Drivers and pedestrians are benefitting from safer roads across Lancashire thanks to a lighting design project completed by Thorn, utilizing the latest technology from Lighting Reality.
Thorn Lighting, a member of the Zumtobel Group, are a UK based manufacturer of high-quality indoor and outdoor lighting products. Established for over 90 years, Thorn are a trusted market leader, specialising in Smart City which works to improve safety and wellbeing in communities using innovative and intelligent technology.
The aim of the project was for Thorn Lighting to reduce the cost of energy and maintenance for its street lighting, by upgrading the lighting across Lancashire.
The project included everything from small residential roads to major traffic routes, seeing the majority of existing lighting fittings replaced.
To complete the project, Thorn used exterior lighting design software, Lighting Reality PRO, by Worcestershire- based designer, Lighting Reality.
Lighting Reality create real-time software for outdoor and street lighting and are now established as the UK’s first choice among lighting manufacturers and local authorities.
Lighting Realty PRO provides access to a library of photometric data files that helps lighting designers produce custom reports in a multi-platform, multi-lingual interface.
Paul Brownbridge, the chief lighting engineer at ZG Lighting (UK) Ltd, was the main designer on the Lancashire project.
He said: “The Optimize function in the Lighting Reality PRO software enabled me to sort the 290 luminaire variants available in to a quick and easy-to view-list.
“From this list I could quickly tell which of the luminaire variants achieved the target spacing required in the project while using the lowest amount of flux.
“Selecting this luminaire then allowed for further tweaking of the flux to further optimize the solution.”
Mr Brownbridge explained that Thorn Lighting was then able to achieve the appropriate light levels, while increasing energy-efficiency and reducing operating costs and carbon emissions.
The project also enabled the council to save even more energy by part-dimming light fittings during the night when traffic volumes were lower.
Mr Brownbridge added: “Once the most suitable luminaire variant had been selected and further optimization was carried out, it was then a quick calculation to convert this optimized flux into energy.
“This made sure I was offering the most energy efficient solution possible to Lancashire County Council.”
Thorn Lighting’s factory in County Durham manufactured and delivered more than 49,000 hi-tech and flexible lanterns for the contract, with another 20,000 due to be delivered over the coming months.
The result is a distinctive urban lighting design for Lancashire with reduced maintenance costs, with Lighting Reality PRO helping Thorn to deploy high quality and low energy bulbs that use the very latest LED technology.