The Time Square office building in Bracknell is home to Bracknell Forest Council. The building is typical of many UK office blocks and required a complete refurbishment, including a lighting upgrade.

The old lighting comprised 1x58W switchstart luminaires with cat 2 louvres arranged in rows within a metal plank ceiling across the office space. The luminaire design combined with old technology meant the ceiling and walls appeared very dark, creating a gloomy effect below the optimum lighting specification for offices.

 
Two schemes were put forward for consideration: 1x55W TC-L with high frequency dimmable
control gear and 1x42W LED with dimmable gear. The latter scheme was chosen with the contemporary recessed Quattro LED luminaire because it offered maximum energy savings. In comparison to the existing 1x58W switchstart luminaire, Quattro LED offered a 37% energy saving on connected load. Significantly, over a 12-year period, Quattro LED also offered an energy and maintenance saving of £45,543 compared to the fluorescent alternative.

Lighting controls further increase energy savings
Part of the upgrade also included the installation of daylight and presence lighting controls using Sensa Link to ensure the lighting uses the minimum amount of energy required to meet the new design specification. The new lighting levels have been designed to achieve 450 lux on the working plane with sensors programmed to dim the lights in groups according to daylight and occupancy. With the inclusion of lighting controls, lighting is only used when required, increasing the energy savings over and above the 37% achieved by upgrading to LED.

Comfortable lighting fit for the environment
The office lighting has been brought up to the latest lighting standards to support the wide variety of
office-based tasks. With excellent colour rendition and superb light quality, the Quattro LED luminaires have transformed the working environment into a bright, vibrant space. The office is now a comfortable place to work, facilitating everyday tasks such as reading, writing and working with a computer screen, as well as clear communication between people As well as the lighting technology upgrade, the office has also been redecorated. This has increased the reflected light within the space and in turn creates further energy savings.

As part of the refurbishment, the emergency lighting has also been upgraded to LED using the Thorn Voyager LED series range. The addition of Explorer emergency lighting controls give a central emergency testing facility across the building.

Controls used

Sensa Link controls
Explorer emergency controls
Key Facts

Energy consumption reduced by 37%
450 lux
Colour rendition: Ra80

Visit www.novelenergylighting.com to explore our range of Thorn LED Lighting, or call us to discuss project specification and pricing.
T: 0208-540-8287
E: sales@novelenergylighting.com

energy efficient lighting · led lighting controls · Novel Energy Lighting · office led · office lighting · sensa link · thorn led · thorn lighting · thorn quattro led · thorn voyager led · tube retrofit

The lighting industry is gearing up to launch a key weapon in the war on the deadly Zika virus – special LED lights.

Fred Maxik, the chief technology officer of Lighting Science, is exploring the possibility of constructing a special trap for the mosquito which carries the life-threatening infection.

Transmitted via a bite from the yellow fever mosquito, Zika is extremely serious for pregnant women, as there’s evidence it causes birth defects such as abnormally small heads. Experts now warn that they expect the Zika virus to spread to all countries in the Americas, including the Caribbean, except Chile and Canada.

Lighting Science – which uses special tuned lighting for applications such as water purification, turtle protection and space use – is developing a tuned light trap for the yellow fever mosquito. The company is already working with the US Department of Agriculture on its programme of light-based insect traps. With a little modification, it thinks it can develop one specially to help in the war on the Zika virus.

This is because different mosquitos are attracted to different wavelengths of light. By ‘tuning’ the light specifically at the yellow fever mosquito – or Aedes aegypti, to give it its scientific name – the light traps can be targeted.

‘There’s no one size fits all,’ Maxik told Fortune magazine this week. By testing the traps in the field, the company can work out exactly which spectral signature attracts and which repels the creatures. Special lights can then be developed to deter the mosquitoes from approaching buildings such as ante-natal clinics and hospitals in high-risk zones. ‘We’re trying to create light that’s useful for our own purposes.’

LED lamps · led lighting · led tubes · Novel Energy Lighting · tunable light · zika virus