LED Lighting Scores Top Marks for Great Lighting in Classrooms
LED lighting provides bright, even illumination that is ideal for educational settings. LED specialist Earlsmann recently partnered with electrical contractor NCS Technology to design and supply lighting for classrooms at Wimbledon High School, an independent girls’ day school in south-west London. The new LED units are providing energy savings of over 75% along with a significant improvement in light levels.
LEDs offer instant benefits over traditional lighting
Earlsmann visited the school site to survey the existing lighting, which comprised outdated surface-mounted fluorescent battens. These were in urgent need of modernisation as they were energy-hungry and beginning to fail. While one classroom had already been updated, the school’s management team were now seeking an alternative solution as they were finding the control system to be too complicated and costly for their needs.
Earlsmann was invited to design the lighting scheme for a ‘trial’ classroom. The space benefited from generous levels of natural light due to its high ceiling and a large window – there was, therefore, an opportunity to save energy through effective control of the lights.
Earlsmann: specialist in affordable, custom-built LED solutions
Earlsmann developed a purpose-designed, attractive, continuous suspended luminaire that combines downlighting with a small amount of uplight to fill the void left by lowering the lights. The lights were suspended to place them closer to the desks, creating ideal learning conditions while also saving energy. The lighting solution uses daylight harvesting sensors (which detect levels of natural light and automatically adjust the light level) and full dimming control. It also includes an emergency back-up power supply, supporting safety and security.
LED lighting is best in class for schools
Earlsmann modelled the classroom to CIBSE guidelines to ensure it was correctly lit. The scheme exceeded the minimum 400 lux required, with excellent uniformity, creating a stimulating environment for learning. Due to the highly efficient luminaires and the automatic dimming functionality, energy use instantly dropped from around 1250 kWhrs/year to around 100 kWhrs/year, a huge saving of over 90% compared to the old fluorescent lighting.
NCS Techonology achieved installation of the new lights in the trial classroom in just two days. The school’s management team have been so impressed with their new high-quality, low-maintenance and reliable lighting solution that they have invited NCS and Earlsmann to design and supply new LED lighting across several other areas of the site.
Earlsmann, your experienced partner in creating total LED lighting solutions
Earlsmann is a UK-based LED lighting company with many years’ experience in the LED marketplace, providing a comprehensive range of lighting solutions to suit every interior and exterior application. In-house designers use Relux modelling to create innovative solutions tailored to client requirements.
Find out more about Earlsmann’s commercial lighting products, call us 08456 434 740 or email sales@earlsmann.co.uk.
You might also like to take a look at our other school lighting projects.