Better lighting, better productivity

Artificial lighting has been around for a very long time but it has only been comparatively recently that we have sought to provide it for the full illumination of our workplaces. Over the last century we developed our artificial lighting solutions so that we could extend our working hours much beyond the normal daytime. Unfortunately, this has led to many projects where the quantity of lighting seemed to be all that mattered – energy costs, visual comfort and the well being of staff have appeared to take a back seat. Office workers and students may be squinting and suffering headaches due to the lower quality of light from this costly, old lighting technology.

Today’s energy saving lighting solutions and controls can change all that, they produce better lighting, which has a positive impact on people. On top of that, they cost less to run thanks to their reduced energy consumption and this means less CO2 emissions as well. This is clearly demonstrated in the recent radical transformation of 55 Baker Street, a modern multi use complex on the site of the former Marks & Spencer headquarters. The scheme has been designed to minimise the environmental impact and integration of controls and energy efficient lighting solutions has helped it achieve the BREEAM rating of “excellent”. In addition to savings in energy costs, the Philips ECS LMM lighting management system provides the further benefit of ultimate flexibility should upgrades and additions be required making it a truly future proof solution.

Ultimate flexibility
Indeed, this is an important factor for many property developers since in today’s business environment, demands are high. To accommodate the individual needs of tenants, open plan layouts, cellular offices and hot desking are all key, but there is also a need to cater for expansion and office layout changes. This was a crucial factor for Land Securities when considering the office development at 40 Eastbourne Terrace. Clients for example may wish to take whole or part floors or even a mix of the two. Thus, this flexibility accommodates these needs and even allows the option of hiring out additional space for meetings as and when they need it.

Light quality
Functionality aside, studies show that we feel better working under higher quality lighting. In offices this means enhanced productivity, in schools this translates into better learning environments. At work or at school, this results in greater levels of motivation and lower levels of absenteeism. Upgrading to better lighting may be simply a case of replacing old lamps with new ones such as ActiViva which have been developed to recreate the blue rich content of daylight. This has been demonstrated at the Glenmorangie bottling plant in Scotland, where ActiViva lamps have been installed in the office areas thus transforming the space from one which is dull and poorly lit to one which is crisp and bright. As a result, staff feel better and are much more able to concentrate. The recent scientific study in Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, also concludes exposure to blue-enriched white light during daytime work hours improves subjective alertness, performance, and evening fatigue.

Tremendous potential
In terms of environmental impact, buildings represent 40 percent of the world’s energy demand. This is projected to rise substantially as population grows, moves to cities and becomes more affluent. Incredibly, less than 5 percent of UK office lighting installations use their lighting management systems as effective energy saving solutions. Clearly, there is tremendous potential for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in this sector.

Cut energy costs by up to 75 percent with HF gear and controls
Fluorescent lighting is still the preferred option for the workspace because it is considered efficient. However, advancements in fluorescent technology means systems have improved over the years and many companies still use lighting that is way behind modern efficiency standards. A complete refit of an office or factory using Philips fluorescent lamps with Philips HF (High Frequency) electronic gear delivers economic and operational advantages improving lighting performance and reducing energy consumption.

Add lighting controls such as Philips ActiLume and companies can further improve energy saving thanks to daylight linking and occupancy detection. Whilst sophisticated control systems offer extensive functionality, Actilume is a simple “plug and play” solution offering the benefits of energy efficiency yet small enough to be discreetly mounted on the luminaire.

Benefits of lighting controls
A fully featured and functional lighting management system is capable of reducing lighting costs in three significant ways:

1. Making sure that lighting does not remain on when people are absent.
2. Controlled luminance, which compensates for initial over-lighting.
3. Daylight linked dimming to reduce perimeter lighting levels when there is sufficient daylight.

Simply introducing controls able to ensure lighting does not remain on when no-one is present in a typical office can take the usage down from 6,000 hours to no more than 3,500 based on a 14 hour five day week; a 40 percent reduction.

These numbers could be improved with detailed movement detection used to ‘set-back’ the lighting to a lower level in unoccupied areas. Calculating these additional savings is quite complex but – if this was a typical office – a round figure of 15 percent – 20 percent is feasible.

Secondly, the benefit of limiting light output to the required design levels can generate average savings over time (between lamp changes) of around 7 – 10 percent.

Following the trend towards greater daylight penetration into buildings creates greater potential for daylight linked savings. This will largely be limited to areas nearest the daylight source and if just the first row of the linear fittings near each source is considered then daylight dimming can typically be applied to about 17 percent of the main lighting. If the daylight dimming in this zone was to achieve a 60 percent reduction in lighting energy used due to dimming with respect to available daylight then this produces a further 10 percent saving. At Abbey, one of the UK’s leading personal financial services companies, for example, maximum use of the natural light which pours into the open plan office space has been made by adopting the ActiLume system. Here, the ActiLume controller automatically adapts the luminaires to the surrounding conditions by maintaining a constant light level. This is done via an easy-to-use hand held mode selector tool allowing the light to be dimmed to the room’s natural light level. This allowed Abbey to demonstrate significant energy savings and an improved quality of light over the original solution.

In conclusion then, new developments in lighting technologies will allow us to deliver light in the right quantity, quality and colour while minimising the cost of ownership and carbon emissions. Always remember that lighting consumes nearly 20 percent of the global electricity generation, so we cannot ignore its cost; but we must also recognise that we are now providing much more than just enough light to work by. Quantity of light may still be an important factor but quality of light can no longer be ignored.

Contact details:
Philips Lighting
Philips Centre
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 8XH
Tel 01293 776 774
Email: lighting.uk@philips.com
Web: www.lighting.philips.co.uk