A comprehensive range of luminaires has been supplied to the new Exeter Crown and County Court by Whitecroft Lighting. The luminaires were selected for their ability to address exacting design criteria while ensuring low cost of ownership through energy efficiency, long life and low maintenance.Wherever possible, compact fluorescent and T5 linear fluorescent light sources have been used to ensure efficient performance. In some areas, these have been combined with CDM-T lamps to retain efficiency while providing a higher light output where needed. The overall lighting design contributed to the building achieving a 'very good' rating within the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) scheme.
The new £23.75m centre has four Crown court rooms, one civil court room and four district judges' hearing rooms, as well as ancillary administrative areas. The court rooms have been built to a circular design to make maximum use of space and are equipped the latest information technology.
Exterior lighting is also using Whitecroft fittings. Before being specified, Whitecroft was able to prove that the design would meet the criteria for zero light pollution – covering both upward light and spillage onto adjacent properties. This has been achieved by a combination of Marine buried uplighters, specially designed Centurion wall mounted fittings and Euroflood compact floodlights mounted on columns in the car park.
In working closely with the PFI team, Whitecroft Lighting has helped to create a well designed public building, delivered on time and within budget.
The new centre was built under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme and was required to offer low life cycle costs without compromising on performance. The performance criteria were dictated by the appropriate CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) codes, as well as specific design criteria for court rooms.
In the atrium area, maintenance access for re-lamping was a major concern, so Whitecroft's Ergo downlighters have been mounted on the walls to ensure a bright and spacious ambience with effective lighting of horizontal and vertical surfaces - while reducing the need for access towers for maintaining the lighting. Using a combination of CDM-T and compact fluorescent lamps, the Ergo luminaires are achieving a high illuminance with low energy costs.
In office areas the greatest challenge was to achieve a glare rating of 16, dictated by the Court Service design criteria, which are more stringent than the CIBSE design code of 19. Here, Vivant ceiling recessed downlighters proved ideal in directing light to ceilings and walls while remaining within the glare criteria.
In the Crown courts, Spectre downlighters are used for ambient lighting and combined with Mirage downlighters for emergency lighting. In the magistrates' court, Softcell 1 downlighters are used in conjunction with Flight uplighters. A wide range of additional Whitecroft fittings have been used in other internal areas, including tamper-proof fittings for secure areas.
Throughout the building, emergency lighting is linked to Whitecroft's Comet self-testing system, so that emergency lighting can be monitored from a central PC.
