these spaces. Many times I have been told lighting designers are only needed for the main public spaces – the aforementioned restaurant, entrance area and so on – and someone else is doing the lighting for the corridors. In one project we worked on (no names here, my lips are sealed) it was the contractor. He had a job lot of wide-beam downlights in 5000K he wanted to use up; very cheap and, for you, a special price. He was also of the ‘more is more’ school of lighting design – if 100 lux is good, then surely 500 lux is five times as good? The lighting in the rooms and in the public areas was 2200K in the evening (I think in the day we let them go up to the dizzy heights of 2700K). To say that the corridor between the two was jarringly cold and oppressively bright was to underestimate the shock of

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the lift door opening; it was like a bucket of cold water in the face. Who needs lighting designers right? It cost the client more in the end, as one look at it and he ripped it out and asked me to come up with a new design.

CONCLUSION

In summary, transition spaces are a part of the space that you are lighting – they are the silent glue that keeps the disparate areas together. Just as transition spaces act as a join, a transition, between areas, so too should the lighting. They are not a necessary evil; they are one of the few spaces where, as a lighting designer, you may be left pretty much free to do whatever you want. What’s more, they are often a chance to enhance a project’s identity as well as bring some of your own creative flair to bear. So, my advice: learn to love transition spaces.

Neil Knowles is director of Elektra Lighting Design

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FAITH AND FUNCTION Lighting churches brings with it all the usual constraints and permissions that come with any heritage lighting scheme. With more churches than ever now acting as community hubs alongside their traditional roles, it is important a new lighting scheme acts to serve the needs of worshippers and those using or renting the space.

By David Burch

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Church lighting

t CES Lighting & Electrical we specialise in the design and installation of lighting schemes for ecclesiastical and heritage projects. We consider ourselves fortunate to have designed and installed lighting for new-build churches and eleventh century churches alike, each of which pose their own challenges. For example, take St Matthias Church in Stoke Newington, north London (illustrated here). St Matthias is a Grade I listed building designed and built during the Victorian era by William Butterfield, the renowned Gothic Revival architect, and completed in 1853. In addition to its position as a functioning parish church, St Matthias has developed an important role in supporting local music and the creative arts and is now the venue for a wide variety of performances (apart from of course during the pandemic restrictions). Beyond the client there are several parties responsible for the care of church buildings. The church-inspecting architect, DAC (Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches), FAC (Cathedral Fabric Advisory Committees), HCC (Historic Churches Committee, Victorian Society and so on. It is therefore vital to work collaboratively with the inspecting architect to present clear documentation for the proposed works for the relevant approval bodies. These committees exist to ensure that our nation’s churches are cared for and last for many years to come. Therefore, when we were approached to produce a new lighting design for this venerable building, it was essential that any proposals were sympathetic to the original architecture, the worship and liturgical needs of the church, but also to the church’s aspirations to meet the needs of those renting the church for musical events. At

the same time of course, the project needed to remain within a realistic budget.

LACK OF VOIDS

The first challenge beyond the lighting itself was the near complete lack of voids or wall plates, which are usually deployed to hide the new lighting cable routes. This problem was overcome with help from the church architect by chasing the plasterwork, burying the cables and reinstating the plaster’s surface back to its original condition. All LED light fittings require an electronic driver, which is usually remote from the fitting and concealed on the wall plates. Given the complete lack of wall plates in the church, the nave fittings were selected from a range of track fittings with integral drivers, whereas the surface mounted aisle fittings had remote drivers contained within a discreet bespoke panel sited at low level. The end result was a lighting scheme that was maintainable and had a minimal physical impact on the church fabric. As with all our designs, flexibility with ease of use is paramount. To achieve this, all lighting is controlled by single button operation from wall-mounted control plates. Said control plates offer a selection of preset lighting scenarios that can each be programmed by the church to cater for the uses of their building.

FLEXIBLE SOLUTION

Each LED luminaire is dimmable, so a mixture of higher and lower intensities helps to draw focus to particular areas and create various moods for the services and events that take place. This flexibility helps the lighting

to suit whate v e r type of function is being undertaken, whether sacred or secular. Another priority for the church was its external lighting, with security being a main concern. The church was offered a grant from the Home Office in an attempt to reduce crime in the area. We therefore had to ensure our lighting design met both the Home Office requirements and DAC approval. On a final note, we were immensely pleased and proud that our work at St Matthias was put forward for the ‘Hospitality, Leisure and Faith Lighting Project of the Year’ at the 2020 Lux Awards, where it was ‘highly commended’, a very respectable result.

FIND OUT MORE

For any ILP members who are interested in finding out more, further images of the project and a 3D virtual tour can be found here: http://ces-lighting.co.uk/portfolio.asp#project-3 David Burch BA(Hons) is a lighting designer with CES Lighting & Electrical Specialists LLP

LOCALLY RESPONSIVE In the first of a two-part series about smart streetlights and CMS, David Orchard looks back over the past decade of CMS in the UK and what can be learnt from this about changing attitudes and adoption strategies by local authorities

By David Orchard

ith streetlights being the largest contributor to UK council electricity bills, it is not surprising that the UK is the world’s leading adopter of smart street lighting. As Lighting Journal highlighted in March, latest data from the UK Roads Liaison Group has suggested around 55% (or just under four million) streetlights in the UK are now LED (‘Light after the dark?’, vol 86 no 5). This uptake is significant because it is often the migration to LED that sparks the investment in a smart street lighting system. Over

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Smart lighting and CMS the past ten years, CMS has become mainstream, with more than two million lights being connected. Smart street lighting literally saves taxpayers millions of pounds at the same time as reducing carbon emissions, equivalent to taking thousands of cars off the road. A CMS-enabled street lighting system is also pivotal in helping a council to create vibrant spaces in which to live and work – and can be a springboard into a wider set of smart city solutions bringing even more benefits to the public.

RISING ENERGY COSTS

To recap on some of the UKRLG/Chartered Institute of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) report findings, there are considerable benefits to be had if the UK street lighting estate is fully converted to energy efficient LED [1]. An ongoing investment of £755m could generate £6.8bn of electricity cost savings and five million tonnes of CO2 emission savings over the next 25 years. This is before the addition of controls is taken into account. The report reveals that over the last decade, streetlight energy consumption has dropped by 28% due to widespread adoption of LED and smart controls. A decade of rising energy costs sharpens the business case even further, with the UKRLG citing research from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy which predicts annual street lighting electricity costs are expected to rise to £379m by 2030, assuming no further streetlights are converted to LED.

MILLIONS OF STREETLIGHTS LACK ‘INTELLIGENCE’

Traditional streetlights, considered ‘dumb’ due to their lack of in-built intelligence, feel outdated in the context of emerging technologies capable of delivering real advantages to the public. Such ‘legacy’ streetlights are expensive to maintain and operate and come with sizeable carbon footprints. Even with the pre-set programmes available with some modern LED lighting, these are still limited and cannot be dynamically managed, nor do they provide some of the diagnostics and insights explored later.

So, the burning question that perhaps should be being asked is: why are so many citizens missing out on the enhanced service and value for money provided by a CMS system?

THE LEICESTER EXPERIENCE

Leicestershire County Council (LCC) moved to a CMS-enabled smart street lighting system in 2016 as part of an upgrade to LED. Funding for this, according to the council, came from a combination of council reserves and Department for Transport (DfT) funding, split 70-30% respectively. The CMS provides the council with a more flexible lighting service both in terms of switching on and off but also in providing the ability to vary light intensity in relation to traffic conditions. Its CMS enables groups of streetlights to be turned on temporarily during the evening – for example to help emergency services – or to dim and brighten lights if needed. The CMS also reports faults automatically and saves cost by eliminating the need for night-time visual inspections. The payback is clear, as LCC explains. Its annual energy consumption reduced by 55% between 2017-2020 from 20.8 million kWh to 9.2 million kWh. The council’s annual CO2 emissions fell significantly by 73% from 9,283T in 2016/17 to 2,536T in 2019/20. These carbon savings of 6,747 tonnes is the equivalent of taking 1,458 cars off the road for one year. At today’s energy rates, the switch to LED lights has produced an annual saving of around £1.7m per annum. LCC states that the lighting scheme is a key part of its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.

SMART STREET LIGHTING IN ACTION

Early adopters, including in Essex, Suffolk, Sheffield and Hertfordshire, all point to similar savings, with payback periods of under five years. Other councils that have more recently moved to CMS, such as Edinburgh, Medway and Swindon, are just starting to see their

business case forecasts validated. Figure 2 overleaf illustrates how a local authority can use a CMS over a period of years to make continuous improvements and ongoing savings. Drilling down into this, diagram A shows an HPS lighting installation burning all night. In 2013, the council moved to a CMS to help adopt part-night lighting (diagram B) as a way to save money. While part-night lighting reduced the amount of energy the council consumed, and saved money, it also resulted in a reduced lighting service. Then in 2016, the council shifted to LED, whilst retaining its use of a CMS. This allowed the council to resume a full lighting service all night but, because of the efficiencies of LED, energy consumption dropped (diagram C) and the council was able to offset the increase in energy prices that year. Over the next year the council continued to experiment – using its CMS to make changes to see which lighting policy provided the optimum trade-off between performance and cost. CMS, it was clear, enabled the ‘right level of light in the right place at the right time’. As a result, (shown in diagram D), the council reduced its energy use by 59% as a result of the migration to LED and a further 24% as a result of adopting smart controls. From the above, it is clear that the business case for controls is as much down to the ambition for targeted savings as it is the cost of the network.

TRAFFIC-ADAPTIVE LIGHTING

To cite another example of CMS in action, Doncaster City Council has combined its CMS with traffic-adaptive lighting on 180 lights at junction 3 of the M18.

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Smart lighting and CMS 6000

Real-time traffic data received from a radar-based sensor dynamically adjusts these lights via the CMS. The traffic flow metrics showed how traffic levels dramatically dropped off after 8pm to around 7,000 vehicle movements from a peak of 29,000. This insight meant the council could move to a lower lighting class (class M5 from Class M4) at an earlier time, 8pm rather than 10pm. As a result, it consumed 23% less energy (dropping from 67,087 kWh to 51, 474 kWh) and made a 19% saving on its energy costs. Suffolk County Council has seen similar results. Figure 3 shows the typical energy profile of one streetlight and the energy it saved by linking a traffic sensor into its CMS. To emphasise, that is just one light. The council has also deployed 25 traffic radars to more than 500 lights around Ipswich.

UK Street Lighting - Energy Consumption (Unmetered: non half hourly + half hourly)

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Figure 1. Showing how-44% the energy consumption of UK street lighting has been changed because of the transition to LED

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Figure 1. Showing how the energy consumption of UK street lighting has fallen because of the transition to LED and controls

2013 - 2016: Part night curfew photo-controls introduced which reduced consumption to 425 Watt-hours

Pre- 2013: 35W sodium (50W power consumption) for 13.5 hr nights = 675 Watt-hours consumed

STREETLIGHT CONTROL

CMS programs work to a variety of parameters based around the ability to classify individual lights into groups within the system, as highlighted in figure 4 overleaf. In more detail, these can be broadly broken down into the following three areas.

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1. Streetlight monitoring and fault detection. A CMS takes regular and detailed measurements from each light and displays the information in an intuitive, map- or tabular-based interface. Threshold parameters can be set to trigger alerts and lighting managers can interrogate individual lights at any time.

2016: 21W LED with smart controls reduced consumption to 148 Watt-hours

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2018: 21W LED with smart controls consumption of 120 Watt-hours

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2. Streetlight maintenance. A CMS will eliminate the need for regular night inspections because lights report their own faults. Diagnostic information

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Figure 2. How a local authority can use a CMS over a period of years to make continuous improvements and ongoing savings

Bamford Road, Suffolk - Daily energy consumption history (single light) 700

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Bamford Road, Suffolk - Daily energy consumption history (single light)

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Figure 3. The typical energy profile of one Suffolk County Council streetlight and the energy it saved by linking a traffic sensor into its CMS

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Oct 18

Jun 20

Helping you make sense of 'Smart'. With over half a million connected street lights, we're the tried, tested and trusted partner you've been looking for.

Heard of Ki.? Learn how cities and municipalities are using our smart city platform and solutions to skyrocket their smart city success. Book a demo today. ki.community/book-a-demo

A brand of Lucy Zodion Ltd. www.theilp.org.uk

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Smart lighting and CMS improves first-time fix rates and asset management system integration streamlines inventory and work-order generation.

Switching methods -by time e.g 5pm -by solar calendar eg. 10 mins after sunrise -by light level eg 10 Lux any combination of these Standard control programs -photocell -part night on/off -part night dim -fixed times

3. The CMS cascade of savings. Councils across the UK are seeing the savings they anticipated from adopting a CMS materialise. The ‘waterfall effect’ shown in figure 5 below illustrates the cumulative effect of these benefits. Local authorities that originally put smart controls on their HID lighting are now adding controls to their LED upgrade. Some of these were installed 10 years ago but are now being upgraded with the latest technology, having seen the benefits it brings.

CONCLUSIONS

Whilst strong financial benefits are always needed to form the foundation of any business case and to calculate whether the payback period is realistic, it may well be that it is the qualitative benefits of CMS that make it indispensable in the longer term. In short, councils that have deployed a CMS have seen how it equates to a better service for the public. As a CMS is adaptable, lighting doesn’t need to be ‘one-sizefits-all’, so it becomes part of the council toolkit in helping them create cleaner, safer, more liveable cities. By way of an example, customised lighting can be applied through the CMS to target high-crime areas or during mass participation events to help keep citizens safe. Problems with light pollution, perhaps in

Trimming -optimised/auto trim burning hours

Days of week control -eg different switching at weekends

Override -quick switching changes across groups/whole population -in response to sensor or system inputs -respond to incidents -special events -use for maintenance

Calendar control -special events -seasonal adjustments Dimming control -dim to any level 0-100% -scheduled dimming -sensor-based dimming -3rd party system-based dimming

Constant light output -lumen depreciation -maintenance factor

100

Custom control programs -up to 10 switching steps

Residential area

Load reduction -enables demand-side balancing

Highway 100

Sensor-based dimming Minimum light pollution

69 66

500 400 300

48 245

200 100 -

-28

certain residential areas, can be overcome within the CMS by allocating highly localised lighting policies. The diagnostic and automatic fault alerts offered by the CMS enables a council to provide a more responsive repair and maintenance service, which can in turn please residents and lead to fewer complaints from the public. The result is a series of qualitative benefits in the form of lower crime, nicer neighbourhoods and obvious value-for-money from a council clearly working on behalf of its residents. Being in public service is about winning hearts and minds and, as councils work collaboratively with their

-15

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communities to develop and enact the vision for their local area, both the qualitative and quantitative benefits of a CMS should not be underestimated. In next month’s issue, we will continue with our smart technology focus, this time examining how CMS-enabled streetlights can form the building block for a wider technology platform for smart city applications.

David Orchard is UK sales director at Telensa

7,000

5,973

6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 -3,000

11 12

-2,000 --1,000

-2,118

[1] ‘State of the nation: 2020 street lighting report’, UK Roads Liaison Group, Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, UK Lighting & Technology Board, Streetlighting Advisory Services, January 2021. Available online at: https://ukrlg.ciht.org.uk/media/12713/sotn-report.pdf

www.theilp.org.uk

Figure 4. An illustration of how CMS programs are able to classify individual lights into groups within the system

Figure5. Illustration of ‘savings waterfalls’ generated from a mix of energy savings and maintenance cost reduction 600

14 15

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

The smart choice for street lighting PLANet® CMS is the world leader in smart street lighting with over two million control nodes deployed Contact: David Orchard UK Sales dorchard@telensa.com 07500 608 205 telensa.com/contact

ADVANCED MAPPING INTERFACE provides unique ability to view large deployments on one screen. Includes geo-fencing, colourcoding, filtering & tagging functions. Google Maps enterprise mapping system with satellite & streetview SOPHISTICATED DIMMING & SWITCHING programs for any combination of lights or groups of lights: • Timed – at x-minute intervals • Sensor – algorithm-moderated sensor dimming e.g. from traffic sensors • System – algorithm-moderated dimming using data from other systems

FLEXIBLE HOSTING OPTIONS Customer, Telensa or third party INTEGRATION with leading Asset Management Systems (AMS) for automation of fault reporting and work orders ENERGY MANAGEMENT Revenue- grade energy consumption analysis and energy billing system integration SOPHISTICATED FAULT DIAGNOSIS using advanced modelling techniques. Saves money by improving first-time-fix rates MULTI-DISTRICT OPERATION A single area system can be shared and operated by different district municipalities WEB INTERFACE for remote access with multiple devices

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MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

SEEN AND HEARD The ILP’s new ‘Light, Seen’ events are a way for Premier members and ILP members to network and learn from each other digitally just as you might have done pre pandemic on an exhibition stand. With successful events already completed, could your organisation be next?

By Nic Paton

ll of us have probably spent far too long over the past year or so staring at our screens, whether it’s ‘doom scrolling’ on our phones or jumping from one Teams/Zoom call to another throughout the working day. Nevertheless, without this technology at our fingertips it is fair to say the pandemic – and professional life throughout it – would have been far harder to navigate. Certainly,

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light, Seen

A city square at night (in this case in front of Leicester Town Hall). Nic Winter of TRT Lighting highlighted how light guides can provide an alternative form of control for illuminating city squares

for the ILP and many lighting professionals, the ability still to network, engage, learn and even transact digitally has been a lifeline since March last year. As the ILP’s Jess Gallacher explains from page 36, the forced transition to digital has also transformed how the ILP delivers events, training and CPD and simply connects with members. That process is still evolving but, hopefully, when we are finally able to look back and reflect on the pandemic there will be positive change that can be built upon. One conversation, however, that is hard to mimic digitally is the face-to-face interaction you get at a lighting exhibition. Whether it’s the Professional Lighting Summit or an event like Lightscene, the sharing of knowledge and insight off as well as on the conference hall is a critical part of understanding and implementing best practice as a lighting professional. To try and rectify that gap, while also recognising digital is probably never going to be a perfect substitute, the ILP earlier this year launched ‘Light, Seen’ (and, yes, the play on words on ‘Lightscene’ is deliberate). This is a series of online sessions giving ILP Premier members an opportunity to talk about product or projects, explaining what is special or innovative about them, much as you would if it had caught your eye on an exhibition stand and you had stopped to have a chat.

One of the differences between a Light, Seen event and an ILP webinar is that Light, Seen is very much designed to be a two-way experience for an online live audience who can ask questions and actively participate. The aim has been for Light, Seen to bring together lighting service providers, manufacturers and specifiers, while also throw some learning into the mix too. The first Light, Seen took place with January, led by TRT Lighting, and was followed by events led by Telensa (and see the end of this article for more on this) and BEGA Lighting, with more still to come in the pipeline. To give a flavour of what happens, and hopefully to whet your appetite for when future events are advertised, here is abridged look at the TRT and BEGA events.

VISUAL COMFORT WITH LED

The first Light, Seen, presented by Nic Winter, road lighting sales manager at TRT Lighting, was on the topic of ‘For visual comfort with LED lighting the best way forward is sideways – introducing light guide technology’. Nic started by introducing two TRT products, the Chalis LED luminaire with light guide panel and the Circa LED luminaire which comes in flat glass and curved glass options, again with a light guide panel. The purpose of the talk, then, was the explain the concept and benefits of

incorporating a light guide panel into a luminaire, especially in the context of visual comfort and mitigating overly bright luminance. As Nic put: ‘In exterior lighting, LEDs are most commonly optically controlled by putting lenses over individual LEDs or by placing them in small individual reflectors to give the distribution we want. These methods are very efficient but they can involve some very high luminance sources being visible, and some people find that discomfort is caused by this, especially in some locations. In some situations, where the LEDs are in the line of sight, for instance if they’re at low mounting heights, which might be to be sympathetic to surrounding architecture or to fit in with the design style of the public space, then the brightness of the LEDs might not be giving the desired effect. ‘I’m not saying high-source luminance LED lanterns, ie “normal” LED lanterns, have a universal or fundamental problem. What I am saying is horses for courses, or different tools for different jobs. I believe our eyes adjust to the brightest object in the field of view, and so visible high-luminance light sources could in situations such as this detract from the view of the buildings. Your eyes adjust to the brightest source and then see less clearly less bright objects in the field of view.’ Nic highlighted an average town or city square at night. One way to illuminate it, of www.theilp.org.uk

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light, Seen course, would be simply to install floodlights mounted on the buildings, shining down into the square. ‘But then, when you look up at the buildings you would be, to some extent, blinded, or at least your view would be obscured, by the very bright light source from the floodlights. ‘Likewise, if you put them in the open area, if you’ve got visible LEDs, they will become the focal point. So we would propose using light guides, with much lower luminance than the emitting sources in this sort of space, on low-mounted columns,’ Nic said. Light guides in this context provide an alternative form of control. There aren’t any very bright sources and they provide increased visual comfort, a uniform, non-pixelated light surface and the LEDs are not visible, he argued. ‘They are actually facing sideways; their output is then redirected to the target area evenly across the light guide. This is referred to as extraction, and the size of the light guide material is matched by the features that provide the extraction, so that it is even across the full width,’ Nic added. Light guides simply provide another bit of kit in the lighting designer’s toolbox for enhancing visual comfort beyond the use of indirect lighting and/or diffusers, both of which have their place but also their limitations, all of which Nic ran through. ‘In conclusion, light guides are a relatively new tool for use with LEDs. In particular situations they provide lighting with visual comfort more effectively and more efficiently than previous technologies that were geared around visual comfort,’ he argued.

LIGHT, ART AND THE UNIVERSE

The BEGA Lighting Light, Scene event, held in February, was led by Russell Mills, national business manager at BEGA, and was on the more discursive subject of ‘Light has inspired art, religion and science; it holds the secrets of the universe’. Russell opened with a video illustrating how differing levels of light pollution can affect night skies. ‘It is quite staggering the effect that we can have on what we can see by the lighting practices that we adopt,’ he pointed out. He then cantered through how light has affected and inspired religion, art, culture, our emotions and experiences, as well as science; how light has shaped our perception of the world, how light has throughout the ages been venerated as divine; how light ‘sculpts’ the spaces it touches. We need light, too, of course to maintain our health and organs, yet we use much more than just our eyes to perceive light; we interpret light through our senses and sensations, our contracts in perception. ‘We all have same image, but we have different versions of it because of our mind’s interpretation of www.theilp.org.uk

what we see,’ Russell highlighted. He cited optical illusions such as the ‘Koffka Ring’ and Adelson’s ‘Corrugated Plaid’ to illustrate how our brains often fill in perceptual gaps. He then discussed the impact of light in the environment and its effect on urbanisation and, more negatively, the over-use of blue light at night and light pollution, citing research arguing that just one in 50 of us experiences nights free of light pollution, and only 10% of people have seen the Milky Way for real rather than from photographs. Equally, in the US it is estimated as much as $1.7bn bleeds directly into the night-time sky every year, he said. ‘When spaces for buildings are over-lit in competition with each other, it can lead to a confusing scene. Buildings drenched in excessive light to attract attention, such as historic buildings, landmarks and skyscrapers. Light clutter refers to excessive light coming from groups of bright and confusing sources. The increased clutter contributes to light pollution, such as urban skyglow, glare and light trespass,’ Russell emphasised. Legislators and politicians were trying to find a way, with Russell highlighting the fact the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 makes light nuisance subject to the same criminal law as noise and smells. But this was also something the industry needed to be leading on. ‘To help us achieve the best lighting practice we should always control the brightness, shield luminaires, use luminaires with efficient optics, limit uplighting, minimise blue light emissions for environmental reasons, and we should use lighting controls. Also always aim light fixtures accurately,’ said Russell. At this point the event became more interactive, with Russell talking through various paper schemes attendees had submitted prior to the event to address how to minimise glare on a range of different scenes/areas, including a modern façade, a garden, a barbecue area, and a main building exterior. ‘Darkness should be respected. We don’t want to shed light everywhere; we want to use darkness to interplay with light. We should provide light only where it is required, and selectively illuminate paths that link the visual location,’ Russell said. The conversation then flowed through how the direction of light influences movement and atmosphere, the role of uplighting, silhouette lighting, shadow lighting, wash lighting, mirroring (often via water), and cross lighting, among others. ‘Lighting is like an art form and, like all artists, you need the correct tools to implement your vision. When selecting products, we should always consider the impact

on the environment, and the luminaire’s efficiency. We should consider if maintenance is possible; the sustainability of the luminaire and the full cost of ownership,’ said Russell. ‘As a manufacturer of both exterior and interior lighting, you’d probably imagine that we would be encouraging you to specify and install more lighting. But we’re not. We believe that you should use better-quality luminaires and you should light better,’ he added.

FIND OUT MORE

The videos of both the TRT and BEGA Light, Seen events are publicly available on the ILP website at, https://theilp.org.uk/project/light-seen/ For Telensa’s Light, Seen event, you can register to view it through its own website: info.telensa. com/business-case-for-street-lightswith-controls-0

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If your organisation is an ILP Premier member it is very easy to get involved in Light, Seen. First, you’ll need to decide on a topic. Your content can be commercially biased but must include an element of learning/CPD/ knowledge-sharing, and must not include any material that is negative towards other organisations. Each event normally runs for about 30 minutes, split between the presentation and the question/chat time. Registration will be handled by the ILP, and data shared with you where permission is given by the attendee. There is a minimum lead time of three weeks from agreeing a session to delivery of the event. The sessions are free to attend and all are welcome. Creativity and interaction are very much encouraged. If you want to find out more, simply drop the ILP team a line, to Jess Gallacher, at email: jess@theilp.org.uk

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

YOUR PARTNER IN INNOVATION www.electricaltesting.co.uk Inside the ILP

Introducing

AACA - Asset Attachment Check Application For your peace of mind AACA will provide confirmation of column loads and identify any unapproved or overloaded columns The AACA was developed to provide authorities and asset owners a simple and efficient way to determine the column capacity of their lighting stock. With increasing financial pressures on Local Authorities, the cost and design strength of modern lighting columns has been reduced to the minimum levels possible, enabling a column to pass the required design checks. As such, there is no guarantee that a lighting column will have the sufficient capacity to safely accept attachments, which increases the structural load on the column. AACA confirms the columns suitability for existing attachments, or recommends the removal of attachments to reduce the risk to the authority.

TEST Ultrasonic testing on base and shaft sections.

MEASURE Attachment dimensions and mounting heights measured.

RESULT AACA then calculates both wind load & strength of column = result. www.theilp.org.uk

Call us on 08454 989066 or visit our website to find out more.

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Inside the ILP IF YOU NEED A SCREEN BREAK… TURN TO THE WRITTEN AND SPOKEN WORD

he whole purpose of the ILP is to share lighting knowledge and my role looking after engagement and communications really means finding the best ways to do that sharing. When the pandemic struck, I quickly reorganised the way we deliver knowledge and connect with people. With the support of an amazing team of volunteers and staff, we now offer a multitude of ways for you to get what you need from the ILP, and help others do the same. It’s a bit like a build-your-own personalised jigsaw.

IF YOU NEED… TRAINING COURSES

Way before the pandemic began, Vice President – Education Kimberly Bartlett had already set her sights on the ILP introducing an online training platform, and this was launched in summer 2020. Covering a range of lighting topics, and welcoming to everyone, www.courses.theilp. org.uk/ offers instant CPD training to upskill your workforce and boost your knowledge. More and more courses will be added to the ILP online training platform over the coming months. This is not a temporary solution for now; it www.theilp.org.uk

is something you can permanently rely on and turn to wherever you are in the world and and whatever your commitments.

IF YOU MISS… MEETING OTHER PEOPLE

An ongoing success story, the ILP ‘Hi Lights’ sessions are open to everyone. The format is utterly simple: drop in and say ‘hi’ to each other. You might be grappling with a particular lighting issue and wanting help from peers, feeling cut off, missing meeting customers, in need of ideas, or just plain lonely and bored. The conversation flows at every session; and you can just listen if you prefer. The topics we discuss aren’t just lighting related, and it can be helpful to meet some friendly faces if your mental health needs a boost. You are not alone. Again, we intend to keep Hi Lights beyond the pandemic, especially as it is now attracting regular attendees from across the globe.

IF YOU’RE NEW TO LIGHTING… DISCOVER ‘HOW TO BE BRILLIANT’

‘Inspiring, insightful, thought provoking’ sums up the ILP ‘How to be brilliant’ series, which is designed to gives students, interns and newcomers to the profession a safe and welcoming place to meet with super experienced lighting designers, and learn things that aren’t usually taught on a traditional academic course. Previously only ever held in small venues, How to be brilliant has returned for 2021 online, as was highlighted in Lighting Journal last month (‘Story-telling, brilliantly’, vol 86, no 4). The format includes an inspiring talk, and then the chance to video chat with the speaker and other attendees. When in-person events resume, the How to be brilliant team will give you the option of joining us at the venue or tuning in over the internet. This is what we call a hybrid event, meaning you can choose whichever event format is best for you!

The ILP has always provided technical publications as a great way of sharing knowledge. Order printed copies online or ILP members can simply log into ‘MyILP’ and the documents are instantly available. Top tip! If reading is a chore for you, there are several free screen readers which you can use to hear the publication spoken aloud. This works for the wonderful Lighting Journal that you are reading now too. For even more light reading, check out https://theilp.org.uk/project/writinglighting-and-night-an-ever-expandingbooklist/, our interactive expandable booklist packed with great suggestions from members of the ILP and Nighttime Design Initiative, again as highlighted in Lighting Journal last month (‘Bed-time reading’, vol 86 no 4).

IF YOU WISH… YOU COULD GO TO AN EXHIBITION

It has been a long time since most of us were in a crowd, and with LuxLive 2021 being a digital event, it could be quite a while before the industry meets in a large-scale event. As discussed in the previous article, the ILP has stepped up with the ‘Light, Seen’ initiative whereby Premier members are given a platform to share information about their products and services with an interactive online audience.

IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE… WE PROBABLY HAVE A WEBINAR FOR THAT

After a year of living digitally, the ILP now has a huge archive of webinars, so whatever lighting CPD you need, chances are we have a webinar that will be relevant. Dark skies, electric vehicles, smart cities, procurement, British Standards… the list goes on and is growing all the time, as local LDC volunteers, Young Lighting Professionals and the national team are constantly adding webinars to the ILP website. The easiest way to find resources is simply to use the search feature at www.theilp.org. uk and you will more than likely be spoilt for choice. Remember, too, everything in this article is available via www.theilp.org.uk and always included in the ILP newsletter – if you don’t receive this every other Wednesday, please get in touch. We are here to help – do let us know if there is something you need, or if you’d like to volunteer to share your knowledge as a presenter, trainer, author or speaker.

Jess Gallacher is the ILP’s Engagement and Communications Manager and can be contacted on jess@theilp.org.uk

MAY 2021

Isolators, Cut-outs and Accessories

LIGHTING JOURNAL

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MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

EV charging

As take-up of electric vehicles continues to accelerate, lighting engineers may need to play a key leadership role in discussions around how to manage, and balance, the growing demands this will place on our electrical infrastructure By Phil Shadbolt

ou just need to look around our streets and highways to see that electric vehicle (EV) take-up and usage is increasing fast. According to the House of Commons Research Service, the number of ultra-low emissions vehicles in the UK, which includes EVs, rose from just 9,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to some 317,000 by the second quarter of last year. National Grid has also predicted that the number of EVs on our roads could be as many as 10.6 million by 2030 and a whopping 36 million by 2040[1]. Figures we have seen at Zeta, given to us by Oxford University, show a similar trend, suggesting

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uptake is going to increase by 50% a year year-on-year. So the uptake curve is very much an exponential one. This is, of course, great news in the context of taking petrol and diesel vehicles off our roads, reducing emissions and helping to mitigate global heating. But, as demand for EVs grows, this creates its own new headache – demand on the Grid, on our electricity supply and infrastructure. Already, one of the requirements for connecting to a local EV charging network is that you have to provide load balancing across the three phases in order to prevent imbalance on the Grid. Most load-balancing systems work on the

The strength of our industry partnerships are one of the reasons that Tofco and EVbox are able to offer the right EV Charging Solutions for our customers

YOUR TOTAL EV CHARGING SOLUTION With the continued demand for Electric Vehicles increasing, there becomes a growing need for the implementation of accessible charge points and associated infra-structure

Rapid (50kW)

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Total EV Solution Tofco can provide the required power distribution solution to complement our range of EV charge points. We will together with our partners drive sustainable mobility by providing smart and scalable charging infrastructure and charging management software to electric vehicles. Together we will build a future-proof EV charging solution for every electric car, parking space and power capacity Our EV Charging Pillars complete with Control Panels, Mounting Posts and Poles, when combined alongside our OCPP Certified World Class Software and AC/DC Charge

EV Charge Pillar

Points from our range of EV Chargers, allow us to offer our customers the Total EV Solution

info@tofco.co.uk

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MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

EV charging

The Zeta EZ-Charge charging point in situ at Bicester Cattle Market car park

principle of reducing power to the lowest common denominator. So, if you have a car in parking spot L1 charging at 3.5kW, another in L2 charging at 22kW, and a third in L3 charging on 11kW, load balancing will mean L2 and L3 will have to come down to 3.5kW to match L1, and therefore balance the three phases.

‘SMART’ LOAD BALANCING

However, technology – and the wider conversation – is starting to change. For example, at Zeta our EZ-Charge charger’s ‘smart’ load balancing feature distributes the electrical loads on each phase dynamically, to reduce the imbalance across the three phases. Working in partnership with the Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford University, SSE and Urban Integrated, we’ve recently agreed to deliver 280 of these 22kW fast-charge points across 24 public car parks within Oxfordshire. The first of these has already gone in – six chargers able to supply 12 vehicles at a time – at the Bicester Cattle Market car park, about a two-minute walk from Bicester town centre. One of the key innovations of this charger (which we are currently in the process of patenting) is that we can switch the load on each car to any particular phase in order to achieve the best balance. This is almost like an electro-mechanical rather than a software switch, one that optimises the charging across a site to the highest common denominator rather than the lowest. This means all cars get the maximum their vehicle is capable of receiving, yet we also maintain the best possible balance across all the three phases. [1] ‘Electric vehicles and infrastructure’, David Hirst, House of Commons Library Research Service, December 2020, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/ documents/CBP-7480/CBP-7480.pdf

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A further load management feature is to limit the total power supplied to the charging hub. Each site connected to the Grid has a restriction on how much total power can be taken at any time. Exceeding this limit can potentially cause overloading of the Grid and would result in a financial penalty by the district network operator (DNO). Our chargers therefore can guarantee this limit will not be reached and we, naturally, maintain a good relationship with the DNO. So, for example, if the Grid says ‘this site is limited to 69kVA’ (or kili Volt Amps), we make sure that, even though the three phases are balanced, they are still below that threshold. The key is that we are constantly working with the Grid and within the limits it is setting, yet at the same time we are optimising the charging to give the maximum charge to all cars.

CONVERSATIONS AUTHORITIES

WITH

LOC AL

Ours, of course, is but one innovation in what is a fast-moving market. But it also illustrates the sort of wider conversations the industry and local authorities may need to be having in the years to come, and local authority lighting engineers may be able to play a critical part. With EV take-up at the level it is, load balancing and limitation on sites is not an issue – yet. But it will be soon, and there will be a threshold point – probably in three to four years’ time – where we see more and more cars being plugged in and more and more people wanting to see the maximum charge going into their vehicles, and DNOs having to say ‘hang on’. Our conversations with the academics are that, positively, we’re not going to hit a crunch point anytime soon, but only if we get more successful at spreading the load on the Grid throughout the day than we are currently. This ability to spread the load to take

advantage of the full capacity of the Grid across the whole 24 hours of a day, so making full use of less busy times alongside peak periods, is going to become increasingly important as take-up and demand rises. Therefore, we are going to need to be looking at more innovative and creative ways to entice customers to charge at different times of the day rather than, say, all plugging in between 4pm and 7pm once they arrive home from work. It’s a bit like saying, ‘what do we need to do to encourage a proportion of people not to stick the kettle on during halftime in the FA Cup final?’ – but where every day is cup final day. This could be through, yes, innovations around load balancing such as we are bringing to the market. But it could also mean looking at tariff structures so that you are making it worth people’s while to switch to charging at different times of the day. Right now, before we begin to hit critical crunch points, we have an opportunity to be future-thinking and discussing these issues, having these conversations. I think, too, this is something lighting professionals could be providing a lead on, and leadership, especially lighting engineers working within local authorities. How are we going to cope with and mitigate this issue? How are we going to manage it at a day-to-day level? How are we all going to collaborate and work together more effectively – lighting professionals, local authorities and EV charge providers? If we don’t have these conversations, don’t provide this leadership and innovation, there could be serious knock-on questions around electricity prices going forward and even about our electricity capacity. And those are headaches I am sure none of us wants to have. Phil Shadbolt OBE is chief executive officer of Zeta Specialist Lighting and EZ-Charge

ILP SCOTLAND EV EVENT

The ILP’s Scotland LDC is holding a webinar on EV charging this month. The event, ‘What should Scotland consider when planning EV charging?’ will take place on 06 May from 10.30am. You can either register for it, or view the webinar once it has happened, here: https://theilp.org.uk/branch/ ilp-scotland/

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

Smart EV charging solutions designed and manufactured in the UK to provide the best EV charging infrastructure for Local Authority Car Parks Custom designed to suit the needs of your Local Authority Ultra-reliable self-monitoring components to guarantee uptime Sophisticated data dashboard to display usage statistics 3 payment options – contactless, app, RFID card Chargers can be booked in advance OZEV grant funding available

MAY 2021

LIGHTING JOURNAL

HISTORY IN YOUR HANDS Lighting manufacturer Holophane is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, during which time it has lit everything from coronations at Westminster Abbey through to enemy bombers during the Blitz and, with colour-changing lighting, music hall organs during the ‘Roaring Twenties’

By Nic Paton

n the article following this one, from page 46, Simon Cornwell in his regular Light on the past column outlines some of the innovative work undertaken by lighting manufacturers during the inter-war period in the development of low-pressure sodium lamps (and do check it out). One of them, Holophane, Simon writes, developed the first panel refractor for the ‘SO’ low-pressure sodium lamp in 1936, before going on to develop a number of other panel refractors and refractor lanterns. It is curious to think that, by that time, Holophane was already a 40-year-old business, founded as it was in 1896, and that the following year, 1937, it would go on to light Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George VI. Scroll forward a further 85 years and the Holophane business – from the Greek holos and phainein, meaning (loosely) ‘to appear completely luminous’ – is still going strong

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and this year is celebrating its 125th anniversary, quite an achievement in an industry known for acquisitions, mergers and brandname evolutions.

ANTI-AIRCRAFT LUMINAIRES

In that time, as well as George VI, Holophane lit the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, again in Westminster Abbey, itself the first live televised event to a global audience. During World War Two, it supplied the luminaires for the anti-aircraft lights that protected London during the Blitz, lit Fighter Command and, among other innovations, developed prismatic lenses tough enough to take the weight of landing aircraft, meaning they could be used as runway lights. Along the way, it has lit Battersea Power Station, the Tornado assembly lines for British Aerospace, and the House of Lords, among many other projects. In something of a departure (and one perhaps for Monty Python fans) in the 1920s it became known

for its colour-changing luminaires, which were installed in music halls and cinema organs up and down the country and which rose out of the floor during reel-change or other intervals to entertain audiences. ‘Our head office was Carteret Street, Westminster, literally 200 yards from Westminster Abbey, which may have been one reason why we were chosen to light the coronations,’ explains managing director David Barnwell. ‘It was no more than a two-minute walk to the Abbey from Holophane, who were better known for more decorative, interior lighting at the time.’

ECONOMIC PEAKS AND TROUGHS

Given, then, that the company has seen, and successfully ridden out, two world wars, two (now) pandemics and innumerable economic peaks and troughs, what is the secret to such longevity? ‘Underpinning it all, really, are our people and innovation. As a company we have

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Inside the industry

always invested in our people; they are the heart of Holophane. We have not been frightened to in engineering and innovation and in British design and manufacturing,’ emphasises David. ‘Not only has the 125 years straddled all the global adversities that have been thrown at us, it has also seen massive technological changes come through. We’ve moved from the gas lamp to electric lamp, and then all the different types of light source technologies, such as low-pressure sodium, high-pressure sodium, high-intensity discharge, Cosmo and so on. More recently there has been the transition to LEDification and now the digital era where lighting control is now a natural embedded part of luminaire design. I think our success has in a large part been down to us having committed to investing in engineering and design and development, in this country, as well as investing in people to enable us to grow,’ he adds. ‘We’ve never been the cheapest and we never will be the cheapest. We don’t claim to be that. But we do claim to make the most efficient control and use of light, which in turn means less energy. ‘The value proposition, if you like, over all our 125 years has pretty much been the same thing – the optical control of light. If you specify and use Holophane you use less energy and it will cost you less to install Holophane lighting, because you will use fewer light points and therefore you will use fewer www.theilp.org.uk

installation hours installing them, and you will burn less energy as an end user. And that is true whether you’re talking to an end user of a factory or a local authority engineer responsible for 50,000 streetlights. And I think we have remained true to those performance principles through our entire life as a company,’ David continues. In fact, he argues that two Holophane brands – the Prismpack high bay and Wallpack – have become so synonymous with the industry they have entered the very language of lighting. ‘Those brand names are now used by people who are simply talking about a generic product. If people are talking about an outdoor bulkhead they will often talk about “a wallpack”. It is like a hoover,’ he says.

DIFFERENT SECTORS

One reason for the company’s survival has been its ability to juggle, and switch in and out of, different sectors. ‘Curiously, we have always done quite well in recessions, in tough economic periods. That is because we are not reliant necessarily on any one sector. We sell to rail, into street lighting, industry, retail and not necessarily any one geography. In fact, some 20% of our business comes from exporting mainly into the EU; not all our eggs are in one basket,’ David explains. So, finally, what of the future? ‘I genuinely think a post-Brexit, post-Covid economy

combined with a stronger demand for products manufactured in Britain is going to be a great opportunity for UK-based lighting companies supplying big installers, contractors and local authorities moving forward. We really all ought to be getting behind that,’ he forecasts. ‘I would imagine it is going to be a difficult time for importers of street lighting products into the UK, whether that be from the Far East or EU. I think British manufacturers, if they invest in their business, products and technology and critically their people, are in a really good position moving forward supplying to the UK market and exporting, as we build up more trade agreements, around the world. ‘As all of the major economies emerge out of the pandemic, I am really hopeful there are going to be fantastic growth opportunities springing up all over the place,’ David adds.

FIND OUT MORE

For anyone wanting to find out more about Holophane’s history, there is a video on YouTube, The legend of the prism, which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5MIH2CUafHs

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LOW BURNER It is one of the anomalies of the pre-war period that the adoption of low-pressure sodium (LPS), despite being prototyped in 1932, only took off slowly. However, technological advances meant that, by the start of World War Two, LPS was on an even footing with its mercury counterparts

By Simon Cornwell

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LIGHTING JOURNAL

Light on the past

s the Second World War progressed, the journal Public Lighting would occasionally fill column inches with pictures of pre-war installations, novel new ideas that had yet to be realised, and progress made in other countries not affected by the war. It was a matter of necessity, as its staple content had dried up. Lighting engineers were presiding over mothballed stock, with depleted labour resources; manufacturers were diverted to the war effort and ‘starlight’ lighting had been rapidly specified and installed for those local authorities that wanted it. Additionally, dignified views of installations by day and pictures of blazing lanterns during the night help boost morale and reminded readers that happier times were surely to come. One such feature appeared in Public Lighting (no 26, July-September 1942), where a full page described the ‘Three Highway Lighting Systems’ of ‘semi-cut-off’, ‘cutoff’ and ‘non-cut-off’. The feature was illustrated by new lanterns from The Revo Electric Company of Tipton, West Midlands, designed and manufactured just before the war.

When Liverpool lighting engineer P J Robinson was unable to purchase a lantern for his proposed relighting of the traffic routes of Liverpool, he approached Wardle to make a unit for him. A convert of the ‘cut-off’ school, his ‘Liverpool’ design for the 150W SO/H (later 90W SOX) lamp utilised two internal, curved, glass reflectors to provide the necessary distribution. A novel design, it featured two wingnuts to hinge and lock the reflectors in two positions for 20ft and 25ft mounting heights. The example shown here was rescued from the city in the 2000s, after doing more than 50 years of service, and has been fully restored

This image shows an extremely rusted and antiquated Wardle Solar that was saved from the streets of Rochdale in the 2010s. This diminutive example, probably installed in the 1950s for the 50W SO/H (18W SOX) lamp, is a later example of the simple ‘seagull’ reflector system, simplified in this case to two slightly curved steel enamelled plates. It is pictured ‘fitted’ with a modern 35W SOX lamp which is slightly too large for the lantern. It is also one of the many lanterns in my collection awaiting restoration

ABSENCE FROM THE HISTORICAL RECORD

The ‘cut-off’ example was a wide, shallow steel frame, housing a low-pressure sodium (LPS) lamp in a central mirrored trough, with two additional elevated troughs on either side. It was a bizarre looking contraption but showed how far LPS lanterns had progressed before the start of the war. Yet, tracking the evolution of this lantern and the major milestones of LPS lanterns in general, was difficult. It is something of an oddity that, of the two competing gaseous discharge lamps, both prototyped and announced in 1932, one would leave a rich historical trail in the written record, and the other would be far more mysterious and largely absent. The key stages of the development of the medium (MA) and high-pressure (MB) mercury discharge lamps were extensively documented, but the parallel advancement of the LPS lamp was largely missing. Even ongoing research and improvements in gas garnered more column inches than low-pressure sodium. The MA lamp flew out of the traps first as the General Electric Company (GEC) showcased the actual commercial lamp in its prototype installation (East Lane, Wembley, June 1932) and had manufactured and installed the first luminaire early the next year (Watford Road, Wembley lit by GEC Z8001 Watford lanterns). The inaugural ‘Golden Way’ along Purely Way in Croydon, and installed by Philips in December 1932, utilised an early

experimental LPS lamp (the DA-90) in custom-made fittings. But there was no follow-up permanent installation, no announcement of the first commercial lamp, no manufacturers announcing lanterns – the trail just went cold. The DA-90 was eventually replaced by a family of horizontally burning LPS lamps which were given the ‘SO’ designation.

ARRIVAL OF THE ‘LIVERPOOL’ LANTERN

To a modern lighting engineer, these would’ve been familiar, having dimensions and characteristics similar to the modern SOX lamp. This family of lamps was available in 50W, 70W, 100W and 150W sizes – easily trumping the MA lamp, which was only initially available as a 400W option. Here was an entire system of discharge lamps for every road type and yet take-up appeared to be slow. When P J Robinson, the lighting engineer of Liverpool, decided to light the city with low-pressure sodium in 1934, he had to approach a local manufacturer to make the luminaries for him. It is widely believed that his ‘Liverpool’ lantern, made by the Wardle Engineering Company Limited, was the first commercial

sodium lantern to be manufactured for the UK. But there are whispers in the APLE annual reports that sodium had been previously installed in 1933 – however where it was and what fittings it used remains to be discovered. It is known that Robinson favoured the ‘shadowless’ and ‘glare less’ lighting produced by cut-off luminaires and his Liverpool had a cut-off light distribution – it could be the case that no manufacturers offered a cut-off sodium lantern, but non-cut-off variants were readily available. Robinson would have had more luck by the mid-point of the decade, as manufacturers were slowly starting to offer extremely simple LPS lanterns. Most were based on the simple ‘seagull’ reflector (named due to its distinctive cross section) and were overly simplistic, in contrast to their mercury counterparts which utilised reflectors, refractors and sometimes both. Unlike the hot-running and fragile MA lamps, the SO lamp wasn’t averse to being burned in the open air, so all the lanterns on offer featured a simple cast-iron or aluminium frame, steel enamelled reflector and a bare lamp slung beneath. A typical example of the disparity in the www.theilp.org.uk

MAY 2021

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Light on the past

p A battered, bent and worn Revo C9925 silvered mirror fitting for a 150W SO/H (90W SOX) lamp. This design replaced the earlier enamelled ‘seagull’ reflectors in the catalogue. It was designed for side-of-road mounting and was popular enough to be kept on catalogue into the 1950s. I was recently sent pictures of the streets of Bolton from the 1990s where most traffic routes and residential streets were still lit by these lanterns

market between these two light sources was illustrated in a Revo catalogue from 1936. Buried in the pages and pages of luminaires for filament lamps were four pages devoted to sodium lanterns and eight for mercury. The lamp finally received a welcome major boost in 1936 when Holophane produced the first panel refractor for the lantern. Holophane designed this glass plate for the smaller 50-70W SO/H lamp, concentrating on increasing the lateral distribution and reducing the glare. This could be scaled up for the longer 100W and 150W lamps by simply placing two refractor plates side-by-side. Whilst the firm produced its own showcase Refractor Panel Lantern, other manufacturers could purchase the Holophane 780/781 Panel Refractors themselves and design their own lanterns. This was an option taken up by BLEECO, ELECO, Wardle, Siemens and others, and soon catalogues were filling with refractor-based lanterns for both discharge lamp types. p Unlike other members of the ESLA ‘Bi-Multi’ family of lanterns, the AL/H 3 wasn’t popular with lighting authorities. Perhaps its complex design equated to a high manufacturing cost, particularly compared with the simple reflectors utilised by other firms? Or perhaps, and more likely, the fact the firm didn’t cater for the 150W SO/H lamp (the direct ancestor of the 90W SOX), leading to lighting engineers going to other firms

p This ELECO Golden Ray MK I employed two Holophane 780/781 panel refractors on each side of the lantern as it accepted the larger 150W SO/H (90W SOX) lamp. First introduced in 1938, this model marked the start of an extremely successful range of lanterns, culminating with the incredibly popular Golden Ray 100, 150 and 200 series of the 1960s and 1970s

SODIUM ‘EQUAL BILLING’ WITH MERCURY

By the start of the war, the situation had completely changed, and sodium now enjoyed equal billing with mercury. A later Revo catalogue, dated April 1940, summed up the situation: ‘With the phenomenal development of Sodium Lighting in both this country and abroad, a considerably increased range of Revo Street lighting Fittings is available.’ This was followed by ten pages of an expanded range of low-pressure sodium fittings without a simple seagull reflector in sight. Revo’s new range, coloured bright orange in its catalogue, epitomised the current thinking for the lamp: brand new refractor lanterns – sporting fancy refractor designs by Revo and manufactured by Holophane – brushed shoulders with minimal metal-framed lanterns with long steel or mirrored glass reflectors, and enormously wide and over-engineered cut-off concoctions. Most were open with the lamp exposed in a metal frame or shielded slightly by the refractors. It would’ve been amiss if the wonderfully eccentric Electrical Street Lighting Apparatus (ESLA) hadn’t produced something bafflingly unique for the LPS lamp itself. The firm didn’t disappoint and produced a variety of novel fittings for most sizes of this light source, all featuring the curved arches and faceted mirror reflectors used in lanterns for other lamps.

These features were distinctive characteristics of the firm’s extremely successful ‘Bi-Multi’ range. But it seemed odd to use a reflector configuration designed for a point source, such as a filament lamp, for a linear source such as the SO lamp. Surely the design wasn’t simply just to continue the recognisable aesthetic style of the company? As usual with ESLA, the idea behind the design was rugged and pragmatic. Having designed an ideal reflector for a point light source, the firm’s optical designer simply considered the linear source of a sodium lamp as an array of point sources (a process called ‘sectionalization’ in the firm’s literature). As the arc tube of the SO lamp was roughly in the same position as the filament of a GLS lamp, then the optical characteristics so carefully worked out for the original filament design would hold true for the linear lamp. So low-pressure sodium was a slow burner, being hardly recognised in the early parts of the decade, and only installed by a small number of early adopters. But its gradual adoption, combined with the technological leap when refractors were made available, accelerated the lamp’s acceptance. By the start of the war, it was on an even footing with its mercury counterpart. One thing was for sure – reinforced by this illustration of pre-war fittings during the dark days of the Second World War – was that low-pressure sodium was considered as one of the major rebuilding blocks once the war was finished.

Simon Cornwell BSc (Hons) is an R&D development senior manager at Dassault Systems

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LIGHTING, COVID AND CYCLING New ILP Vice President – Local Authority Michala Medcalf outlines her vision, including the importance of the ILP stepping up its engagement with councils. She also talks about her passion for cycling and how it saved her life when she fell seriously ill with Covid-19 last year

By Nic Paton

he ILP should be grateful it still has the energy, commitment and passion for lighting of Michala Medcalf to turn to for its new Vice President – Local Authority, as the industry nearly lost her to Covid-19 last year. ‘For me, every day is an extra day because in March 2020 I got Covid and by mid-April I was really poorly and ultimately resulted in me ending up in Resus. I was in a bad way; I was really, really lucky. It got to a point where, as the ambulance was taking me from home to hospital, I started turning blue, they got me in Resus but they couldn’t get any IV lines into me because all my veins had collapsed. I was checking out,’ she tells Lighting Journal, her voice, very understandably, cracking with emotion. ‘They gave me oxygen, double nebulised me and then gave me a stack of steroids. And they said, “if this works, great, if it doesn’t you’re going upstairs and going

on a ventilator”. Fortunately, for me, I pulled through and spent a few days on the Covid ward, which was an eye-opener. It was like being in the eye of the storm.’ Fortunately, despite a second (thankfully less serious) bout of Covid-19 last autumn, Michala is still very much with us, and was honoured to accept the VP role in March. ‘I’m very humbled by the very kind responses I’ve had; it has been heart-warming and very encouraging. You take on these new roles and you come with great gusto, and it gives you that extra excitement and motivation when you see such a positive response from the industry,’ she says. ‘My main objective is to get that engagement back with the ILP and local authorities. We have lost some of that; some of it has been through natural wastage, through people retiring from the industry. Some of it has been because of

some of the efficiencies councils have had to make, some of it because of the cuts. ‘Either way, we seem to have lost the skills of the lighting engineer within many local authorities, and that alone has had a detrimental effect to local authorities. So my role is about trying to undo some of that damage, trying to pull back some of the ground we have lost where we have lost those skills,’ she says. As street lighting manager at Derby City Council – and having been with the council for the whole of her lighting career – Michala is well placed to be promoting and pushing this agenda. As she points out, the fact she is a member of the Midlands Service Improvement Group, now MHA Plus, which represents 40 local authorities across the Midlands, means that is one body where she can, hopefully, start to make an impact straightaway. ‘I can start that engagement process because there should really be a member

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Inside the ILP of a local authority represented at that group. And, where there isn’t in other parts of the country, I will be getting the word out to people to please join their local group,’ she says. Also on her radar for engagement and connection is the ADEPT (Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport) street lighting group, APSE (the Association for Public Service Excellence) and the IHE (Institute of Highway Engineers), among others.

ON-THE-GROUND ENGAGEMENT

Michala is also keen to engage and communicate with both local authorities and individual ILP members on the ground. ‘Lighting is one of the key drivers to enable local authorities to have a postCovid economic recovery plan. Lighting feeds into so much of the community support and the business support that councils are wanting to deliver, around transforming cities, future high streets, and the post-Covid transportation agenda, as well as any aspirations to becoming a smart city. ‘So it is just trying to engage with local authorities across the nation, even those that don’t have membership with the ILP and may not even have a street lighting engineer. It is about just reaching out to them and saying, “look, what’s keeping you awake at night?”. How can we share good industry practice? How can we save you some time and some heartache? ‘Equally if, as an ILP member, you are struggling to get through a minefield of red tape and industry jargon, or need some assistance, or simply need to talk to someone, I want to get the message across that the ILP is there for you. If I can’t directly provide the answer, I will aim to put them in touch with somebody who can,’ Michala emphasises.

ILP SUPPORT

This sort of ILP support is precisely what Michala experienced herself when she first stepped up into a senior lighting role at Derby. She started at the council in 1994 after failing to join the army because of eye issues. ‘At the time I was devastated and didn’t know what to do. I’d been working in a temporary admin post at Derby and, even though they had advertised it because they’d thought I was a dead cert to get into the army, I managed to get a permanent post within the waste

Michala (right), with grandson Jack (centre) and a friend on a 120-mile coast-to-coast cycle ride from Gretna Green to Berwick-on-Tweed in October 2019

management section introducing recycling schemes into the city, which was all very new at that point,’ she recalls. Highways, street lighting, cleansing and refuse were then combined in 1997 when the council moved to unitary status, a transition that led Michala to begin supporting the street lighting team and taking the City & Guilds Level 2 electrical installation course. Then in 2007 the council went into a PFI arrangement and, after various moves and departures, by 2012 Michala suddenly found herself and the clerk of works managing the council’s £150m lighting contract. ‘I thought, “I’m in all sorts of bother here, I haven’t got a clue, who can help?”. I had seen the Lighting Journal knocking about the office and I spoke to Chantal [then membership services manager Chantal O’Sullivan] and the ILP was fantastic,’ Michala remembers. ‘She came up with an action plan, got me on some training, including the Exterior Lighting Diploma, and that is how it went really. All of that adversity led to my greatest opportunity. And I am still learning; I am by no means the most experienced person out there. All I want to do is do the best for Derby and the best for the industry; I absolutely love this industry. I love the technical

challenges and the diversity this industry offers. ‘I want people to reach out to me, to email me, ring me. If they’re struggling with something, ask me who they should speak to or is there any ILP information I can point them to. That, for me, is the biggest win for me from this role,’ she adds.

PASSION FOR CYCLING

Outside of lighting, cycling is Michala’s passion and, in fact, is what she attributes for pulling her through Covid-19. ‘I think cycling saved my life and, in fact, that’s what the doctors said. Because I was so fit before. Cycling is one of those things that just helps me to put things in perspective and give you that downtime. ‘It gives you an opportunity to spend time thinking about absolutely nothing; just to switch off and just concentrate on the cycling. I’m not yet back to full fitness, although I am still extremely fit compared to some people. I have a few competitive races booked this year – and so fingers crossed they take place,’ she adds.

HOW TO CONTACT MICHALA

Michala can be contacted by ILP members at vp.localauthority@theilp.org.uk

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Inside the ILP

PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT T

he ILP in March announced a new benefit for members, the ability to use your membership to apply for a ‘Construction Skills Certification Scheme’ (CSCS) card. CSCS cards, also known as ‘Professionally Qualified Person’ (PQP) cards, show that someone working on a construction has the appropriate training and qualifications for the job they are doing. For most people, this means being able to prove you have a recognised construction-related qualification (usually an NVQ or SVQ) as well as that you’ve

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passed the Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB’s) Health, Safety and Environment Test for Managers and Professionals within the past two years. However, CSCS cards can also be made available via membership of certain professional bodies, with the ILP now one of these. What this means in practice is that ILP members – fellows, associates, members and affiliates – can all use their membership as a means to apply for a PQP card. Student ILP members will be able to apply for a trainee card.

The PQP card is valid for five years and all applicants must still pass the CITB test. ILP Chief Executive Tracey White said of the move: ‘I’m delighted that ILP members who need to work on construction sites will now have a straightforward way to apply for a CSCS card through the ILP’s partnership with CSCS.’ When applying for their card, affiliates of the ILP will need to provide a letter from the ILP confirming their level of membership and eligibility. These letters are available from Karen Suggett, Membership Manager, at karen@theilp.org.uk.

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