Keep it in the family

Lighting the exterior of school site needs to meet a number of challenges if it is to deliver the best solution. David Barnwell Head of product and market development at Holophane Europe explains how the Denver family of fittings ticks all of the boxes

"Walkways to and from car parks and between buildings require sufficient lighting, not just to help people find their way but also to make them feel secure as they move around the site after dark"

Lighting of school buildings
presents a number of challenges, not least when it comes to providing suitable exterior illumination. Here, there are a number of factors that need to be addressed if the school is to benefit from the most appropriate solution.

First and foremost, of course, is achieving the required levels of visibility, in line with the activities in each area. For example, where there is traffic – such as in car parks and student collection areas - relatively high light levels with a good quality light are required to minimise the risk of accidents.

Security
In addition, walkways to and from car parks and between buildings require sufficient lighting, not just to help people find their way but also to make them feel secure as they move around the site after dark. Similarly, lighting around the perimeters of buildings assists with wayfinding while also helping to increase security as it makes it harder for people to move around unnoticed.

Each of these types of lighting generally requires its own particular type of light fitting. In the past this meant that arriving at a lighting scheme to meet these diverse requirements necessitated a hotch potch of light fittings of different styles. And while this isn’t a major problem at night, when the light is more visible than the fitting itself it is not particularly attractive during the day when the fittings are very visible. As discussed in more detail below, a family approach provides an answer to this problem.

Efficiency
Another issue that increasingly needs to be addressed is the energy consumption of the exterior lighting. As more schools form closer associations with the local community and make their facilities more widely available in the evenings, the exterior lighting is used for longer periods of time during the course of each year. This also has implications for maintenance costs, as longer running hours mean that lamps need to be replaced more often.

In addition, schools are often expected to set an example to students and their families, with energy efficiency being a particularly hot topic at the moment.

All of these factors helped to inform the choice of exterior lighting products at Grange Park School in Milton Keynes. In order to address all of these challenges, Grange Park selected Holophane’s Denver range of exterior amenity lighting. This range has been designed specifically to offer a number of different lighting solutions while maintaining a co-ordinated appearance in a contemporary style.

In addition, the Denver range incorporates a wide selection of options so that energy efficient, long lasting light sources can be selected where appropriate to reduce energy and maintenance costs. Around the perimeters of buildings, for example, the school is using Denver Wall fittings fitted with 42W compact fluorescent light sources. These lamps are very efficient and have a long life, without compromising on the effectiveness of the lighting.

Design
Illuminating the walkways between buildings and from buildings to other areas are Denver Bollard fittings, again using 42W compact fluorescent lamps for efficiency. This is a stylish fitting with a slender housing, complementing other luminaires in the Denver family and providing an attractive landscaping feature in the day when the fittings are most visible. The Denver Bollard also features a very robust construction to withstand the day-to-day knocks that are inevitable in a school environment.

Both the Denver Wall and Denver Bollard installations include a number of fittings with integral emergency lighting. In the event of a power failure, therefore, minimum lighting levels will be maintained from battery-powered light sources in the fittings.

In the car park and student collection area, visibility is the key criteria – requiring a combination of high light levels, a bright white light and good colour rendering. For the Grange Park School Denver Pole fittings were selected. These are mounted at a height of 4m and use 100W metal halide light sources to deliver the precise lighting requirements for these spaces.

One of the key features that differentiates Grange Park’s exterior lighting from many other schools is that the appearance and styling of the light fittings remains consistent from one area to the next. The fact that this ‘family approach’ also fits the bill for lighting quality and cost of ownership ensures that the school has the ideal lighting solution for its needs.