Lighting efficiency Theatres
of buildings we’re dealing with – theatres over pubs, converted factories, listed buildings. There’s no silver bullet which will cover all of them.’ This diversity, coupled with heritage issues and
Tim Atkinson, a lighting designer-turned-energy assessor, is hoping that London’s Theatreland can drastically reduce its carbon footprint
Regional Development Fund to the tune of £450,000. The cash will be dispensed by the Theatres Trust, which promotes and protects British theatres. The Mayor’s aim is to dramatically reduce London
Theatreland’s carbon footprint – estimated at 50,000 tonnes, equivalent to roughly 10% of the capital’s bus emissions – as part of his bid to achieve a 60% reduction in the city’s greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2025. Through the Ecovenue initiative, 48 smaller
London theatres and performing arts venues will receive a display energy certificate (DEC) assessment and advisory report, as well as a full environmental audit, covering areas such as waste disposal, water consumption and use of sustainable materials. They will get a free second DEC a year later to help quantify results and promote achievements. The man delivering this three-year programme is
Tim Atkinson, the trust’s theatre building services adviser to Ecovenue. A lighting design graduate from Rose Bruford drama college, and for the past 10 years deputy chief electrician at the Shaftesbury Theatre, he trained as a DEC assessor in 2008, after himself struggling to find information and advice on energy efficiency when he needed it. Now having to provide this advice to others, he
admits to being at the foot of another learning curve. Targets and potential savings are hard to quantify precisely, both because this is new territory and because the idiosyncratic nature of the buildings involved. A 2008 initial study reported in the Green Theatre
Plan offers only a partial breakdown of typical energy use in a theatre – revealing that stage lighting accounts for 9% and exterior lighting 2%, but offering no figures for general and house lighting. The largest tranche of energy use, 35%, goes on auditorium heating and cooling. As Atkinson points out, the study was mainly carried out on West End theatres, which tend to have larger frontages and more impressive displays. ‘Research hasn’t really been done, and this project
will be a learning process as well – we don’t know what the savings potentially could be,’ says Atkinson. ‘It’s also hard to generalise because of the huge variety
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the fact that performance spaces depend on light for evoking atmosphere, means that recommendations might have to be more subtle than simply switching from tungsten to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). ‘You can’t just put energy saving lamps in the auditorium chandelier,’ says Atkinson. ‘But it may be that cleaning staff use house lights to light the auditorium while they’re cleaning it. You might not have to abandon your tungsten lighting there but perhaps adjust when you use it and look at why you’re using it. You’re sometimes looking for application and usage pattern rather than necessarily looking for an alternative.’ The carrot of the Ecovenue scheme is necessarily complemented by the stick of the EU bulb ban – an issue over which the heritage venues have perhaps been a little ostrich-like. ‘There needs to be a serious look at how heritage lighting is affected,’ says Atkinson. ‘The debate to be had is: which is the overriding factor? Do we want to retain the quality of the design and the aesthetic of a fitting, or do you abandon that for what we’re trying to achieve here? That’s not been thrashed out yet. That’s something we’ll have greater insight into by the end of
HVAC Steps to quick wins
Check the efficiency of electrical equipment – use a ‘power factor’ survey. Utility providers may offer a power factor survey free or for a reduced charge. Recommended surveyors can be found at:
www.carbontrust.co.uk
Check the boiler’s efficiency rating – new boilers are over 15% more efficient. Boilers have an official efficiency rating from A to G, where A is the most efficient.
Consider fitting a variable speed drive (VSD) – this controls the supply fan motors of any oversized cooling motor and allows for variable levels of air flow to the auditorium. Fitting VSDs will enable you to control the speed of the motor so that it matches the speed of the equipment it is driving.
Install insulation – on internal appliances, external walls, windows and roofs.
Install air quality sensors and temperature sensors – in the auditorium to provide additional control, which will enable the system to run at a reduced rate when the auditorium is not fully occupied.
Source: Green Theatre – Taking Action on Climate Change, 2008, Mayor of London. Visit
www.london.gov.uk/ who-runs-london/mayor/publications/culture/ green-theatre-taking-action-climate-change
CIBSE lighting
module This new module aims to give
engineers and project managers with little or no lighting design experience a better understanding of the use of design methods for indoor lighting applications. For full details visit
www.cibsetraining.
co.uk/onlinelearning
>
July 2010 CIBSE Journal
39
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