Sparks Electrical News July 2021

LIGHTING

15

SHEDDING LIGHT WITH PHILIP HAMMOND

The underestimated importance of daylight

I always marvel at daylight, whether it is bright and sunny or grey, overcast and stormy. It influences the way we feel, our energy levels, our level of enthusi- asm to get out and get going, and our mood. I have often thought what it must be like to live in a city such as Bergen in Norway – one of the darkest cities on the planet in the middle of winter. In summer, they enjoy 18,75 hours of sunlight, although it does not get completely dark as we know it. At the height of summer, those long days and light nights are called White Nights. By contrast, they only have 5,9 hours of daylight in winter. Have you read about the condition, ‘SAD’? It is an acronym for Seasonal Affective Disor- der which is brought on by a lack of sunlight during the winter months, particularly in the northern hemi- sphere. Symptoms of SAD include fatigue, depres- sion, hopelessness and social withdrawal. Of course, reduced daylight hours are usually accompanied by extremely cold weather, including snowfall. The treat- ment for SAD includes light therapy (phototherapy), talk therapy and medication. There are several ranges of lighting products that are manufactured specially to help alleviate the symptoms of SAD. My students study the importance of incorporating daylight (natural light) into lighting designs. They also study the various techniques to use daylight to create buildings that are more sustainable, more comfortable for the occupants and with reduced dependence on artificial light. They learn how to incorporate daylight harvesting into the lighting design. When there is suf- ficient natural light, the artificial lighting is dimmed

age. Ageing also causes a normal loss of peripheral vi- sion, with the size of our visual field decreasing by ap- proximately one to three degrees per decade of life. By the time you reach your 70s and 80s, you may have a peripheral visual field loss of 20 to 30 degrees. Older people often also experience diminished colour per- ception. A perfect example of this is in care centres where dementia sufferers do not see objects of the same colour as curtains, for instance, where the object is placed in front of the curtain. This places a further burden on the shoulders of the illumination engineer or professional lighting designer. It is imperative to consider the variety of age groups and to determine the Equivalent Visual Efficiency (EVE) factor of the workplace. This will then enable the engineer to calculate the correct illuminance value to be used in the lighting design as well. Designing correctly in the way outlined for the de- veloper results in considerable benefit to the client, too. When working with the WELL Building Standards, credits are allocated for various facets of lighting fo- cused on the well-being of the occupants. The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) also awards credits for energy efficient lighting. Next month, I will delve deeper into this fascinating subject and the need to be more scientific, imagina- tive, and more responsible in the way that we practise lighting design in South Africa.

mate using “democratised lighting and climate con- trol” via their smart devices. Lighting also focuses on providing light at eye level with the correct Circadian Stimulus to assist the cor- rect functioning of the Circadian Rhythms of the oc- cupants. This is a CIE requirement. The usual lighting discussions always focus on the office environment, but these modern practises apply equally to the education and university environments, which should be priority applications because, by pro- viding the right type of light at the right time of day and with the correct light to stimulate the young and youthful occupants at eye level, many of the eye prob- lems that occur in this group may be minimised. It will also be easier for them to make the transition into the office or working environment where the lighting will be similar or even the same as what they are accus- tomed to. We are not done yet! The workplace is very complex. The occupants’ ages can vary from young people who have only re- cently left school all the way to those about to retire. You may ask what I am on about! Well, whether we like it or not, as we age, so does our vision. It deterio- rates. The changes start to occur in people as young as 25 , although it is more common for this to become more noticeable from 40 onwards. There are specific age-related vision diseases, such as presbyopia (the loss of the ability to see close ob- jects), floaters, dry eyes, tearing eyes, cataracts, glau- coma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and more. Light sensitivity can increase as the eyes

down or turned off completely via a control system until the daylight levels change towards the end of the day when they brighten again. The students produce daylight simulation to cal- culate the daylight factor for both daylight autonomy and continuous daylight autonomy. Now that I have briefly illustrated how important light in natural and artificial form is in our everyday lives, we can appreciate how complex the task of the illumination engineer and qualified lighting designer has become. In the past, the accepted practice was to provide light for a space no matter what the ap- plication, according to the illuminance levels in the applicable standards and OHS requirements of the day. Unfortunately, this practice continues even today with no consideration for or understanding of the well- being of the occupants. Many professional engineers and architects still hold the opinion that lighting to the illuminance levels in the standards is caring for the well-being of the occupants. The latest international best practises are now more focused on the well-being of the occupants. The standards serve as guidance rather than be- ing prescriptive. This has resulted in lighting designs that are more energy efficient, more appealing to the occupants, more interesting, and which provide con- trols that adjust the lighting to the human light re- quirements for particular times of the day (including changing the intensity and colour in preparation for the evening and a good night’s rest). The occupants are also able to adjust their personal lighting and cli-

Enquiries: www.bhaschooloflighting.co.za

Europe’s big soccer tournament kicks off under LED lighting

New online lighting store goes live A fter thorough research and many conversations, Touchstone Lighting has taken note of what the market requires with regards to an online purchasing platform for lighting and its related products. The feedback the company received indicates that price, product range, delivery turnaround time, after sales service and backup are the para- mount purchasing drivers. With this in mind, the company developed Lightstore.co.za. The online store is designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate with all relevant informa- tion and pricing on hand. The website is a perfect reference point for designers, architects, developers and other industry professionals, as well as consumers. Touchstone has consolidated a large number of local and international products and brands into one online platform; the range currently consists of approximately 12 000 products and is continuously being updated. There is no longer a need to navigate to nu- merous online lighting websites as Lightstore.co.za incorporates the bulk of lighting prod- ucts available in a single online platform. Lightstore.co.za is the online division of Touchstone Lighting, which is a well-established project lighting company with a solid track record. This back up gives its customers peace of mind in knowing that they are dealing with a reputable and trustworthy company. Its delivery partner, Globeflight Couriers, delivers nationally, regionally and internationally. UK plans to ban halogen lamps. Fluorescent to follow T he British government has announced plans to end the sale of halogen light bulbs from this September, as part of the UK’s wider efforts to tackle climate change. Legislation being brought forward this month will also include the removal of fluorescent lights from shelves from September 2023. Currently, around two thirds of bulbs sold in Britain are LED lights, making a considerable impact in improving the energy efficiency of the country’s buildings. The UK began phasing out the sale of higher-energy halogen lightbulbs in 2018. The new legislation would mean retailers will no longer be able to sell the majority of halogen bulbs for general household use in the UK from 1 September. To help people make the switch, ministers are also announcing that all light bulbs will start to feature new energy efficiency advice via ‘rescaled’ energy labels on their boxes. The labels will simplify the way energy efficiency is displayed on a new scale from A-G, doing away with the A+, A++ or A+++ ratings. The new labels will raise the bar for each class, meaning very few bulbs will now be classified as A, helping consumers choose the most environmentally friendly bulbs. This measure is expected to mean that LED light bulbs will account for 85% of all bulbs sold by 2030. In addition, the government also plans to start phasing out the sale of high- energy fluorescent lightbulbs, with a view to bringing an end to their sale from September 2023. Taken together, these new rules will mark a significant shift to more energy efficient and longer lasting LEDs and will stop 1.26 million tonnes of carbon being emitted every year - the equivalent of removing over half a million cars from the UK’s roads. Enquiries: www.lightstore.co.za

W hen Italy played Turkey in the opening game of the Euro- pean Championship in Rome, Signify’s ArenaVision helped deliver high resolution broadcasts and other advantages. Signify has also upgraded the competition’s venues in Budapest and St. Petersburg. The quadrennial month-long soccer tournament that pits Europe’s top na- tional teams against each other kicked off at the beginning of June, and with it, some new LED lighting took the field in at least three of the eleven stadiums, including one in St. Petersburg where the high-intensity discharge (HID) lights lasted only two or three years. Signify has over the last year re- placed conventional field lighting not only in St. Petersburg – where it installed the short-lived HIDs in 2018 – but also in Budapest›s Puskás Arena, and in Rome, where Italy and Turkey face off for the first game to- night at Stadio Olimpico. Switzerland and Wales will also play there in the upcoming days of the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, postponed from last year because of the pandemic. At all three venues Signify installed its Philips ArenaVision LED lights, as it also did at Steaua Stadium in Bucha- rest, which is not hosting matches but is serving as a training ground for national teams playing early-stage games at the nearby National Arena Bucharest. Those teams include Ukraine, North Macedo- nia, and Austria. LED floodlights and their hefty up- front price tag compared to HID provide a number of advantages in addition to energy savings, including support for 4K ultrahigh-definition (UHD) broadcasting, slow motion replays, instant on/off, and longevity. They can also deliver light show ef- fects with sweeping beams. It was that capability that prompted St. Petersburg

dam’s Johan Cruyff Arena to LED pitch lighting and to interior and exterior col- ours, using its Color Kinetics line. Am- sterdam is hosting the Netherlands, North Macedonia, and Austria in the tournament’s first week, sharing a group of teams with Bucharest. Signify did not use robots to help align the field lighting in any of its new installations as it has done at Japan’s Kobe Stadium and Toyota Stadium. A Signify spokesperson told LEDs that the company has so far limited that practice to Japan. The other cities hosting the 24-team tournament are: London, Copenhagen, Baku, Glasgow, and Seville. The other teams are England, Croatia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Scotland, and Spain. London’s Wembley Stadium is sched- uled to host the final on July 11. UEFA 2020 broke with the tradition of running the competition in just one country. UEFA (Union of European Foot- ball Associations made that decision several years ago, before the pandemic, to commemorate the tournament’s 60th year.

Stadium to rip out is new HID lights so soon after installing them in 2018, a Sig- nify spokesperson said. Six teams are playing there in the first round – Russia, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, and Slovakia. The four venues with the new Signify floodlights did not deploy other Signify stadium lighting products, such as dy- namic colours for outside and inside façades and panels, typically used to foster mood and fan excitement. In some cases, the stadiums used a mix of vendors. For example, St. Peters- burg stadium – also known as Gazprom Arena and Krestovsky Stadium – tapped another supplier for fan excite- ment lighting. Such combinations are common. Back in 2018, about a year after Signify (then called Philips Lighting) installed LED field lighting and LED exterior fa- çade lighting at Munich’s Allianz Arena, lighting rival Zumtobel stepped in to add colours for inside features. That stadium, also known as Football Arena Munich, is serving as another of the Euro 2020 hosts while Signify upgraded another location, hosting Germany, France, Por- tugal and Hungary in the first round. In 2017, Signify upgraded Amster-

Source: Inside Lighting

Enquiries: www.signify.com

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

JULY 2021