Daylight at the Museum
Actulite polarised daylight lighting has provided the Hereford Museum Resource & Learning Centre with a high quality, energy-efficient and low maintenance lighting system.
The centre hosts seminar days and school visits and also houses offices, work rooms, collection stores and a conservation lab. The new lighting system had to be energy-efficient and UV-free to prevent damage to the museum’s artefacts.
Commenting on the museum’s requirements, Kate Andrew, principle heritage officer said, “We wanted a lighting system that would be efficient and not cause any degradation to the museum’s collections. The centre’s conservation lab is in the basement and is without windows, so we wanted as natural a light as possible for this facility.”
On specifying Actulite, Kate Andrew continued, “I had Actulite installed into my office in a previous role and I soon became a convert. Actulite emits a light very similar to daylight and so produces a more pleasant environment than conventional fluorescent lighting. Actulite has good colour rendition so you see things in the correct colour, which is vitally important when working with the museum’s artefacts.”
The Actulite polarised daylight lighting system emits a glare-free source of light which replicates daylight on a bright, slightly overcast day. This is achieved through the combined use of the patented Actulite multi-layered light polarising panel, high frequency control gear and specially manufactured triphosphor full spectrum fluorescent tubes. Actulite eliminates side effects such as tension headaches often associated with fluorescent lighting and can even help combat the symptoms of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Actulite is particularly beneficial for applications where good quality, low glare lighting with excellent colour rendition is important, such as in restoration and conservation work. Actulite luminaires are long lasting and so require little maintenance, which in turn reduces recycling costs.
In total the Aura Corporation supplied 80 Actulite units for the Hereford Museum Resource & Learning Centre, with organisers very impressed with the results. “We had an excellent response from staff after installing Actulite. We can really appreciate the difference it has made to our working environment. The conservation lab doesn’t have any windows but the lighting is so good now that you can’t tell. We receive a number of visits from other museum services to look at the building and often receive comments about the lighting and requests for details of the specification”, added Kate Andrew.
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