Episode 7 of 2023 – Introducing the Lighting Police by Guest Presenter Katia Kolovea (CPD Activity)

Cost: Free of Charge

Date: 20 July 2023

Time: 5:45pm for 6pm – 7pm (SAST)

Presenter: Katia Kolovea, The Lighting Police

About: Join us for an illuminating webinar as we introduce The Lighting Police (TLP), a global educational platform dedicated to promoting the importance of the right light. Hosted by the founder of the TLP, we will share the project’s vision, goals, and processes and invite you to join and contribute to our collaborative community. We’ll delve into the three most important topics we need to communicate to the general public and analyze the importance of engagement, constructive conversations, awareness, and the lighting designer’s responsibility in shaping a better future.

The Principal´s Pen

We have so much to be excited and grateful for.

Here in the Western Cape of South Africa, we live in a winter rainfall area.  Many of the climate experts said that we would not have good rainfall and that we would be heading for a drought.  The predicted El Nino El Niño has historically been associated with record heat temperatures and droughts in summer rainfall regions of southern Africa.  Thankfully, our region has had excellent rainfall which has filled our dams earl in the winter period.  However, we have been asked to use water carefully because in the latter part of the year we are expecting to start experiencing the effects of El Nino which will persist through the summer months and which might also bring a drier winter.

So we are excited by the rain that we have had so far.

We are also excited about the number of our students who are on the brink of graduating.  The final examinations each of which is 8 hours in duration, are a real test of the students ability to demonstrate that they know and understand the second year content.  The practical examination is a real test of their ability to use Relux Desktop.  The project that is used, an actual project that Daniel completed some years ago.  We wish those students every success and finally to graduate as Illumination Engineers and Lighting Designers.

We are so excited to have created a tailor made course including Relux Desktop for the biggest and leading lighting company in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, with branch showrooms in the Sultanate of Oman, Madrid Spain, and China.  It has been an exciting time.  The innovation goes beyond the development of the tailor made course, we also created the online course exclusively for the company in Arabic language.  You may think that I forgot that I had told you about this in the June Newsletter, but this is so very significant for BHA School of Lighting that it is worth mentioning this again.

Daniel and I offer so much support to our students throughout the period of their enrolment.  Students are able to ask questions at any time, mentorship is offered to get students through any part that they may individually find a little challenging.  Detailed feedback is given for every assignment where necessary.  Private lessons are always available to every student at very low cost.

Students are encouraged to attend the FREE OF CHARGE monthly online Student Support Sessions where students are ale to ask questions about course content or to discuss any lighting topic.  It is also the ideal opportunity for students to meet and get to know each other.  Some students have even formed study groups where they are all at the same point in the course.

Of course, there are always a few students who are of the opinion that that is not enough support.  So how much support is enough?

Well, that is like asking someone: “How long is a piece of string?”  I guess the answer is: “You can satisfy some of the people most of the time, but it is impossible to satisfy all of the people all of the time!”

In some cases, no matter how much support is given, the old expression applies: “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot force it to drink”.

What is mentorship?  The dictionary describes it as: “Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and professional growth of a mentee.”

I appreciate that every individual is different, has a different ability to assimilate content, listen and understand or follow a discussion.  That is where we have to have immense amounts of patience and remain calm.

We constantly assess ourselves and look for ways to e better educators. It is one of the reasons that we constantly check to ensure that the content of the manuals remain up to date.  We are fully committed to providing our students with the highest and best quality of lighting education in the world.  We listen to any comments or suggestions from students or major clients.

Now, some more exciting news.

Daniel has made some amazing connections with some of the world’s leading personalities in the lighting world.  Some of these personalities will be our guest presenters for forthcoming webinars.

• 20 July 2023 at 18:00 SAST – Katia Kolovea, an interior architect, architectural lighting designer, and the founder of the Lighting Police –  a non for profit educational and community platform which is focusing fully on the general public, building awareness about the importance of the right light in our lives by inspiring action and engagement, and awareness among non-lighting professionals.
• 17 August 2023 at 18:00 SAST – Angie Ohman is a project manager at the Refro Design Group in New York city.  Angie holds a Bachelor degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Science in Lighting.  She was also the co-author of Lighting Intuition for Architects.
• 21 September at 18:00 SAST – David Gilbey, the Founder of D-lighting who is a renowned international lighting expert, will present what should be an extremely interesting presentation on the lighting up of heritage buildings and sites of ancient civilizations.
• 19 October at 18:00 SAST – Prof Peter Dunsby, a cosmologist who will present about our magnificent sky at night and the impact of light pollution on their work and our ability to enjoy the night sky.
• November webinar still to be announced.

Be on the lookout for your invitations in your email inbox.  Always check your junk folder in case you miss it.

Please remember that the webinar attendance is limited to 100 people.  Even if you have registered, it will still be on a first come, first served basis,  Be sure to be in the FIRST Group. We hope to see you there.

I wish you all great business and good health.

With best regards

Philip

July Student Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the following past & present students celebrating their Birthdays this month of July! We hope you all have a memorable day!

Renske Snyman, Cape Town (Graduate) – 1 July
Liam Abrahams – 3 July
Jaroslaw Otremba, Josefow, Poland – 3 July
Tammy De Oliveira, Cape Town – 4 July
Lifa Madelane, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) – 8 July
Scelo Petrus Cele, Johannesbburg – 17 July
Solan Perumal, Durban – 20 July
Anil Naran. Johannesburg – 23 July
Sheetal Jain, Gurgram, Haryana, India – 23 July
Lynette Jeppe, Bloemfontein (Graduate) 24 July
Avinash Reddy Gopu, Hyderabad, India – 27 July
Ramond Mokgoetsi, Johannesurg – 31 July

Welcome to our new BHA School of Lighting Students

Aris de Vrye, Precision Concepts, Johannesburg, RSA – Advanced Diploma in Illumination Engineering Course
Helen Le Roux, Pienaar and Erwee Limpopo, Polokwane, RSA – Advanced Diploma in Illumination Engineering Course
Leslie Booysen, Eurolux, Johannesburg, RSA – Foundation Lighting Course
Hani Aljuhani, Lighting Stores, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Foundation Lighting Course

We wish great success to the following BHA School of Lighting students preparing for Examinations

The following students are preparing to write their first year final theory and practical examinations before starting second year studies.  We wish you success!

Charne Gunning, Sydney, Australia
Mthulisi Dube, Pretoria

The following students are preparing to write their final theory and practical examinations before graduating as Professional Illumination Engineers and Lighting Designers.  We wish you success!

Armand Gouws, Gqeberha, RSA
Leshmook Maharaj, Durban, RSA
Nicole Farman, Chicago, USA
Scott Williamson, Doha, Qatar
Beth Maina, Nairobi, Kenya
Mthulisi Dube, Johannesburg, RSA

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BHA Lighting Design & Consulting Case Study: HG Molenaar Final Assembly Area

We are very privileged to have been commissioned by our client to do the lighting design and to project manage each phase of the main project at the factory in Paarl.

The relationship with the client began in August 2020 when the architect, Adriaan Schutte of Design 6ixty 6ix telephoned to ask if we would be interested in being appointed to do the lighting design for the client’s luxury holiday home in Knysna.  Of course, we immediately accepted the commission.

We received the drawing files and proceeded to first complete a concept lighting design.  Daniel spent considerable time looking for suitable product which was capable of being controlled with Bluetooth Mesh. The lighting design process continued.  A WOW factor was required to make the home unique and distinctive. The lighting design for the house was presented in a virtual meeting to the client and architect on 2 November 2020.  The client and architect requested some minor changes.  The final lighting design was presented in a virtual meeting on 9 November 2020.  The lighting design was accepted.

The house construction process began in January 2021.  Throughout the construction process we continued to stay in contact with the client, the architect, the main contractor and the electrical sub-contractor.  In September 2021, we flew to visit the site with the client in his own aircraft.  All details for the installation were finalised.  The lighting was installed, and the final adjustment and setup of the control system was done by the Managing Director of Aurora Lighting SA in December 2021.

In January 2022, I visited the HG Molenaar factory and was taken on a tour of the factory.  It is very impressive.  Large industrial food processing equipment is manufactured mainly for export.  The factory works two shifts from 06:00 through to 24:00, five days per week and on occasions, an extra shift works on Saturdays depending on the production loading.

The first area that we were commissioned to prepare a lighting design for, was the final assembly area.  It is an area where the huge pieces of plant are assembled and full checked before being disassembled for crating and export to the customers.  Some of the finished plant can stand as high as 5m.

The area comprises of 3 bays measuring 10m x 36m and 7.1m high above the 2 x overhead gantry cranes in each bay.

The EN 12464-1: the EU standard for interior lighting required in 26.11.13 Assembly fine specifies 500lx at 0.76 above floor level.  This was the standard used to bring the area to compliance.

The existing illuminance levels before the lighting design were substantially below standard.  Most of the light in the area was from the natural daylight.

The light levels before the new installation varied from 20lx to 560lx see below:

This clearly fell short of the required illuminance levels over the entire floor area.  The old luminaires were 18 x 1200mm x 600mm 4 x 40W fluorescent luminaires.   The total power for the area of 1146.60m² was 6.9W/m².  The luminaires produced a total of 660,000lm!

THE CONCEPT LIGHTING DESIGN

The aim throughout was to ensure that all new lighting would be designed to comply with the international EN 124564-1: 2021: Light and Lighting: Lighting of Workplaces – Part 1: Indoor workplaces.  By implication, it would also comply with SANS 10114-1 which is based entirely on the International Standard.

The lighting design had to include the provision of emergency lighting, specifically for emergency escape lighting for the safe evacuation taking into consideration that large, manufactured components would have to be negotiated during evacuation. Sometimes the components of food processing plant and machinery occupy the full length of a bay, sometimes even multiple bays.  The lighting design had to provide illuminance levels for both daylight and night-time operations to a minimum of 500lx at 0.75m from floor level.

The lighting requirement for the area was discussed with the client and operations manager during a face-to-face meeting.  BHA Lighting recommended that advanced technology be used for the project with the following capabilities:

• Occupancy sensing
• Daylight Harvesting
• Energy management and reporting
• Bluetooth Mesh
• Smart Device software or setup and control

The client and the operations manager immediately bought into our recommendations.

THE LIGHTING DESIGN

We spent time researching products that would meet our requirements.  We also looked at the reputation of the supplier, the reliability of the supplier, after sales support, product warranty and conditions and most important, their ability to provide us with the range of test reports required to meet our stringent product requirements.

After careful evaluation, we chose to use products from ALTSA (Alternative Lighting Technical Solutions for Africa).  The choice had a further advantage, Philip Hammond had known the CEO of ALTSA, Gerhard Moolman, since 2011.

We completed the lighting design using various luminaires from the ALTSA luminaire range before finally selecting the Galaxy Linear High Bay each fitted wit individual sensors. Each luminaire or group of luminaires or all luminaires operate on Bluetooth Mesh which is setup using an application for Android Smartphones.

The new lighting design used 54 x ALTSA 100W Galaxy Linear High Bay luminaires each producing 3400lm.  The total power for the area is 4.70W/m² producing 918,000lm.  Apart from being more energy efficient when operating at full power, they are more energy efficient when operating during daylight hours.  During daylight hours they operate in daylight harvesting and occupancy sensing modes which reduces power consumption even further.

Energy efficiency is excellent and therefore energy consumption reduction during daylight hours has resulted in a saving of between 25% during winter months and 40% during summer months.  This will prove to be invaluable because the plant will be energy self-sufficient and completely of the grid by the end of 2023.

The ALTSA 100W Galaxy Linear High Bay has been selected by the client and operations manager as the standard luminaire for the remainder of the factory, with the exception of specialised areas such as the sand lasting, bead blasting and spray paint shop facilities where specialized lighting products will be used.

Extracts from the Lighting Design Report show that the entire floor area illumination exceeds the design target illumination of 500lx.  The maximum illuminance achieved is 699lx.

The image below is a 3D visualization from the lighting design software showing the aiming of the individual luminaires.

The lighting design was presented during a 20-minute virtual meeting, was accepted and a Purchase Order was issued.  Yes, all within 20 minutes on 5 April 2022.

THE RESULT

The ALTSA 100W Galaxy Linear High Bay luminaires were delivered and installed in late July 2022.  They were commissioned at the beginning of August 2022 by Philip Hammond who also completed the setup for the different functions per bay and then as an area.  The installation was given until December 2022 to bed down and settle.