ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR Magazine has published an article that I wrote about ambient/task lighting design schemes. This design approach can provide sufficient general and task illumination in offices, with additional benefits contributed by indirect distribution, while generating significant energy savings.
The approach can be particularly advantageous when high, dark or articulated ceilings or required use of inefficient general lighting (e.g., for aesthetic reasons) reduce light-delivery efficiency to the task. It can also be advantageous where tasks require very high light levels and when tasks requiring high- and low-level lighting share the same space, particularly when the ratio of circulation to high light-level task space is high.
The primary obstacle to adoption is a lack of specific industry guidance for implementation of this type of scheme, as the ambient levels will be lower than the Illuminating Engineering Society recommendations, which may create liability and occupant performance concerns among designers and owners. Application is also still unproven for direct lighting with wallwashing.
Two recent pilot office-lighting field studies discovered that low ambient/task lighting systems generated up to nearly 50 percent energy savings compared to equivalent buildings designed to California’s Title 24 energy code of 2008, which is considered the toughest in the country. The first was a two-story office in Davis, Calif., and the other was a large, 10-story office building in West Sacramento. In both studies, the lighting was monitored for three weeks before and after a low ambient/task system installation. Daylight and interior light levels also were monitored.
Click here to read the article.
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