5 minute read
Solving Lighting Challenges with Software Modeling
By Jack O’Hanlon Principal, The O’Hanlon Group, Inc.
As a lighting contractor, you know only too well ‘quick and easy’ lighting solutions are rarely that. An owner may have an idea of what a lighting system should accomplish, but they’re relying on you to produce that vision on time and in budget. And in spite of the importance of calculated lighting performance results, there are times when better, more informative lighting performance data is far more important than describing what should happen with a proposed solution. Some visual context is needed.
This needed context can usually be solved with lighting modeling software (such as Lighting Analysts’ AGi32), providing the owner a virtual snapshot of how the lighting vision can be achieved.
In spite of the unique performance capabilities of many of today’s LED luminaires, ensuring an owner of achieving their desired lighting results without reliable, easy-to-understand data may be risky at best, and in the worst-case scenario, produce unintended consequences of a ‘guesstimate’ of a proposed lighting system.
In other words, the details matter.
What Do These Numbers Mean?
As evidenced by its now virtually universal acceptance, today’s ever-advancing LED technologies and their specific photometric properties have redefined how we effectively apply today’s luminaire technologies, whether it be a one-for-one industrial upgrade, an existing HID site lighting retrofit, or a more creative, energy-efficient interior approach. The goal of any LED lighting improvement is to decrease operational energy costs, take advantage of rebate dollars, and improve the visual environment and thus, human performance. Therefore, in today’s LED world, knowledge is power. And as such, it likely falls to you to apply that knowledge effectively to secure the owner’s confidence and commitment to proceed.
To an owner, however, if a proposal tells only the empirical results (i.e., foot-candles on a plane), it will likely limit their understanding of the design vision. In the end, as a lighting neophyte (as most owners are) the results may seem mysterious or even hieroglyphics-like. In other words, the math-only data can limit the owner’s understanding of your design proposal.
Expediting the Decision-Making Process
Here is an example of a developer’s re-purposing of a 2-story industrial building in a retail outlets project. The owner, wishing to create a singular nighttime appearance, preferred an uplighting concept for the exterior facades. As the contractor, you might engage a distributor or a rep to assist with a product recommendation. In this case, providing calculated vertical foot-candle values would likely be inconsequential to the owner, as it falls to you to create the ‘look’ he has envisioned.
Rendering software allows you to tell the lighting performance story through images in a way that empirical results on their own simply cannot. If needed, of course, the calculated foot-candle values can be included in the rendered images, delivering the best of both worlds. A further raytraced image will provide a photo-realistic look that ‘brings to light’ the owner’s vision, while eliminating the time and cost associated with a fixture mock-up. Providing this sort of information delivers a much stronger impression and can often result in expedited decision-making and advanced construction timetables. And hopefully, you’ve justified the system cost based upon the resulting visual impact.
Increasing Visual Interest Through Color
Just as LED technologies now allow for in-field adjustments to a luminaire’s lumen output and color temperature, some products allow for the addition of color beyond white light color temperature variations. As evidenced by the explosion of color-mixing capabilities, we see the application of color to accent exterior facades, outline structural elements (bridges, e.g.) highlight sculptures or monuments, and in attracting the eye, creating dramatic visual interest.
While some of these more complex applications may require the expertise of a lighting designer, you may still be relied upon to provide an owner with your idea for a successful lighting installation. A verbal description of the lighting proposal pales in comparison to a far more telling rendered image, which can go a long way to securing an owner’s confidence in your understanding of their vision.
In the case of the marble classical pavilion and sculpture below, the owner was interested in creating focus on the sculpture, with little consideration beyond that. The rep, working in concert with the contractor, proposed using narrow beam below-grade fixtures to define the elegant lines of the of the pavilion’s exterior with a secondary color. We suggested looking at variations of the two, while also recommending the client maintain the capability of varying colors for other seasonal and civic events.
A physical mock-up would provide only limited performance ‘info’ at best, but providing virtual lighting options can be extremely helpful in expediting a decision-making process. And who doesn’t like options!
Embrace these lighting challenges as opportunities by utilizing reliable software with rendering capabilities. It can become an invaluable additional tool in your marketing toolbox, and when used effectively, allows you to expand your in-house lighting services beyond just the empirical.
