London Underground Upgrades To LED Lighting

Underground stations including Tottenham Court Road, Bond Street and Victoria are currently being redeveloped. Bob Benn, stations engineering manager for London Underground told the Lighting for Rail conference that once the make-overs have been complete, these stations will use 100% LED lighting. 
The initial lighting design was created before the LED boom, and so planned to use fluorescent lighting products. In order to keep up with the times, London Underground lighting teams have agreed to update specifications ensuring they take full advantage of newer LED technology. 

Benn said: "We were basically dealing with an obsolete design. We've managed to change it all to LED lighting, but that's been a major challenge in London Underground in order to get that through the system." 

Although LED lighting has a higher investment cost, London Underground will see fast payback due to LED lighting's significant reduction in energy consumption and maintenance costs. The longer lifetime offered by LED lighting is a massive benefit to the London Underground maintenance team as conducting maintenance in busy, hard to access stations has an extremely high cost.

A number of London Underground stations have already been upgraded from costly T8 fluorescent lamps to LED tubes. This change-over saw a return on investment in 18 months and has saved millions of pounds in maintenance costs. 

Speaking of the astronomical savings, Benn said: "From the point of view of whole-life cost, we're very aware of the reduced maintenance of new technology."

London Underground estimate that work at Bond Street will be finished by 2017, while work at Victoria and Tottenham Court Road will continue until 2018. These redevelopments are part of a London wide scheme of station upgrades to prepare for the completion of Crossrail.

Student Alertness Increases Under LED Lighting

A study conducted by Fagerhult’s lighting academy found student’s alertness (caused by the hormone cortisol) was boosted by increasing LED light levels.

Although these findings are novel for LED lighting, the link between alertness and lighting levels had already been established in a 2009 study using T5 fluorescent luminaires. The work conducted with fluorescent luminaries showed cortisol levels in student’s blood increased when exposed to boosts of a high luminance in the morning and early afternoon. Results from the 2009 study showed increased fluorescent light levels saw students’ performance rise by one grade on average during the darkest part of the year.

Henrik Clausen, director of the Fagerhult Lighting Academy said: “People started asking whether LED lighting would have the same effect as T5 so we had to repeat our research.”

This latest study measured the hormone levels of students at a university in Sweden, researchers found student’s cortisol levels increased in LED lit environments with luminance levels of 100cd/m2, mirroring the results of the 2009 study. When asked about the results, Henrik Clausen said: “Actually the pupils’ cortisol levels raised a little bit faster with LEDs that they did with fluorescent lamps. It’s probably because there is an inherent peak of blue light in LEDs, but we don’t know that for sure.”

The research facility is now looking at students’ grades to see if the improved hormone levels results in better academic performance, but has not yet proven a correlation in the LED-lit classrooms.

When speaking at the International Lighting Fixture Design conference in London last week, Clausen cautioned that the research should not be applied too widely: “If you want to do research you have to choose a path and we chose to focus on classroom lighting, so we don’t claim that this approach works for everything”. 

Harsher penalties are introduced for those who knowingly contravene WEEE regulations

Following new guidelines created by the Sentencing Council (SC) of England and Wales, judges could soon impose harsher sentences and fines to both companies and individuals who are convicted of environmental crimes such as fly tipping and pollution.These new guidelines, which will come into effect on 1st July 2014, mean businesses now risk up to £3 million fines for incorrect, unsafe mercury lamp disposal.

This is the first time the SC has produced guidelines for these types of offences; their creation is due to magistrates' lack of familiarity with sentencing for these offences, a lack of standardised sentencing among magistrates and low fines which do not reflect the seriousness of the offences committed. The new guidelines are likely to lead to much larger fines for serious offenders.

A variety of offences related to the disposal of waste covered by the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010 are covered by these new guidelines. The new guidelines also apply to the highest offence category, hazardous chemicals. Waste fluorescent lamps are classified as hazardous and so all those collecting or transporting waste lamps must adhere to WEEE regulations. When these guidelines come into effect, the risk to any individual or company who knowingly fly tips or disposes of waste lamps inappropriately will be much higher!

As of 1st July, companies and individuals who knowingly break the law will face much stiffer penalties than those who break the law despite attempting to adhere to WEEE regulations. The largest recommended fine is a staggering £3 million, this will be imposed on large businesses who knowingly contravene the law; individuals caught doing so could face prison sentences of up to three years.

Speaking of the guidance, SC member and magistrate Katharine Rainsford said: "Illegal disposal of hazardous waste not only causes damage to the environment but puts peoples' health at risk as well. This guidance from the courts will help ensure consistent and appropriate sentences for offenders. These crimes are normally about making or saving money at the expense of the taxpayer. They also undermine law-abiding businesses in the waste management industry who are contributing to economic growth. The guideline aims to ensure that sentences hit offenders in their pocket."