Anyone considering a new build or extension in England and Wales now has to comply with some of the most far-reaching regulations on energy efficiency in the world introduced last October. With 75 per cent of your fixed internal fittings now required to be energy efficient, end- ing up with an attractive lighting scheme is far from easy, but it’s not impossible. Meanwhile, lighting technology is changing fast opening the way for new solutions as well as new disasters! However, if you learn about new light sources
and see samples in action then you should be able to design successful and innovative new lighting schemes.
Understanding the regulations Before even thinking about how you want to light your home it is important to understand exactly what the regulations mean. Energy efficient is now defined as 45 lumens
per watt and for any light fitting to be deemed compliant it must also produce a minimum of 400
Lighting technology is changing fast opening the way for new solutions
getting the green light
Sally Storey, design director of John Cullen Lighting, helps self builders cope with the new energy efficient lighting regulations
lumens. We all need to know about lumens (Lm) as EU law means that they will slowly replace watts on all packaging. There is no convenient way of converting watts (which measure power) to lumens (which measure light), but to give you some idea a classic 40w bulb roughly equates to around 415Lm, a Classic 60w bulb gives out roughly 710Lm, and a 100w bulb about 1340Lm, depending on the product chosen. A fixed light fitting refers to any fitting that is
permanently wired and which you would nor- mally turn on at the wall. The definition includes dedicated light fittings which take only low energy bulbs or standard fittings supplied with low energy bulbs. There are a number of things that will not
count towards your target of achieving 75 per cent energy efficiency. For example, lights in storage areas, cupboards, your garage or wardrobes won’t count, and neither will any circuits of 5 watts or less.
Different light sources Compact fluorescent bulbs have been pushed about as far as they can be and the light they give off, especially when dimmed, still tends to be flat, cold and generally unwelcoming. There may also be health and safety concerns to consider. Instead of using compact fluorescent bulbs I
would recommend using energy saving IRC (infrared coated) incandescent bulbs instead, even though these are only 30 per cent energy efficient. However, in a couple of years’ time, LED bulbs may well offer an equally good and more efficient alternative. However, they haven’t got there yet. LED technology represents the future of energy
efficient lighting and although it can’t compete with the quality of light produced by the best tra- ditional incandescent fittings just yet, it is already starting to get close. The main problem with LED lights at the moment is that the colour of the light they emit can differ even if the lights are meant
THE EFFECTS OF LAYERED LIGHTING
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