School lighting installations

The design of electrical installation, including lighting, for schools always have the following few factors as the fundamental design criteria:

1) Simple design

2) Low construction cost

3) Simple operation

4) Low maintenance cost

5) Easily obtainable spare parts

In lighting design for buildings, school lighting designs takes this factors to full use.

Most school buildings are used only during the day and throughout the year we have very bright days in this country. Apart from that, the architectural layout of most school building usually end up being provided with wide area of windows and long narrow corridors.

Due to these factors, the contribution of daylight has a considerable effect in the lighting design for school buildings. In fact the above factors should be utilized fully to obtain a maximum reduction in the number of light fittings that are needed to provide the necessary level of brightness at all time.

An optimized design can have a considerable impact in terms construction cost saving and will result in an installation that is simple to operate and with a reasonable degree safety, considering that the majority of occupants in the school are young children.

The most widely used types of light fittings in school buildings are the fluorescent types, and the most popular of them is the bare channel fluorescent type. This type has always been found to be the most suitable and economical choice for interior lighting.

Fluorescent lights have a good color rendering characteristics. They have longer life and are less susceptible to voltage fluctuations. They also has higher luminous efficacy (higher light output per watt of electricity consumed) than tungsten filament lamp, the nearest contender in terms of simple design and low construction cost.

Lighting installation for student hostel buildings more often utilize compact fluorescent fittings in combination with the conventional fluorescent tubes. This is because the compact fluorescent lamps can be blended easily with decorative luminaries while retaining most of the other advantages: energy saving, high light output per watt consumed, generate low heat and longer life.

In study bedrooms, maximum amount of light is needed over the study table while the room needs to have a feeling of warmth and comfort. Therefore this type of rooms have the compact fluorescent as the general lighting, and an adjustable desk lamp as the task lighting for the study tables.

Spaces with high ceiling like the multipurpose halls and gymnasiums need the type of lighting that require minimum maintenance. Therefore the popular practice is to use high performance lighting types of high pressure discharge lamp. The high performance criteria is very important here because the lamps not only need to be of high light output and less maintenance, but also need to have a good color rendering index because of the type of activities that are carried out in these building spaces.

The stages in multipurpose halls are provided with stage lighting which comprise of the fresnel spotlights, profile spotlights and cyclorama floodlights. The stage lighting luminaries are suspended from specially designed lighting barrels with a complete rigging system.

The stage lighting and the hall general purpose lighting are provided with separate controls. The stage lighting itself is provided with dimmer and programmable controls.

School complexes with student hostels and staff quarters are provided with road lighting along the access roads to the hostel and quarters buildings. The residential compound and carpark areas are also provide with suitable compound lighting and carpark lighting.



Copyright http://electricalinstallationblog.blogspot.com/ School lighting installations