Reydon House, Ipswich

Working closely with Ipswich Borough Council, Beacon Lights Design Team were asked to come up with a solution to the tired communal lighting at Reydon House Care Home in Ipswich. The old existing lighting was running switch start control gear which was frequently failing incurring high running costs and high maintenance costs with expensive call out fees and replacement ballasts.

The remit from Ipswich Borough Council was to improve the lighting levels in the dull corridors and community areas using LED luminaires, while at the same time reducing energy. We surveyed the premises and produced a full lighting design for all three floors on DWG cad files for ease of installation.

We put forward proposals for all corridor areas to have corridor function ballasts fitted with individual sensors for maximum energy savings. This means that when the corridors are unoccupied, after a pre-set time, the fittings would dim down to just 10% output ensuring that at no time are the residents walking into dark corridors, and as soon as the corridors are entered the fittings are triggered and ramp back up to 100% output. PIR sensors were used in all drying rooms, WC’s and stairwells. We also updated the emergency lighting internally and externally to BS5266 part 1 for full compliance with the latest regulation changes.

We reduced the existing energy bills by 25% with a like for like replacement using LED fittings and increased the lighting levels to a much more uniform lux level. The savings are also increased by the 90% energy savings made when the fittings are dimmed down to just 10%. The existing fittings used to run at full power for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week but now the fittings will dim down to 10% for quiet periods during the day and overnight, possibly up to 8 hours a day depending on activity.

By replacing the old emergency fittings with LED fittings we also reduced the parasitic load by 70% on the emergency lighting. As usual, all emergency lighting systems are charging continuously.

In this environment it was difficult to accurately calculate energy savings as this depends on footfall in all areas but significant cost savings are being made and Ipswich Borough Council and the residents at Reydon House are very happy with the end result.

If you would like your property surveyed for excellent energy savings please give the Beacon Lights Design Team a call on 01728833800.