Lighting manufacturer deploys curricular lighting design principles to historic Town Hall
Leading UK lighting manufacturer Whitecroft Lighting has played a part in assisting Manchester City Council achieve its ambitious plans to become carbon neutral city by 2038, a full 12 years ahead of the UK target of 2050.
Using sustainable principles of product design, led by circularity, Whitecroft has completed a large scale lighting upgrade of Manchester’s historic Town Hall that included a regeneration programme of bespoke raft luminaires.
As well as being part of the six year refurbishment of Manchester Town Hall, Whitecroft will also work to decarbonise the Council’s wider estate.
The project, guided by energy consultants Ameresco, placed an emphasis on lighting quality and aesthetics, as well as carbon reduction through minimising the use of materials and energy, and increasing ongoing operational efficiency.
The first stop in achieving this aim was to undertaking a detailed survey the building in order to understand the existing lighting infrastructure.
This then enabled Whitecroft to work in harmony with existing materials, and where possible, custom design lighting around existing installations in order to minimise the use of new materials.
Whitecroft then upgraded rather than replaced the raft T5 Fluorescent lighting systems, taking a modular approach, and fitting circular designed LED Gear Trays into the raft, and upgrading 2,350 gear trays in the process.
The aesthetics of the raft were then improved by cleaning each one individually, and then reattaching clips and various accessories to produce a more visually uniform lighting system.
This reduced project waste by 70%, and the lowered energy output from 134kW to 75kW, with additional energy savings made through improved lighting controls.
Other elements of the project included replacing high ceiling lighting with Whitecroft’s Oculus pendant LED luminaire, complete with integral Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR), which was used to complement the existing architectural fluorescent pendant solution, and generating in excess of 70% energy savings.
In total, the work on Manchester Town Hall is projected to make energy savings in excess of 44%, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 38 tonnes CO2/year, whilst also extending the luminaire lifecycle and facilitating future energy savings.
Finally, to ensure the light in the Town Hall was of the desired quality, Whitecroft worked in partnership with the Council’s Health & Safety Executive to set up a number of trial areas where people could work and give feedback on the environment.
Andy Turton, Account Director in Client Energy Services at Whitecroft Lighting said: “Whitecroft has been embracing the business principles of circularity for a number of years now, meaning that we prioritise repair, reuse, and refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling, minimising waste and the use of virgin materials.
“This project highlighted our circular products to include reusable and replaceable modules, which significantly reduces waste over time, and extends the useful life of the materials included.”
Andy continues: “This approach reduces the whole life carbon impact of our products, and helps clients to lower Scope Three emissions, by reducing the embodied carbon from the sourcing of materials and the manufacturing process.
“As a Greater Manchester based manufacturer with over 77 years’ experience in the lighting industry, we were proud to play our part in helping to bring this beautiful, historic building back to life and upgrade all the various other sites across the city.”
Andy concludes: “As we all know, Manchester was the very vanguard of industrial innovation, and I think it’s fitting that it’s Whitecroft Lighting, an innovative Manchester company, that’s helping the City Council tackle the challenge of climate change, and push towards its ambitious net-zero carbon targets.” https://www.whitecroftlighting.com/
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