Lowering lighting costs in offices, schools, hotels, hospitals, industries and other public environments

Offices, schools and hospitals are some of the environments in which Lighting Research Center solutions for good lighting can be found. Lighting specifiers and facilities managers can reduce lighting energy usage in open-plan offices by following tips from a recent study conducted by the Lighting Research Center (LRC). Lighting for offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, industries, museums and other public environments.

The field study was conducted at the Connecticut Department of Public Safety by Yukio Akashi, Ph.D., LRC senior research scientist, and Peter Boyce, Ph.D., LRC professor emeritus. They determined that lighting reduction shows no long-term change in worker satisfaction.

The six steps they recommend for a retrofit are these:

1) Most offices use 3-lamp or 4-lamp recessed parabolic luminaires. Check whether these luminaires can operate on fewer lamps without modification. If they cannot, the retrofit process is unlikely to be economical.

2) Assuming that the luminaires can work with fewer lamps, relamp the whole installation with fluorescent lamps rated at 5000 K CCT (correlated color temperature).

3) Remove one lamp from every third luminaire, except from those around the perimeter of the office space.

4) Wait three months. This allows time for workers to adapt to the new lighting. Afterwards, remove one lamp from every second luminaire, except those on the perimeter.

5) Wait another three months for adaptation time. Then, remove one lamp from all the remaining luminaires, except those on the perimeter.

6) Have a stock of task lights available to workers who complain of too little light.

The study was sponsored by The Connecticut Light and Power Company. A full explanation of the study, how it was conducted, and the results, are available in this news story from the LRC..