Mentone Park Primary, Melbourne

In 2020 Eagle Lighting and Mentone Park Primary School in Victoria initiated a pilot lighting upgrade program to establish a benchmark lighting standard that exceeds expectations regarding quality and sustainability.

Supplying and installing two of our latest generation LED lighting products for two typical classrooms and support areas, we seek to improve the visual environment for students - benefitting their health and well-being - whilst reducing the schools energy costs and CO2 impact.

Since post-installation in April 2021, we have been monitoring the performance outcomes of the classroom lighting, benefits achieved, reduced energy consumption and improved environmental impact. The new lighting is also being compared to the existing baseline lighting of other classrooms; the differential benefits will be assessed and shared with the school community and the Victorian Education Department.

THE PROCESS

• Identify two or three classrooms suitable for the lighting upgrade proposal.
• Conduct an audit of existing equipment installed in the classrooms to establish a baseline.
• Install the lighting equipment in the classroom.
• Monitor and collect data related to operating cost reduction.
• Energy reduction and environmental data will be automatically collected via an internet gateway connected to sensors contained within each luminaire. The sensors record classroom occupancy rate (on / off times), dimming levels and daylight integration.

PILOT BENEFITS

• Improved lighting conditions to enhance learning environments.
• Organic Response (OR) lighting control is an inbuilt sensor within the luminaire that does not require commissioning or a complicated user interface. The lighting system turns on without delay or lag when presence is detected in a room and automatically switches off when students leave the classroom. The sensor also measures the amount of daylight present (daylight harvesting) in the room and automatically adjusts the artificial light depending on the daylight level.
• OR saves money and the environment while improving overall lighting functionality.
• Up to 80% reduction in operating cost with OR - saving money on energy bills
• Fast track to Net-Zero-Emissions – Monitoring energy and operation characteristics with OR helps increase students' environmental awareness. Reduced carbon emissions can be easily and automatically tracked and reported.

SCOPE OF WORKS

The pilot program consists of replacing the existing light fittings in the following areas:

1. Half of the Prep Classroom (Northside)
2. Classroom for 5/6C
3. The Staff Room
4. The Principal's Office

Prep Classroom

Twelve of the existing light fittings on the northern half of the Prep Classroom were replaced with the Eagle Lighting Educo surface-mounted luminaire.

The luminaires are equipped with Organic Response (OR) sensors. This will enable the lights to switch on and off automatically based on presence detection in the room. When students vacate the space, the lights switch off to save energy and automatically switch on when a student returns.

Due to the north-facing orientation of the classroom and windows along the entire wall, the room receives a high level of daylight. Via the OR sensors, the Educo lights will also automatically measure the amount of daylight present in the space and adjust automatically. This daylight harvesting feature will also contribute to energy reduction and saving.

Via the OR wireless capability, the 12 lights will connect to an ethernet gateway, allowing for remote monitoring of the quantity of energy used in the space. This data will be collected and analysed every quarter and compared to the quantity of energy used in the adjacent Prep classroom. 

The comparison will provide an accurate measurement of achievable energy savings due to the advanced capability of the OR control and energy reduction from the existing fluorescent lights.

5 / 6 C Classroom

The 5 / 6 C classroom lights are recessed into T-bar grid ceiling tiles. The nine lights were replaced with Eagle Lighting's Linjar equipped with OR sensors.

As the classroom receives daylight from windows on the east side and from skylights on the west side, the OR daylight harvesting feature will also be in operation to maximise energy saving.

The presence detection feature will operate in the same mode as the Prep classroom lights in order to maximise energy saving.

Operation data is being collected and analysed to report on actual energy savings.

Staff Room

The staff room lighting consists of 6 surface-mounted fluorescent light fittings, which were replaced with Eagle Lighting Educo luminaires.

The new lights in this space will operate with OR function for presence detection, daylight harvesting and data collection as per the two classrooms.

Principal's Office

The Principal's office lighting consisted of 2 surface-mounted fluorescent light fittings that were replaced with Eagle Lightings Educo.

The new lights in this space will operate with OR function for presence detection, daylight harvesting and data collection, as per the two classrooms and staff room.

LIGHTING SUMMARY

In total, 29 lights were upgraded.

• 20 x Eagle Lighting Educo c/w OR sensors
• 9 x Eagle Lighting Linjar c/w OR sensors

Each light is equipped with Organic Response with remote data collection capability.

All lights will operate with automatic on / off presence detection capability.

All lights will operate with automatic daylight harvesting capability.

The lights in each room will be automatically grouped together and operating data for energy consumed and hours of operation will be recorded. This data will provide an accurate measure of the amount of energy saved and the reduction in Green House Gas Emissions for each room.

Energy Saving and GHGE reduction will be reported every quarter.

THE OUTCOME

Eagle Lighting replaced old technology fluorescent light fittings in selected areas of the school with the latest technology LED lights controlled by an advanced infra-red mesh network Organic Response Technology automation system.

The replacement of existing fluorescent lighting with the installation of current technology LED lighting in the classrooms, office and administration areas has greatly improved the lighting quality and enhanced the learning environment for students at Mentone Park Primary School.

The quality of the learning environments upgraded to LED has been improved due to the reduction in glare and elimination of flicker.

Quality of Light – Flicker

The replacement of the existing fluorescent light lighting with the Eagle Lighting LED Educo luminaire will eliminate the presence of flicker in the classrooms and result in an improved visual experience free from the impact of fluorescent flicker.

Flicker is a characteristic of all fluorescent lamps operating on iron-core magnetic ballast types of luminaires. The degree of flicker becomes more visible as both the luminaires and lamps age through operational life. Even with new lamps and ballasts, the presence of higher frequency non-visible 100Hz flicker is present with fluorescent lighting of this type.

Extensive research has yet to be conducted on the impact of flicker on people. However, it is becoming well-established that some people can have adverse reactions to flicker that may lead to learning difficulties due to exposure to a range of flicker frequencies in the visual environment.

Many examples of flickering light fitting were observed throughout the school.

Energy, Operating Cost and Green House Gas Emission Reduction

In the north side Prep Classroom alone, energy bills have been reduced by a minimum of $66 per month and 250 kilograms of Green House Gas emissions saved every month since the installation was commissioned.

The potential energy saving and CO2 environmental impact reduction would be substantial if the entire school lighting were upgraded and converted from fluorescent to LED lighting.

Organic Response –Controls and the Connected Solution:

As mentioned above each luminaire comprises an Organic Response Sensor node, that provides Intelligent and Intuitive Lighting Control out of the box. The pilot project included the provision of our Connected Portal Cloud Solution, where nodes and the IoT gateways mesh together forming a Digital Ceiling. We sought to leverage some additional occupancy data insights as a form of measurement and verification in this pilot. Please note given the small data set these are namely for illustrative purposes of the systems capability on a larger scale.

Please refer to some screen grabs that show when the class/Staff rooms or the principals office are occupied, that the Lights are On and subsequently energy is being consumed. Other analytical insights, help validate the innate features such as built-in Daylight Dimming, that reduce Artificial Lighting where natural light is present. Or the portal occupancy data verifying that the lights are Off during After Hours periods such as after school or over the weekends.

Ensuring Lights are Off when a space is Unoccupied, not only saves energy, it prolongs the Life of a luminaire which enhances other green initiatives with less landfill and total carbon embodiment of producing more new lights.

Energy data for the day and per hour:

Energy data for each day of the month:

Energy data per month:

Presence detection – likely that a teacher at working at their desk whilst some students working in a group further down in the classroom:

Correlation of energy use based on occupancy at the time:

A display of Light Level – in relation to occupancy.

• See the w area of blue and yellow – absence of Red indicates that Daylight dimming is in effect. Hence the 4 x Lights along the window have sunlight contribution and the sensor automatically turns down lighting output down to 1%.
• The other 2 x Lights also along the window should have sunlight, but as it is the teachers desk it’s likely the window blinds are down for their computer screen.

Below : The principal was busy in their Office while in the class.

Below: The staff room is empty indicative of teachers in class.