Government is listening

With just a month to go to the release of the consultation document on the review of Part L, there are signs that ministers are warming to the benefits of LENI. Lighting reports

The campaign by Lighting magazine and others in the industry to encourage the government to take more of a systems-based approach to lighting in the upcoming review of Part L of the Building Regulations appears to be making progress.

Following intense lobbying, discussions between the government and industry representatives seem to have been very constructive and to have resulted in an apparent willingness by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to address some of industry’s concerns in the consultation document, due for release in December.

“The lighting industry continues to be in dialogue with the DCLG and, following further recent consultation, it is hoped that some of the outstanding concerns have now been addressed,” said a statement from the Society of Light & Lighting (SLL), which took part in the talks. “There is a recognition that LENI will provide a better model for calculating the lighting performance than the existing one, which is solely based on product performance, and it should also fit well with our national building energy performance measure, SBEM. As LENI takes into account planned operation, it would enable the platform to be set for further reductions in carbon emissions in the future.

“The lighting industry is hopeful that LENI will now be included within the consultation to be published at the end of the year but we must now focus on ensuring the system is understood by those who would previously ensure compliance by product selection alone, through education and training.”

A spokesman for DCLG confirmed to Lighting that the discussions had been useful. “The Part L changes planned for 2013 represent the next step towards zero-carbon new buildings and support wider government policies for the retrofitting of existing buildings,” he said. “Lighting can represent a significant proportion of the energy demand in many buildings and there is opportunity to strengthen standards in a way that is cost-effective and practicable for industry to deliver.”

More backing

Meanwhile, The Lighting Industry Federation (LIF), which itself started a wider lighting systems campaign two years ago, has added its support to the campaign and also stressed the need for relevant training for those responsible for operating and maintaining buildings.

“The more automatic the controls, the more support it gives to occupants,” says Bernard Pratley, technical manager at LIF. “But whoever is responsible for making sure that it is working properly will need training. For example, if there’s a DALI control system and they need to replace a luminaire for some reason, such as a change in the office layout, then they need to know how to design that back into the system.”

Pratley said he also thought DCLG now understood the arguments in favour of controls and the feeling was that the draft document would incorporate this to a greater extent than has been the case to date.

“There’s only so much efficiency you can get out of a luminaire before you potentially start creating unacceptable lighting installations,” says Pratley. “DCLG agrees that it’s not about installed load but about saving energy. But the measure of luminaire lumens per watt is something that is easily understood, because it’s similar to the U-value for a wall or a window. It’s something that can be measured in a laboratory. LENI is not something you can so easily get hold of; it’s a calculation process, so it’s taking the Building Regulations into an area yet to be understood and that requires a new approach.”

Iain Macrae, head of global lighting applications management at Thorn Lighting and president elect of SLL, said the industry now needed to pull together to work out how LENI could work in practice, ahead of the consultation document being released. “There’s a lot to be gone though and that may need volunteers,” he said. “It also needs the industry as a whole making LENI – less the emergency lighting – really work. Good and positive press coverage and educating customers will be key. It’s time to step up to the mark as an industry.” The government’s consultation document is currently scheduled for publication in December. To influence the debate and to stay up-to-date with developments, join the Lighting Discussions group on LinkedIn.

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