RIDI Lighting’s ARKTIK-LED fittings have brought a new lease of life to 50 classrooms at Middlesex University. By replacing the existing fluorescent luminaires with 379 ARKTIK-LED fittings, together with occupancy sensors and user controls, the university has been able to significantly reduce energy consumption and dramatically improve lighting levels in these rooms.
The pre-existing 600 x 600 quad 2ft fluorescent tube lamps had become ineffective, creating an inefficiently lit working environment for staff and students as well as high maintenance and energy bills. Lamp failures, poor light levels and faulty controls and detectors were commonplace.
“We were looking for an attractive, high quality luminaire that could significantly increase the level of light, whilst reducing energy consumption, cost and maintenance schedules,” says Mark Norman, Environmental Manager at Middlesex University. “We are constantly looking to invest in our sites and equipment to improve student satisfaction and reduce our on-going running costs and environmental impact. By updating our lighting with ARKTIK-LED, we have taken a massive step towards achieving these goals.”
The solution was RIDI Lighting’s ARKTIK-LED luminaires. These recessed fittings include a diffuser specially designed to optimise the output. The impressive 5200 lumen output has allowed Middlesex University to reduce the number of fittings required by over a third. This, combined with the energy efficiency of the luminaires and the improved controls has led to an overall reduction in energy consumption of approximately 70% each year.
“Thanks to RIDI Lighting, we have now managed to achieve an even level of lighting across each classroom, producing a close to natural light effect. The staff using the rooms have full control over the luminaires and can now choose from pre-set scenes, such as setting the light levels to dim over the teaching board only, or set different levels between student (350 lux) and adult education (500 lux) in the classrooms. The former allows lecturers to switch the focus of the students towards a presentation or a practical demonstration in any area of the room. The absence detectors ensure than no light is wasted if occupants forget to turn them off and during daylight hours, we can optimise the natural light available outside instead of wasting energy, as was the case with our previous luminaires which automatically switched on whenever the room was occupied. These energy saving measures were of the upmost importance when choosing the lighting design.“ concluded Norman.
By simply replacing the existing luminaires with ARKTIK-LEDs with the addition of controls, staff and students at Middlesex University can achieve a high level of reliable control which can be personalised to fit the needs of each individual room. The level and quality of light that is produced by the LED luminaires mean that fewer fittings are required to fill each room which lowers the initial cost of upgrading as well as ongoing energy consumption and a better visual environment.
