Elementary Improvements
Royal Philips Electronics, in partnership with Blyth and Blyth consulting engineers and Make Architects, have
installed a bespoke lighting solution and integrated lighting management system at 55 Baker Street, a modern dynamic building complex right in the heart of central London.
In addition to the cost savings represented by retaining and refurbishing the existing building, the scheme has been designed to minimise environmental impact and optimise energy efficiency and has achieved a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’. A system of chilled beams offers a controlled environment within office areas,
combining exceptional levels of energy efficiency and low running costs. This has contributed to creating a refurbished building which has achieved higher energy efficiency levels than a new build. This is indeed an exemplar project given the fact that incredibly, more than 75% of Europe’s office lighting still uses outdated and energy inefficient lighting systems which do not comply with the EU Quality standards for Offices. Moreover, today only 1% of office lighting uses lighting controls.
Due to low ceiling heights within the existing part of the building the design team decided the best solution would be to opt for a Multi Service Chilled Beam (MSCB) system which incorporated airconditioning and control sensors in addition to the lighting requirement. This presented somewhat of a challenge for the lighting element due to space restrictions within the beam itself and the architectural design chosen by the design team that required months of research. As a result, the design of the luminaire had to ensure efficient use of materials and optics as well as the careful positioning of the TL5 lamps to provide the required lighting uniformity. Tailor made gear trays were produced accommodating DALI control gear, through cabling and emergency control gear to allow for the most ergonomic functionality. The units also incorporated modern polycarbonate micro lens optics to allow light to be directed correctly both direct and indirect once positioned in place. The indirect/direct lighting aspect therefore helped create excellent glare control and an illusion of height in an area which was perceived as being a rather enclosed office space.
Having manufactured the gear trays, optics and lead sets, they were then delivered to Frenger who assembled and tested the MSCB units to check the DALI control function was correctly installed prior to shipping and fitting the fully constructed units on site. This required close liaison with Frenger to ensure that sufficient lighting sections were made to fulfil each part of the project schedule. Mike Pile from Blyth and Blyth states, “Multi service chilled beams are becoming increasingly popular since they can house all the necessary services needed for an office to operate in one place. Thus, once assembled it’s simply a matter of plug and play. This does of course mean that close liaison is a prerequisite so that the outcome is a success. The Philips team worked really hard to ensure that lighting units arrived when required and met the
quality and performance expectations of the client and LG7 requirements.”
Unique as the bespoke lighting design is, 55 Baker St is also exceptional in that it is probably the largest LON DALI control project to date. The Philips ECS LMM lighting management system was ideal choice here since it is easy to use and gives ultimate flexibility should further upgrades and additions be required making it truly future proof. Each lighting control module was commissioned to link 4 chilled beams per unit. In turn, each of the chilled beams housed 6 light fittings representing in total some 22,000 luminaires across 16 floors within the building complex. Two sensors per beam provided the functionality of presence detection and daylight control.
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