Colin Lawson, head of sales and marketing at Tamlite Lighting, argues that when selecting new lighting for healthcare facilities, estates and facilities managers need to make ‘smart, well-informed decisions’ in order to balance energy saving with patient comfort.
Estates personnel selecting LED lighting in particular, he cautions in this article, need also to be confident that the products they are buying are of the requisite quality, and will give long-lasting, stable, and even performance, amid the backdrop of a growing flood of ‘sub-standard’ imports from the Far East in particular.
The push for greater energy efficiency in healthcare estates means that LED lighting has emerged as a key technology for driving down energy use. Yet important questions remain about this rapidly evolving technology. Can LEDs deliver the comfortable light quality that is crucial for patient wellbeing? Or does choosing efficiency mean sacrificing comfort? It is clear why many healthcare managers see LED lighting as an ‘easy win’ in terms of energy efficiency and carbon reduction. LED lighting’s long life, high efficiency, and compact size, make it a potential saviour to the NHS, which has an interim target of 10% carbon reduction by 2015, and steeper targets for the future. With NHS energy consumption costing a reported £583 million in 2011-12, the potential to drive down energy bills also makes LED an attractive prospect for the budget-stretched service.
A worrying drop-off in light quality
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