Laboratories and Practical Spaces

Laboratories and Practical Spaces

Laboratories and practical teaching spaces have specific lighting requirements.

Generally, these spaces require a higher illumination level, low-glare luminaires and sometimes CRI 90 is specified if the task involves accurate colour judgement. Good modelling is required, to properly illuminate the work items.

Choice of Luminaire

Luminaire selection will depend upon the application. The SkyDome recessed luminaire provides very good vertical illumination as well as a very uniform horizontal illumination level.

One of the surface Kanby ranges, such as the Kanby Evo or Kanby Pro will provide similar performance.

In some specialist higher education laboratories with high levels of dust or humidity, sealed luminaires such as the Cleanline should be considered.

Illumination Levels

Extract from CIBSE: SLL Lighting Guide 5 - Lighting for Education 2011

Application Maintained Horizontal Illuminance (lux) UGRL U0 Ra
Laboratories 500 19 0.6 80

SmartScan Lighting Management

Manual control is sometimes needed in order to dim the luminaires for demonstration purposes. In these cases the SmartScan Scene may be used to configure a demonstration scene at the touch of a button.

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Emergency Lighting

BS 5266-1 recommends areas over 60 m² should be illuminated to a minimum of 0.5 lux. Workshops and similar rooms should be subject to a Risk Assessment to determine whether a higher illumination level is needed - additional guidance is given in BS 5266-1 and BS EN 1838.

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