Racket Court LED lighting at sports facility scores savings of over 70%
New Racket Court LED lighting is the ideal flexible solution to meet the unique requirements of these sports facilities. Following successful projects at ‘Real Tennis’ courts, LED specialist Earlsmann was asked by Winchester College to renew the lighting at the school’s two ‘Rackets’ courts. This unusual game, closely related to Squash, is played in enclosed courts – good light levels are vital to allow fast, entertaining and safe play.
| Before: The old lighting created shadows on the back wall, making Rackets play more difficult and dangerous, and was expensive to run | After: The new LED lighting provides a brighter, safer environment and creates impressive savings in energy and maintenance costs |
Lighting survey informs LED lighting design
Earlsmann liaised with the school’s staff to undertake a site survey, and created a Relux model to optimise light levels and improve uniformity. Rackets uses a small, hard white ball, so the walls and floor of the court must be darker to create contrast and ensure good visibility – providing a safe environment for play. It’s particularly important that the two corners of the rear wall are well-lit.
LED solution improves light levels by around 50%
With lights mounted at 10m, the Relux model showed that Earlsmann’s design would create a 620lux average with 0.82 uniformity – about 50% brighter than the original SON and metal halide lights were providing. Earlsmann combined dimmable luminaires with constant lux sensors to maintain light level at target lux. The sensors were placed in accessible positions where they could accurately detect light levels on each court. Earlsmann designed an innovative adjustable passive constant sensor to overcome an issue with supplying power at these locations.
LEDs gain instant savings in energy use and maintenance costs
Once the new LED lighting was installed, energy use dropped from 9.5kW to 2.9kW, creating savings of around 70%. Additional benefits included instant start with no long warm-up (traditional MH and SON type-lighting typically takes 20 minutes to reach full brightness). The lighting is designed with an 80% maintenance factor to allow for aging (when installed, the light level is capable of being 25% brighter than designed). Controlling the LEDs to the 600-lux design target of increases luminaire life as they are not running at full power continuously.
A complete solution from Earlsmann, the LED experts
Earlsmann worked with Winchester College to provide a ‘one stop shop’ service, drawing on its design expertise to develop a solution that provided the required light levels while maximising savings. Earlsmann also liaised with the installation contractor, InterLED, to deliver the upgrade project on time and to budget. Tim Cawston, Rackets Pro at Winchester College, confirmed the success of the project, saying; “we are very impressed with the increase in light level and delighted with the result”.
Earlsmann – your experienced partner in creating total LED lighting solutions
Earlsmann has many years’ experience in the LED marketplace and manufactures lighting units at its factory in the UK, producing high-quality, reliable products underpinned by a full five-year warranty.
We provide a comprehensive range of lighting solutions to suit every interior and exterior application.
Find out more about our commercial lighting products, call 08456 434 740 or email sales@earlsmann.co.uk.
You might want to take a look at our tennis court lighting solutions and some of our other LED Lighting projects for leisure centres and sports hall lighting.