Energy efficiency is an increasingly important consideration in the lighting design. Current Part L Building Regulations stipulate that 25% of fittings should be ‘low energy’ (more than 40 lumens/watt), and in practical terms this means fluorescent, cold cathode, and some LEDs. With careful design you can achieve stunning effects and a warm and comfortable feel whilst meeting or exceeding the requirements.

In addition, there are a number of measures that we employ over and above the Part L requirements to increase energy efficiency:

• We employ a higher than average number of lighting circuits, so that you only light what you want to light at any one time. This is contrast to a ‘standard’ scheme that might give you one or two circuits in a room, so you have the option of all on or all off.
• Using a lighting control system significantly saves energy consumption. Unlike a conventional rotary dimmer knob a lighting control system enables you to have an almost linear relationship between dimming and power consumption. For example, dimming the fittings by 10% reduces power consumption by 10%, dimming by 25% reduces power consumption by 20%.
• When we programme the control system we never programme the circuits to be at greater than 95% output, as your eye cannot tell the difference between 95% and 100%, but energy consumption is reduced by 5%. When scenes are set many of the circuits would be at significantly lower output, but the designs enable you to have enough light where you want it.
• The control system is also used to do things like automatically dimming or turning off circuits after a certain hour, or after a certain elapsed time since they were turned on. You can have functionality such as ‘whole house off’ at the main exit door, or beside the bed for night time use.
• The huge majority of halogen lamps that we supply are all of a ‘heat recyling’ variety so that, for example, a lamp which takes 30w or 35w of power gives you the equivalent light output of a normal 50w lamp. This gives you energy savings of up to 40%