Project Report –
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

Working with Building Regulations, Part L:
‘Conservation of Fuel and Power’.

We are now required to use low energy lamps in our building. A simple fact.

To meet the requirements of the Regulations it means that one in four of the light fittings in our homes need to be ‘low energy’.

So what constitutes a low energy lamp? That’s simple as well. Fluorescent lamps – in all their multifarious guises and the latest generation of LEDs (no, not the sort that you buy for nuppence from the local lighting shop – I mean the posh ones that come from the big manufacturers and that cost real money)

Now if you’re used to doing everything with low voltage tungsten halogen downlights, this may come as a bit of a shock to the system, but there are more ways to light a room than pointing a light at the floor.

Before we had downlighting, there were lots of ways of lighting space, but very few light sources to work with, so it was all a bit bland. Now we have a wealth of lighting technology to use, and we can express our design imaginations in so many ways.

Be aware that light sources can be combined. I often mix an energy efficient source, such as custom-made cold cathode tubes, with tungsten halogen lamps. The cold cathode tubes provide an excellent ambient illumination, whilst the tungsten halogen lamps retain that special ‘sparkle’ when the occasion demands it.

1. Library and Entrance Hall

First impressions really are so important. And the light treatment of a period interior says a lot about the way that the building will be received by visitors.

Here, the traditional method of light standards, here mounted at the foot of the staircase, is reinforced with the use of discreet compact fluorescent lamps, concealed within the diffusing ‘candles’.

The same treatment is repeated – with a literal twist – in the Library.

Longer diffusing shades hanging vertically downwards, create the chandelier effect, yet the light source is, once again, a fluorescent tube.

A small number of tungsten halogen lamps are also used in the fitting, to assist in low-level lighting scenes.

2. The Main Halls

In both instances, the general light is achieved using energy efficient fluorescent sources; compact fluorescent lamps in the conventional ‘branched’ chandelier and cold cathode tubing in the modern ‘halo’ treatment.

But both chandeliers make use of tungsten halogen downlighting, because there is a certain magic that filament sources can deliver that fluorescent sources cannot.

Of course, fluorescent lighting can also deliver powerful coloured light, even when its in a period setting!

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