Therapeutic lighting
Basilica, Parkalux, and Parkalux Angled luminaires in the ward day space (left) and the patient reception waiting area for physical healthcare at the new Broadmoor Hospital.
when there is enough natural daylight.” To simplify maintenance, the diffuser and gear tray are both removable, ‘not only allowing quick and hassle-free access without disturbing the anti-pick mastic, but also providing a sustainable way for technology to be upgraded in the future’.
FIRST INSTALLATION
Alan Carter said: “The new Basilica Tuneable White has recently seen its first installation – on the Juniper Ward, an acute male and female psychiatric facility which is part of the Long Fox unit on the Weston General Hospital site in Weston-super-Mare that has recently been renovated.”
The mental health unit’s operator, Avon and
Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP), was keen to create a more therapeutic setting on the Juniper Ward. A Designplan Lighting case study explains: “The Basilica Tuneable White, incorporating new lighting technology, was chosen for this scheme as it is designed to mimic our circadian rhythm. Replicating natural light to regulate our body clock has a holistic effect on the service-users by balancing the hormones to help create a feeling of wellbeing and reduce stress levels.”
It continues: “It is not just the amount of light that is significant, but also the colour. A daylight sensor detects the amount of natural light, and during the day lux levels can be raised with a cool colour temperature for an energy boost. In the evening, to create a calmer, relaxing environment, the lux levels are lowered with a warm colour temperature. At night the light levels are reduced further to avoid any disturbance during the frequent monitoring of service-users. This resolved the issue of the previous lighting installation, which was very disruptive, as it caused light to flood service- users’ rooms when staff opened observation blinds. Lighting controls such as presence and daylight sensors can help further reduce energy consumption. In areas such as day spaces and dining areas, the lighting is controlled, when necessary, via a dimmable wall switch.”
A SIMPLE CONTROL SYSTEM AWP required a simple control system integrated within the Basilica Tuneable White which was automated for time, date, and seasonal changes. The microwave sensor reacts
22 THE NETWORK OCTOBER 2018
to activity, and the fitting comes on at the brightness level appropriate for that time of day. This then dims down after 10 minutes, and switches off after a further period if no presence is detected.
Designplan Lighting was appointed on the Juniper Ward scheme to design and commission a lighting system for all corridors, day areas, TV rooms, and dining rooms. Adjustable light levels and colour temperatures were incorporated to aid rest and recuperation, while existing lighting points and cabling were used to minimise disturbance to service-users.” Lee McCarthy and Alan Carter explained that
with proven robustness and strength essential characteristics of its lighting, Designplan undertakes much of its own testing ‘in house’. Lee McCarthy said: “We test our lighting to the existing key standards, BS EN 60598, BS EN 60529, and BS EN 62262.”
LIGHTING ON ALL THE TIME Previously the ward lighting on the Juniper Ward was on 100 per cent of the time, so when staff looked through vision panels in bedroom doors at night, the light would wake the service-users. They wanted to reduce that issue, and had also heard about some of the research on light’s impact on circadian rhythms. Although the ability to dim the ward lighting at night was their top priority, they were also keen to explore the latest Basilica luminaire’s tuneable white feature.”
Lee McCarthy said: “The light starts off a
warm colour in the morning, and during the day the colour gets cooler, brighter, and more intense, just like the sun. In the evening the light levels warm again and get dimmer as the night goes on. So far we have only installed the Basilica Tuneable White luminaires in the corridors of the Juniper Ward, in a trial, but the next stage will be to try the luminaire in one of the bedrooms, and then, providing that the Trust is happy, to install it in all male and female bedrooms. This was our first mental healthcare installation of the new Basilica Tuneable White, which was developed by our own R&D team over the past year.”
STANDARDISING
Based on its successful first experience of the new tuneable luminaire, Lee McCarthy explained, AWP is now looking at standardising
on it for future new-build schemes. He added: “Tuneable white fluorescent luminaires have been on the market for some time, but the products were typically 600 x 600 mm luminaires combining different lamps used at different times to generate the colour. Using LED technology has enabled us to develop a far more versatile and effective product.” The Technical Applications director also pointed out that, by switching from its previous fluorescent corridor lighting to the new LED luminaires, with their presence detection feature, the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership, and other future users of the Basilica Tuneable White lighting, would potentially be able to cut their energy costs ‘by up to 65 per cent’. He added: “In this project everything was already pre-wired; the Trust simply wanted to replace one-for one – we had to devise a way of making everything integral, including the controls. On the Juniper Ward, we have provided some user controllability via wall-mounted override switches in TV and dining areas, which enables service-users and staff to adjust the lighting manually, This overrides the circadian rhythm settings for, say, a couple of hours, after which the system automatically resets itself. It is likely we will be providing a degree of controllability for the bedrooms too.”
DESIGN CHALLENGES?
Much of the tuneable white lighting used to date, Lee McCarthy explained, has been in office applications. I asked whether this was due to the practical difficulties of designing such systems. He replied: “We are not aware of such lighting being widely used in LED form to date, principally because of the complexity of the required wired control systems. We will be offering both wireless and wired control systems with Basilica Tuneable White from the outset.” Lee McCarthy also showed me a new tuneable version of the company’s LED RDL luminaire, currently being developed for sensory rooms, where the lighting colour will be changeable to any colour the customer requires. He said: “In such applications we will very likely offer an accessible wall control panel to allow quite precise ‘tweaking’ of the colour palette by the user. There is currently a good deal of interest in wireless LED lighting control, which will typically cost more, because it offers the user
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