All four floors of the building, which accommodates 350 staff, are being refurbished. There is 930 m2 of floor space. The Ex-Or equipment was specified by Jonathan Hart Associates and is being installed by Farr Electrical.

Doug Good, director of property and procurement with Dunnhumby, the company behind the Tesco Clubcard scheme, explained that compliance with legislation and the need to cut energy were the two main reasons for choosing the Ex-Or managed lighting system (MLS). ‘The lighting system had to guarantee we are complying with Part L of the Building Regulations. The open-plan office areas are built around a central atrium. Without automatic control, we were faced with the prospect of fitting numerous fixed wall on-off switches to ensure occupants were no further than 6 m away from a light switch. The significant energy cost saving resulting from lights only being on when needed was another major driver for specifying the Ex-Or MLS.’

The MLS automatically ensures that lights remain on only when needed and delivers light at optimum levels. Communicating detectors share information on occupancy and light levels to provide lighting tailored to the need of occupants — and in conveniently configured work zones. The system automatically measures levels of ambient light and regulates luminaire output accordingly. In addition, it ensures that lights in key circulation areas are kept on. Varying work patterns mean that some staff are still working at 10 p.m. but only occupying small areas of the total space.

Security staff patrol the building 24 h a day. Before the MLS was installed, lights were left on unnecessarily throughout the night and early hours as occupants did not always remember to run them off — which is now avoided.

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