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From Waste To Wow – TRILUX

From Waste to Wow: TRILUX and Skanska’s circular lighting project saves 17 tonnes of CO2e and creates an inspiring workplace

UK, May 2023 – Skanska, a leading construction and development company committed to reducing carbon emissions, partnered with TRILUX to provide a sustainable and inspiring workplace for its UK head office. The project aimed to introduce more efficient lighting to match the existing look and type of luminaires, providing lighting control with minimal impact on carbon emissions.

Skanska, one of the world’s biggest construction firms, recently relocated its UK head office to Leavesden, Watford.

The goal was to create a smart, sustainable, and inspiring workplace that served as an agile hub for collaboration and digital work. The objectives of the new lighting within the new office were:

  • Reduce the lighting output to be more suitable for an office working environment
  • To match the look/type of luminaires within the existing office areas
  • Introduce lighting controls to enable areas to be adapted to the meeting environments.
  • Ensure that the new areas would be energy efficient

 

The Take Back Scheme

TRILUX engineered a solution to retain the existing fittings where possible and implemented a Take Back scheme for the old LC60 linear luminaires. The team took back the linear lengths of luminaires and stripped them down for repurposing and recycling. This included reusing all salvable material i.e. luminaire housing, terminal blocks, end caps and even the wire suspensions. The refurbished luminaires were updated with energy efficient LEDs and drivers.

Refurbishing for a more comfortable working environment

Additionally, it was noted that the existing linear lighting covering the open plan areas, initially designed for a call centre at 6000K, was too bright and cool in appearance, with the potential to cause headaches after a short period of time. TRILUX conducted testing to adapt the colour temperature of the existing fittings. The process involved filters; the team came to the site with calibrated lighting testing equipment, and a special amber filter was introduced and trialled to render the colour temperature of the existing fittings closer to 4000K to give a much warmer appearance while reducing the light output to suit the lighting requirements. These were fitted to the existing luminaire diffusers to seamlessly adapt the fittings without major work.

 

Reduced transport emissions

TRILUX ensured minimal packaging, one-trip collection, dismantling, documenting, photographing, and labelling of all components to reduce carbon emissions in transport and waste.

The project was delivered efficiently on time, and to budget. By refurbishing 650m of lights at Leavesden Park (via the use of colour filters) rather than buying new, Skanska has saved approximately 17 tonnes of CO2e as fewer raw materials were used. It is also important to note that outside of this figure, additional raw materials and carbon were saved by splitting some existing longer linear lengths of light to repurpose as shorter lengths. In both cases, waste was reduced, as less existing lighting had to be disposed of.

By repurposing, refurbishing and recycling luminaires and components, TRILUX and Skanska demonstrated their commitment to circularity and sustainability, contributing to a greener future.

Reece Bannister, MEP Project Manager at Skanska comments,

“Working with TRILUX on this project has been a positive experience and has built on our good relationship. They are a company that understands our values and goals. As a result, we were able to discuss how we could achieve our carbon reduction objectives by not stripping out, throwing the luminaires away and buying new. Working together, we found solutions that gave colleagues a great new office to work in.”

 

CLICK HERE For further information on TRILUX

 

 

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Stretching your Imagination

Stretch Ceiling together with Tunable LED lighting can reinvent a space bringing alive a corridor, classroom, reception area, meeting room, plus sensory rooms thus enhancing these environments.

Our extensive experience and product knowledge gives us a unique insight into the optimum lighting systems compatible with our Stretch diffuser providing a cost effective solution and the ability to create evenly illuminated, cool and clean or loud and colourful luminaires.

Our own Quadlink product, flexible daisy chain advanced LED modular system, provides energy efficiency, long life and reliability. The complete stretch and lighting system can be installed quickly on site following pre-assembly and testing in our workshop.

The products are quick delivery, 100% recyclable, hygienic, anti-static, nontoxic and accessible for maintenance.

For further information please call Tel: 01276 681000 or visit www.stretchceilings.co.uk

 

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LED is the Jewel in Lighting’s Crown

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By Stephen Hurrell, Managing Director, Aurora Group UK Projects

There are several misconceptions about LED lighting, principally that LED lighting prices will go down so it pays to wait; LEDs are so efficient that controls are unnecessary; and that LEDs don’t work well in high-temperature environments.

According to the Energy Savings Trust, LED offers best value for money in lighting today; the price of fittings has come down and, at the same time, performance has improved significantly.

The Carbon Trust advocates LED as its number one efficiency recommendation. LeaUnknown-2ding website www.environmentalleader.com reports that while switching to LEDs creates a one-time savings event – typically reducing lighting energy use by up to 50% – integrated sensing and controls can nearly double those energy savings, making controls essential for maximum savings and project economics.

And did you know that by using LED in construction, it significantly contributes to the BREEAM rating of a building as it typically halves energy consumption of traditional light sources. Miniaturisation has also led to a significant reduction in raw materials utilised in manufacture.

Artificial lighting in buildings is usually categorised in three ways. The ‘Ambient’ lighting function provides light to the space to an accepted level. ‘Accent’ lighting highlights certain features and/or attributes. ‘Task’ lighting illuminates specific working areas to aid visibility.

Lighting Performance

The four key criteria governing LED performance are thermal management, optical control, efficacy of light and reliability of power. So, what are the guiding principles of best practice in quality manufacturing?

Heat has a negative impact on any LED light source’s performance. The next generation in thermal management dissipates heat away from the LED chip, providing higher quality, brighter light for longer.  There’s also been continuous improvement in efficacies of LED chips so the higher the lumens per watt, the better.

Look for products warranted to L70 to a stated number of hours.  This means you can expect a light output of 70% of the lumen performance stated at that period of time e.g., a 1000 lumen LED luminaire will deliver at least 700 lumens after six years, based on burning 4000 hours per year.

An emerging trend in construction is to insulate the ceiling void by ‘blowing in’ loose fill insulation as an alternative to loose-laid products. Loose fill completely encloses the fitting which could affect LED performance in inferior downlights.

 Biodynamic lighting

Light controls our biological or body clock and this is known as the circadian rhythm. New to the market, biodynamic LED lighting allows people to control their environment according to need, mood and task, which can improve performance and motivation. Changing the colour temperature of the artificial lightsource (e.g. from extra warm to warm through to cool) can have a dramatic effect. Biodynamics is particularly suitable for dynamic interior projects, retail applications, and in healthcare and homes for the elderly.

 Regulatory compliance

Lighting design is a complex issue and part of a quality manufacturer’s role is to develop bespoke schemes which will comply with regulations. A revised version of the Building Regulations, Part L (2013), came into force in April 2014. BIM LEVEL 2 was introduced as a requirement for all government construction projects this April 2016.

Enlite’s LED value solution

The Aurora Group has responded to increased demand for LED by engineering the Enlite range of 250+ “Lighting Essentials”. Enlite offers Offsite’s varied modular business model the best in value, quality and performance to meet specifications and budgets.

Firm Enlite LED favourites in the MMC sector are the E8TM 8W integrated fire rated downlights with halogen like appearance, the ultra-slim E6060 TM 600mm2 flat panels for commercial applications, the UniPac TM and LinearPac TM IP65 linear anti-corrosives which replace traditional T8s and the vandal resistant Orbital TM IP66 bulkhead.

 

Call: +44 (0) 1727 83 66 11 or visit http://enlitelighting.com
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