The Brighter Choice
Nechells Wellbeing Centre is a community leisure centre in Birmingham and is home to the City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club. Recently the club received funding to rejuvenate its facilities, which allowed it to refurbish its training space and improve the lighting, which was becoming increasingly unfit for purpose and was also overly expensive to run.
Facilities management of the centre is provided by Birmingham City Council owned Acivico who provide private and public sector clients with a range of services including design, construction, FM and building control.
Acivico electrical engineer Darren Hagans says: “We took the client’s design and specified products and worked with Dodd Group, our preferred electrical contractor under the Constructing West Midlands framework, to identify where energy use improvements and cost savings could be made.”
Andrew McElwee from Dodd Group comments: “We have installed NVC Lighting products for many years, however this was the first time I had used their lighting design service. It was very quick and efficient and what was proposed has achieved a massive improvement in light levels achieving a much better aesthetic.”
Installing 50 NVC Lighting’s Oregon, IK09, IP20 rated industrial LED luminaires has increased lux levels from 220 to 620, while wattage has decreased from the previous 250 watts per fitting to 154 resulting in a significant reduction in energy usage.
Two rows of luminaires totalling 20 fittings had to be dimmable using a retractive switch. NVC’s technical team looked at different ways of meeting the requirements and proposed using a PIRD sensor to link five DALI-dimmable fittings together, which works perfectly to dim the lights down and bring them back up in unison when needed.
Nechells Wellbeing Centre assistant manager Dean Treasure says: “This space looks and feels a thousand times better than previously. But it’s not just about appearance. We have calculated that it will save around £9,500 per year. So, it’s better not only for basketball players and spectators, but also for our budget and ultimately Council tax payers in Birmingham.”
