In 2018, Edinburgh Napier University secured low carbon funding from the Scottish Funding Council for a number of energy management projects.

The projects will help the University to continue to further reduction carbon emissions from the over 50% already achieved.

The Learning Resources Centres (LRC) at the Sighthill Campus was identified as one of the largest energy consuming areas within the Sighthill Campus; situated over 5 floors comprising space for study, literature and over 300 computers.

The LED lighting upgrade project entails retrofitting 700 existing T5 luminaires with bespoke LED DALI gear-trays designed and manufactured by Edge Lighting. The lighting solution delivers a 50% reduction in electricity consumption and will save over 80,000 kWh and 49 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The upgrade has increased the light level up to design intent which will result in a better working environment.

DALI was seen as a worthwhile investment which could pick up on existing infrastructure in place to control luminaires output according to working hours, occupancy and levels of natural daylight. All of these considerations aid a pleasant working environment and reduce energy consumption where possible, which also will prolong luminaire lifetime.

For Edinburgh Napier University their ecological footprint is always a consideration when implementing such projects. The best solution from a cost and environmental perspective was retrofitting existing housings with new LED DALI bespoke gear trays rather than disposing of the current fittings and manufacturing new fittings. This helps to reduce new resource use and lower total waste, providing an efficiently designed new gear-tray to ‘lift and tilt’ into the existing housing for a quick and simple install procedure, minimising disruption on campus.

We were delighted to be involved in this project and to see the positive improvement the lighting design and implementation has had on this site.