Lighting scheme combines savings and aesthetics

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 21, 2002

Intelligent luminaires from Cooper Lighting and Security have been used in the new wing of the Police Mutual Assurance Society building in Lichfield.

Intelligent luminaires from Cooper Lighting and Security have been used in the new wing of the Police Mutual Assurance Society building in Lichfield, creating a lighting scheme that is both energy-efficient and visually appealing.

The three-storey building is an additional wing to an existing office block, connected by a new atrium and reception area.

According to Paul Howell of consulting engineers Greenway and Partners Ltd, the aim was to use lighting technology that was both state-of-the-art and demonstrably reliable, thus reflecting the prestigious, modern design of the building.

"The ability to tailor the lighting to suit individuals' needs was an important consideration," he commented, "and best practice also demands that we take energy efficiency into account.

In addition, the building has large areas of windows, so we wanted to make full use of the natural daylight that they provide." The Intellect Digital intelligent lighting system from Cooper's Crompton Lighting range proved to be ideally suited to the task, and the stylish Intellect Aeroform recessed luminaire was chosen as the standard fitting for use in the building's large open-plan offices.

As well as incorporating occupancy detection and daylight sensing technology, Intellect Digital luminaires can be programmed to provide light levels anywhere between 1 and 100% of their maximum output, thereby ensuring constant illumination regardless of the age of the tubes.

The Intellect system also offers a great deal of flexibility; if an open-plan office area needs to be reconfigured at any time, the lighting can be quickly and easily reprogrammed to suit the new layout by means of a handheld infra-red programmer.

The Intellect Aeroform 600 x 600mm modular luminaire was selected for the Police Mutual building because it is an attractively styled fitting that provides lighting on vertical surfaces as well as on the working plane, thereby helping to create a pleasant working environment.

In some areas of the open-plan offices, the pointed shape of the building precluded the use of an Aeroform luminaire, and so Solstar recessed compact fluorescent downlighters were installed instead.

These Solstar downlighters were slaved to the nearest Aeroform luminaire, so that whenever the Aeroform dims down, the Solstar linked to it dims as well.

Standard high-frequency Solstars have been used to good effect in other parts of the building, while Coolstar low-voltage downlighters provide accent lighting in the office areas.

The main conference room is lit by Aeroform luminaires and Coolstar downlighters, and these are all linked to a Crompton infra-red lighting control system.

When a presentation is about to begin, all the lighting in the room can be dimmed manually from one point by operating a simple handheld controller.

A proportion of all the luminaires in the building are emergency versions, and a number of Emergex Edge exit signs have also been installed.

All emergency fittings are linked to an Intellem Central emergency-lighting self-test system, which automatically carries out test regimes to meet the requirements of BS5266 or EN50172 standards and reports all faults back to a central control panel.

The exact location and nature of any fault is shown on an LCD display and can be printed out if required.

The lighting scheme has been very well received and, according to Howell, it is performing extremely well and doing everything that was expected of it.