AR50352 IN-LECTURE RELUX ASSIGNMENT

Japfiio Kayina 1. Spotlight on a wall poster

Figure 1 Screenshot from Relux

The above image shows world famous guitarist Joe Satriani, and represents a poster hung in a completely black room lit by a single LED spotlight of 1W power rating by Bell Lighting manufacturer. The completely black room surfaces with 0% reflectance renders the room dark and unrecognisable of its edges and corners while brightly illuminating the area where the spotlight is aimed. 2. Demonstration for Good modelling One of the many advantages of Relux is its capability to calculate cylindrical illuminance. Lighting design with consideration for cylindrical illuminance allows better rendering for face recognition and general ambient lighting. In Relux, the calculation for cylindrical illuminance can be performed by adding it as a parameter in the Measuring Areas for Artificial light within the Calculation Manager dialog box. The required height can be specified in a few steps within the dialog box. The resulting output gives cylindrical illuminance value of the room. An average cylindrical illuminance value is also generated. In areas where good communication is required, face recognition becomes more important and therefore 150 lux should be maintained. For a foyer which is dominantly a space for circulation and lighting is required is mostly for safety, 50 lux should be maintained (BS EN 12464-1). Therefore, in any space, if the ratio of cylindrical illuminance to horizontal illuminance is 0.30 to 0.60, the space can be considered to have good modelling.

Figure 2 Measuring Area tab

Figure 3 Selecting cylindrical illuminance and setting height

3. Luminous intensity immediately beneath the luminaire (normalised to luminous flux)

Figure 4 Luminous intensity graph

The luminous intensity immediately beneath the luminaire is 245.50 cd/klm as shown in the polar luminous intensity graph above. 4. Comparison of direct and direct/indirect lighting scheme The following graphs and results are from calculations run for the room as mentioned in the brief. The target illuminance value was 300 lux on the horizontal plane. In both cases where the room was lit by a direct lighting scheme and direct/indirect lighting scheme, Easy lux generated 12 luminaires arranged in 3 rows of 4 luminaires each to achieve the targeted lux value. In case I, for the direct lighting scheme, ceiling mounted luminaires from Dextra lighting, which had louvres for glare reduction, were used. The lamps were fitted with one fluorescent tube lamp of 36W power. The achieved average illuminance on the horizontal working plane is 347 lux. The maximum and minimum illuminance levels achieved on the working place are 420 lux and 236 lux respectively.

In case II, for the direct/indirect lighting scheme, ceiling suspended luminaires from Dextra lighting are used. The lamps are fitted with one fluorescent tube lamp of 35W power. These luminaires are designed to throw light onto the ceiling to bounce off some light off of it which aids in providing more indirect and ambient lighting. The achieved average illuminance on the horizontal working plane is 401 lux. The maximum and minimum illuminance levels achieved on the working place are 466 lux and 299 lux respectively.

Figure 5 Case I: Direct lighting

Figure 6: Case II Direct/indirect lighting

Figure 5 and 6 shows the illuminance levels achieved on different surfaces of the room under different lighting conditions. It is evident that in case I, the ceiling is poorly lit, creating high contrast from the lit areas. This may result to the ceiling appearing dull and make the room appear smaller at the same time. Some scalloping effect is also visible on two opposite walls which may not be very desirable in classroom conditions. On the other hand, the lighting is much more evenly spread and balanced in the direct/indirect lighting scheme. There are visibly no huge glary bright spots or unpleasantly dark areas. The more balanced and diffused lighting reduces harsh shadows and improves overall rendering.

Figure 7 Longitudinal section: Case I

Figure 8 Longitudinal section: Case II

A comparison between figure 7 and 8 informs us of the amount of illuminance that is achieved from direct and indirect lighting. In case I, only about 50 lux is a result of indirect lighting. However, this increases up to about 150 lux in case II showing that indirect lighting constitutes about 30% of the overall illuminance achieved in the room. This shows that a slight change in design can result to rather huge differences in terms of lighting atmosphere. 5. Compliance to lighting requirements An office environment requires a lighting scheme which takes into account visual comfort and wellbeing while maintaining illuminance for performing tasks efficiently. Depending on the type of office, it may also be required to design to assist certain themes and provoke thought. Safety of occupants is never to be compromised. Illuminance on work plane, uniformity, surface luminance and glare are important issues to deal with when designing artificial lighting. Relux allows designers to perform a range of tests and calculate various parameters and generate photo realistic images. It allows us to accurately model a space, specify its different surface finishes and their corresponding reflectances. A maintenance factor can also be taken into account to generate more realistic results. The output results can be compared against lighting standards to check its compliance. According to BS EN 12464-1, the maintained task illumination in general offices should be 500 lux. In Relux, the target illuminance can be entered and a suitable lighting scheme can also be worked out. To measure uniformity around task areas in Relux, a separate reference plane can be drawn in the model to analyse data in more detail. The resolution of the calculation grid can also be manually set to ensure accuracy and precision when working on specific areas of a space. Uniformity over task area, the ratio of illuminance on immediate surrounding areas to task area, should be 0.6 in general offices. In cases where high precision technical drawing is required, 0.7 should be maintained. The reflectances of various surfaces can be set to comply with the standards as required. The huge library catalogue of luminaires, from an online database, gives information about colour temperatures from lamps and unified glare rating (GHR) which is typically between 12-30, the lower the better . These can be compared to design requirements to check for compliance. The calculation results which are given in tables, isolines, pseudo lines are 3d mountains can then be compared against the lighting requirements for ensuring good quality lighting.