Edinburgh College

The brief

OVERVIEW

Edinburgh College is one of Scotland’s biggest Colleges with around 19,000 students across four campuses in Edinburgh and the Lothians. The College was formed in 2012 as part of the merger of Edinburgh’s Jewel and Esk, Telford and Stevenson colleges.  

The Milton Road campus, to the East of Edinburgh, houses the Creative Industries centre including film and music studios and several auditoria. It also houses the Health, Wellbeing and Social Sciences Centre. The site itself comprises modern buildings spread over a large area linked by footpaths and has several car parks. The setting is rural rather than urban.

Challenge

THE TASKS WE HAD TO ACHIEVE

The original luminaires used on the campus were from Holophane and used discharge lamps such as high pressure sodium and metal halide. Whilst these worked faultlessly over many years, new LED luminaires offered the opportunity for greater energy saving.  Holophane are a trusted supplier to the College and were asked to provide an energy efficient upgrade. 

The Solution

HOW WE ACHIEVED THE RESULT

In order to reduce costs, the same column positions have been used and so only the lanterns were replaced. The wide range of optical distributions available with the new LED lanterns meant that there is now an improved quality of light whilst consuming considerably less energy.

Further energy savings are achieved by reducing the light output of the lanterns by 50% from midnight until dawn, thus maintaining safety and security for the staff and students throughout the night. 

In keeping with the local environment, none of the luminaires emit any upward light. There are four main areas: the front concourse pedestrian area, the main car park, subsidiary car park and minor access roads.