New building regulations (6th April)

[peter]

I've just been doing some research, as part of my dissertation (working title is "Energy Efficiency in Theatres"), into the new buildings regulations which became law on 6th April.

 

These regulations (which can be found in full here) apply to all new buildings and imply that energy efficient lighting sources must be used for lighting all areas of a new build. So, my question is, how would this be interpreted with relation to theatres - can we really be expected to live up to the 50-lumens per watt efficiency which is implied (a Source4 at 575watts has a lamp efficiency of just 26-lumens per watt)?

 

The relevant legislation is found on page 19 of the above document, under section 53.

 

There are also implications in this document that any upgrades to existing lighting installations may also fall under similar legislation.

 

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[pritch]

Having had a bit of a skim through, it seems that the emphasis is on energy efficient fixed building services.

 

Having had a wade through the pages of definations, it seems that fixed building services doesn't include process lighting, and (handily) process lighting happens to include theatre, TV and photographic lighting.

 

Mention is also made of display lighting (p20, section 60 & 61) which it seems would include houselighting, and it seems that you can get away with pretty much anything here as well, although the document recommends some sort of energy efficient lighting for when there's no audience in.

[Simon Lewis]

In a new domestic build, I had to include energy efficient lighting.... So several fluoresecent downlighters were fitted (which satisfied the architect and planning department). The fact that these lights were surrounded by 240V tungsten halogen fittings didn't seem to worry them!

[Andrew C]

I've not got time to see what has changed in the regs, however, some years back when the first energy efficiency requirements came in, "Process Lighting" was specifically excluded. This was intended to cover curing processes, but it was accepted that putting on a show was a "process" in this context. Thus house and production lighting was exempt; cleaning lights and lighting in bars, passageways and the like come into the scope.

 

I'll have a read after the W/E!