LIGHTING & LIGHTING CONTROLS Making outdoor lighting more sustainable


AMA research shows that the demand for sustainable landscape lighting is growing. Mitchel Waite, product manager at Collingwood lighting explores how to meet the needs of both people and the environment


O


utdoor lighting is vital for safety, but it also highlights architecture and helps us enjoy socialising on a warm summer evening. People and businesses use


it for security, safe passage, to create ambience and highlight architectural or planting features.


But even as we enjoy the outdoors or use light to draw the eye, we must do so sustainably. Customers want to protect the environment and many councils demand that we comply with their DarkSky requirements.


A well-designed lighting scheme using the right luminaires can do both.


So, faced with specifying a landscape lighting scheme, how do you ensure that it is sustainable?


How much light?


The first question to ask is does it need lighting? Assuming that the answer is yes, then what needs lighting and what can be in shadow? Ask them how much or how little they need and when they need it.


A sustainable lighting scheme will direct the right amount of light where it is needed and avoid any spillage or glare. It will do so using minimal energy and only provide light when your customer needs it. Remember our eye is drawn to light and a good design balances this with darkness. Some areas will need light for safety or security, others will be lit as features and for hospitality businesses entertainment areas need to create an ambience. Good lighting design creates a layered look that can bring all these elements together. So, for example a path or steps may need functional lighting but can contribute to the overall feel by helping to draw the eye.


Save energy


Energy efficiency is at the top of most people’s minds when it comes to sustainability and LED lighting is the most efficient artificial light source you can use, but some luminaires are better than others.


Many still think about wattage as a measure for lighting, but we should concentrate on


lumens, which measures the amount of visible light that comes from a source. For energy efficiency look at the product’s Lumens per Watt, the higher the figure the more efficient it is. As a quick check, just like other products, luminaires must display their energy efficiency rating on a label, using a scale from A to G.


It’s well worth checking a product’s energy efficiency regularly because manufacturers bring out new more efficient ranges all the time, for example our new landscape lighting range has improved its efficacy by up to 50%.


Lighting control


While LED lighting reduces the amount of energy that your customer uses, they should still only use outdoor lighting when and where they need it.


Lighting control enables them to use lighting


more sustainably. It can be as simple as PIR sensors on luminaires or electrical circuits, light sensors, on/off switching or a timer. Alternatively, you can specify a smart bridge that allows your customer to connect their outside lighting for control via a smart phone. This allows them to control different zones, set schedules and turn the lighting on and off remotely to both save energy and create different scenarios depending on how they use the space.


Avoid light pollution


While we want to enjoy the outdoors as the light fades, we must also be good neighbours and not affect others, the night sky or nocturnal animals. To reinforce this many local councils insists that any installation meets their DarkSky initiatives.


It means that any specification must accurately light the area that needs it while avoiding any light spillage, which causes glare. Check that the lights you specify have hoods or shielding so that they can target the light. You also need to think about the beam angle that you need for an application.


If you do need to use uplights to highlight a feature, then make sure they contain the light


to the area being lit. Luminaires with asymmetric beams will focus the light in one direction making it easier to achieve this. The luminaires should also avoid light spilling upwards to prevent the nighttime glow that we see above urban areas. To do so you need to check a fitting’s upward light output ratio (ULOR). This is the percentage of light that it emits above the horizontal plane. For DarkSky approval it should have an ULOR of less than 0.5% or 50 lumens.


Wildlife friendly


Upward light spillage will also affect nocturnal animals and insects such as bats, owls, and moths. Bluer light in particular will affect navigation, physiology, breeding, and their general health.


Factors such as avoiding upward spillage,


reducing the time that light is on with lighting control, and accurate targeting to avoid any light spillage and glare will all help. But one of the biggest ways to reduce the effect on wildlife is to check the correlated colour temperature (CCT) of a fitting. Warmer colours of 3000K or lower are less likely to scatter in the atmosphere than higher colour temperatures and will have less effect on wildlife and on light pollution. Ideally the lower the CCT the better; we would recommend specifying 2700K or even 2200K sources.


The circular economy


And finally, when thinking about the environment and landscape lighting we need to take a closer look at how sustainable the lighting products are that you are specifying. Customers want to move away from the


throwaway culture of the past. It means that you should have an eye on the expected lifespan of a product and question how easy it is to repair and replace parts to extend its life. Good manufacturers will have adapted their


production to use modular parts. This makes it easier to upgrade a product in the future and simpler to replace worn out parts, and it makes it easier to recycle materials and reuse parts at the end of the product’s life. Sustainable solutions and products have a huge influence on a specification as we all become more aware of our individual responsibilities for the climate. This is particularly the case for landscape lighting, where people want to safeguard the pleasure they get from spending more time outdoors both for themselves and their children.


Read the latest at: www.bsee.co.uk BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER MAY 2025 29


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