Ashfield School in Nottinghamshire is saving more than £2,600 a year on its electricity bills, as a result of an installation of LED lighting and bespoke light fittings for metal pan ceilings by Tamlite Lighting.
As one of the largest secondary schools in the country, with over 2,600 students, Ashfield School of Kirkby-in-Ashfield has an understandably large energy demand. This meant the heat was on to find ways to cut out energy waste and try to reduce consumption. Keen to be green, the school was also eager to boost energy efficiency in order to cut its carbon footprint. For Ashfield School, then, this issue was financial, environmental – and practical.
Many of the sources of energy waste within the school were also causing practical problems. “The school is fifty years old and the classrooms had old, inefficient lighting,” commented Martin Hough, business manager at Ashfield School. “Some of them still had 50 watt bulbs, making the lighting levels inadequate. This was an especially pressing issue because the school remains open in the evenings.”
Metal pan problems
LED technology was identified as an efficient way to boost light levels while also cutting energy consumption. A lighting upgrade was greenlit as part of the ongoing refurbishment programme that took place at Ashfield School over holiday periods. However, the particulars of the school meant that fitting new LED lighting was not altogether straightforward.
The original school building has old, flat roofs and, to prevent leaking, Burgess metal pan ceilings have been installed in many of the classrooms because these could be modified to fit the existing grid. Light fittings for this application needed to be customised, which would usually threaten the tight timescales of project management. However, by turning to a lighting company with British manufacturing bases, Ashfield School has been able to secure customised light fittings for its metal pan ceilings.
A bespoke solution
The school has worked consistently with Tamlite Lighting over the last two years of their refurbishment programme. Because Tamlite manufactures on-site in the UK, it could make the bespoke products very quickly. The sample was completed in ten working days and within two weeks the school had received the entire consignment, ensuring the lighting installation could be completed on schedule.
Electrical contractor S. Reddish & Son installed 197 of the customised Tamlite 600×600 EUROMOD LED panels in the school’s classrooms. More than 300 EURO LED slim-line recessed downlights from Tamlite were also fitted in the corridors. The EURO LED luminaires are controlled by ceiling-mounted occupancy sensors to automatically switch off the lighting when the corridors are empty.
The lighting quality is now much improved with the sleek recessed fittings giving off a comfortable, uniform light.
Substantial savings
It’s not just the aesthetics that have changed, either. The project has also achieved substantial energy savings for the school. Tamlite estimates that Ashfield School is saving 13.3 tonnes of CO2 every year, as a result of the classroom and corridor lighting upgrades. A 41% reduction in lighting energy consumption for those areas means a saving of 25,497 kWh, which translates to an annual cost saving of £2,679.
The occupancy sensors in the corridors are likely to extend these savings even further. If the lights are switched on only 60% of the time, the school can expect to save a further 4 tonnes of CO2 a year and add another £700 a year to its financial savings.
The lower energy consumption and longer lifespans of the LED lighting also promise long-term savings on maintenance costs. Since the first round of lighting refurbishment using Tamlite products two years ago, the school reports that it hasn’t had to make any lamp replacements or do any maintenance to the lighting.
Looking forward
“It’s really important to us that Ashfield School is improving its energy efficiency and cutting its carbon footprint,” said Martin Hough. “Achieving this in an older school building has proved challenging at times, but the bespoke fittings and LED lighting from Tamlite have helped the refurbishment project to run smoothly. We’re looking forward to continuing our green push. We’d like to put solar panels on our roof – and we intend to continue our light replacement programme”.
