- It's almost too late.
If you haven't rushed out
to buy up the remaining stocks of fluorescent tubes,
then you're going to have to find a different solution.
As in just a few weeks time,
these lamps will be banned.
(dramatic music)
So we've popped along to this car valeting workshop
to see how we can beat the ban.
Now with the increase in electricity prices,
the owners of this business
have tried their best to reduce the energy use.
They've adopted some pretty drastic measures:
Removing the tubes in some areas
and trying out some LED retrofit tubes.
Of course, we know the easiest way to save energy
is to work in darkness,
but we think when you're valeting cars,
quality of light is important.
This video focuses on enhancing
the lighting in this workshop.
If you're interested in expanding your lighting knowledge,
stay tuned.
Later on, I'll share a fantastic tip
that can help reduce energy costs,
using a paintbrush
and a handy tool
available on your smartphone.
Additionally, I'll also provide information
on where you can access
a top-notch lighting design service for free.
- We don't have long to turn the job around,
so we've called in Rapid Ross Sands,
and because Rick's on holiday, yes!
I'm back on the tools.
So our first mission is a quick sight mend
to decide how we're gonna do this installation.
Two switches.
So we're gonna split the switching arrangement, yes?
- [Ross] We are, yeah,
that'll be a conduit room there.
Conduit room there.
And then you probably have one
going straight down there like that.
- [Gary] Okay.
And we'll pick them up.
Pick 'em off a plugin, lighting ceiling,
rows type thing.
- Yeah.
And ceiling rows to your, to your lights.
- Okay. Yeah, back to the switch.
- Back to the switch.
It's two circuits, two switching circuits.
- Yeah, there's a bit of conduit to be bent there.
Yeah. I'd like to see the expert in action, really,
when it comes to conduit, so we won't watch you, mate.
I'm looking at his job and I've got a little bit of a fear
that this is one day's work and I'm here as well.
I think I'm gonna get roped in.
- You have to work faster, Gaz.
(laughter)
- You're gonna get roped in to do a bit.
- You're gonna have to work fast.
- So I don't slow down Ross,
I've brought along some new tools to help speed up the job.
We will push the boundaries of the spit.
Electricians now going to fix things like conduit saddles,
the light fitting themselves and plastic back boxes.
I've also bought along this Knipex tube cutter.
Thanks to ROBUS, we already have the light fixtures,
but we need to whizz down to our local wholesaler
for the other parts.
- Key question, when you go to the wholesalers,
will it have all of the things that we need for the job?
Now, Ross has made his list
and I think it could be the click sockets
that throw the job off hand here.
Yeah, yeah.
- You guys can buy a full pack.
- Big job, this.
- Big job.
- Right so,
- Not bend the conduit wrong, as well.
Gordon's gonna show us how to do it.
- Two lens
- Yeah - One pack, yeah.
- And we got all of them white.
- 20 mil white, yeah.
- Some metal saddles, boxer saddles.
- You got white ones?
- Yeah, I think so.
- Make 'em 20 mil as well.
- Yeah.
- Six through boxes.
- Give a few clues.
Can it be white and 20 mil?
- Yeah. And five T boxes.
- 20 mil.
- 20 mil. All 20 mil.
(Laughter)
- (rustling plastic drowns out speaker)
- What are you doing with the lights?
- It's a car valet that's around there, you know?
I can't see the valve of the car.
Don't do that thing where you say
5, 7, 14, 26, 34,
12, 17, 8, 4, 6.
'Cause it's nothing worse is they're just
people who do that to you.
Terrible.
(pop music begins)
(pop music continues)
(music continues)
So while Ross and Gary crack on with the installation
let's look at the design process.
We surveyed the workshop a few weeks ago
and found two major problems.
Firstly, the light levels are really low
with an average light level at floor level, around 70 logs.
That's 10 times less than the typical levels recommended
for this kind of application.
The second issue is uniformity or the difference
between the brightest lit areas and the dullest parts.
We found areas as low as 20 logs.
So imagine the problem for these guys.
One minute you're outside cleaning a car
in the bright daylight.
Then you walk inside
and try to find something on the shelf in near darkness.
It takes time for the eyes to adjust.
So I'm thinking potential for slips and trips.
- Working in these conditions,
it's no wonder these guys need glasses.
Can I help you?
- Yeah, actually.
- So low, we could simply replace existing fixtures
with more efficient LED ones that won't solve
the uniformity issue and could worsen things.
So combined with the edge and the mix
of the existing fixtures,
we've decided to go for a full lighting redesign.
As you delve into this video,
you'll encounter some new terms
like lux levels, "unifornimity"
- Gary, it's uniformity.
- "Unifornimity".
- You know what? Let's just go with it.
- Lux levels, "unifornimity", lumens
and color temperature.
And if you're keen on grasping these concepts
and impressing the customer with your lighting expertise,
be sure to check out
our free training course on lighting basics.
I'll leave a link for it at the end of this video.
The question we always get asked is,
how to determine the correct lighting levels
for an application.
The Society of Light and Lighting publishes
a set of comprehensive lighting guides that give
suggested lighting levels and parameters
for a huge different range
of applications from offices to car parks.
For detailed work such as car valeting
we need to be looking at around 700 logs.
However, you also don't need 700 logs all of the time.
Some of the initial cleaning
and polishing isn't detailed work.
Or you might be just tidying up the workshop,
taking a lunch break.
So we will arrange the lighting across two circuits
but maintain the uniformity with both circuits on.
We get 700 logs with one circuit,
350 logs, and a 50% reduction in energy.
The next question we often get asked,
"How do I determine how many light fittings are needed?"
If the existing installation
is delivering the correct light levels,
then you can match the new fitting
to the light output and distribution of the old one.
Fixtures like this rubber speed beam
are available in a range of lengths and lumen outputs
to match existing fluorescent fixtures.
- Here's a clever tool built into your iPhone:
the measure app, which is handy if you are doing a survey
and you can't tell the length of the existing fittings
because they're installed so high up.
- On this project, we need to do some lighting calculations.
You can do this on excellent lighting design software
such as Relux.
There's an even easier way though.
Just ask ROBUS to do the design for you,
which is what we've done here.
The lighting design service is available using
the MyROBUS app
and simple designs you can even do within the app itself.
I'd, however, I'd like to thank Rory
over at ROBUS HQ for turning this design around faster
than the time it takes for me to boot up my laptop.
- Let's have a look at the finished job.
We connected to the existing installation
and put up three rows of conduit
to match the lighting layout.
We use the click sockets
for the final connections for each light.
This works well with this conduit system.
We could have looped in and out
of each fixture using the screw list terminals
or fix them directly to conduit boxes.
Let me know how you would've wired it.
Would you have gone down the twin-and-earth route
and wired through each of the fixtures?
We've pulled in a neutral, a CPC,
and two-line conductors
using brown for one switching circuit,
and black to identify the other.
Of course, metal clips for the conduit
and the spit now gun, fix them like a dream.
Note, these are screwed nails so they can easily be removed
or adjusted on those conduit saddles.
We use the same fixings
to fix the lighting fittings to the joists.
One borough of fixes had to be suspended using hooks
and the world's shortest jack chain
as there's an RSJ in the way.
We fix the conduit boxes using the soft face spit nails.
- One thing we haven't discussed is color temperature.
The tubes in the old installation, were all over the place
with warm, cool, and daylight white.
We've used neutral white for our design,
but what if the customer changes their mind?
I know this never happens.
However, with the speed beam,
you can select the color temperature
by changing the dip switch settings in the driver.
When we first powered up this installation, out of the box,
the fixtures were set to warm white
and the customer was a little bit shocked.
A quick flip of the dip switch
and was set to neutral white as planned.
You can also switch, select the power level
and, hence, the light output.
These are great features for wholesalers
who don't want to carry loads
of different part numbers or electricians
who want flexibility across different projects
- You can also effortlessly incorporate
a microwave occupancy sensor,
emergency lighting pack, or both.
These fixtures are conveniently pre-wired
with a plug and socket connection
enabling quick conversion of any fitting.
As a helpful tip, these connections
also came in handy when conducting
the insulation resistance test.
- I'll leave a link in the description
so you can find out more about the speed beam range
and a link to the MyROBUS app
so you can access the lighting design service.
Now for that tip with the paintbrush.
One thing that's considered
in lighting design is the reflectance of surfaces.
Dark surfaces don't reflect as much as light surfaces.
This has a considerable effect on lighting levels.
Change the color of the floor
from black to light gray
can make an enormous difference
to the amount of light required and hence the energy.
That's exactly what Volvo trucks did in this installation
which saved energy, but also increased the light levels
under the trucks during assembly.
Well that's us done on site here.
We've tackled the lamp ban, increased light levels,
and reduced energy consumption.
Ross has even had his van cleaned.
- Cleaning?
If you'd like to learn more about lighting,
I thoroughly recommend you check out
the free training course, which is available right here.