September/October Edition

ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 49 Lighting Industry News Lighting – a key contributor to healthy buildings with better Indoor Environmental Quality R enovation is at the heart of the European Green Deal and has been identified as a key driver for the European social and economic recovery post- COVID-19. LightingEurope, the international association of lighting manufacturers is supporting the call to scale up renovation across Europe and is working hard to make sure it includes lighting. The EU acknowledges the benefits of renovation: “cutting emissions, reducing energy consumption, and lowering household bills, safer healthier building and improving people’s quality of life. Lighting is essential to making a building more energy efficient but also it ensures an adequate Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). There cannot and should not be any renovation of buildings in Europe without upgrading the lighting installations The EU’s political commitment is backed up by financial support. It also acknowledges that an investment in renovation will create jobs and benefit the local economy. The implementation of a comprehensive light management system will save 20 to 29 TWh per year as of 2030. However, the benefits from lighting for the health, well-being, productivity, and safety of people are rarely seen as added value. At best, they come for free as part of the energy savings. These benefits received more attention in 2017, when three biologists were awarded the. Nobel Prize for helping to explain how the human circadian rhythm works, including how light affects our daily biological cycle. Lighting Europe recommendations – No renovation without an upgrade of lighting installations • Focus on non-residential buildings. We believe that public buildings should lead by example. • Use LED lighting, in combination with controls and sensors. These lighting systems, in addition to energy savings, also offer significant benefits in visual comfort, wellbeing, and productivity. • Prioritise a full renovation of luminaires to include controls and sensors, “Just relamping” – simple replacement of a lamp –should be avoided. • The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) should be applied across the Renovations should lead to a certain minimum SRI score. • Introduce mandatory minimum requirements on IEQ. Criteria for lighting can be found in EN 12464-1 and should be referenced in the Renovation Wave Initiative. • Access to public financing should be subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. An obligation to include lighting renovation to obtain full subsidy should be introduced. For more information: Website https://www.lightingeurope.org/ Lighting Association Ireland are members of Lighting Europe. The Irish representatives to lighting Europe are Gearoid Mc Kenna and Gay Byrne.