The future of lighting

Richard Mulcahy, CEO, Lighting Council Australia, reflects on recent developments in the industry and sets out a key priority for change.

The lighting industry provides over 4500 manufacturing jobs in a sector that produces over two billion dollars’ worth of manufacturing output.

In the aftermath of the COAG Energy Ministers’ Council Meeting in April this year, much attention was given to the progress of negotiations around the NEG, or National Energy Guarantee. In that same meeting, however, the Ministers also gave their endorsement for significant changes that will affect the lighting products available to Australian consumers. These changes include an undertaking from the Commonwealth Government to follow the product regulation approach to be adopted in the European Union for LED lamps — an important priority for the lighting industry as a unique Australian approach would have created significant costs for industry and consumers. The other key change was a commitment by the federal government to phase out halogen lamps by 2020. The phase-out is expected to save $1.5 billion in electricity costs, with the vast majority of that amount to be realised in savings by Australian households.

Halogen phase-out

While the expected savings from the phase-out of halogens — some $650 per household over 10 years — is not as high as those expected to arise from a fully implemented NEG, the savings are substantial and based on robust modelling that is not subject to the political vagaries of federal-state negotiations. Households looking to save on their electricity bills can find significant savings commencing from the time of installation. For those households that have a large number of inefficient halogen lamps — and there are an estimated 50,000,000 halogen downlights in Australia — the savings from installing efficient LED lights could amount to hundreds of dollars per year.

Minister Frydenberg, the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Energy, has taken a sensible step in accelerating the phase-out of halogen lamps. By limiting the number of less-efficient products available, government will help reduce the pressure on household budgets by ensuring that consumers are adopting high efficiency products sooner.

The lighting industry is pleased to play a significant role in reducing energy consumption and Lighting Council Australia will work with government for the phase-out to be well understood by the public.

Emergency lighting regulations

In May 2014, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) made changes to the National Construction Code (NCC) about emergency lighting. The NCC is the instrument through which government regulates the energy performance standards of new buildings, and emergency lights are the means by which occupants of a building can identify exit points during emergency situations. The effect of the 2014 change, however, was to allow those emergency lights to be made of photoluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) material.

In a move that was roundly criticised by experts including engineering peak bodies, fire safety experts, firefighter associations and electrical contractor associations, these glow-in-the-dark signs can legally comply with the requirements of the regulations by providing 1/250th of the level of brightness that the traditional battery-powered units are mandated to provide. The brightness level of the conventional battery-powered sign is based on over four decades of research, which in turn underpins the regulatory approach adopted by advanced economies around the world.

The Grenfell disaster and similar near-misses in Dubai and Melbourne in recent years tie into serious concerns about the use of combustible materials in the building and construction sector. Our view as the peak body for the lighting industry is that government is taking on an unacceptable and unjustified level of risk by allowing these glow-in-the-dark signs to be used. Millions of Australians find themselves in buildings each day where, if there was an emergency with poor visibility or that caused panic, they would be entirely reliant on a well-illuminated guidance system pointing them to the nearest evacuation point.

Draft 2019 National Construction Code

The lighting industry is alarmed about aspects of the next draft of the National Construction Code, scheduled for commencement in 2019. Central to the concern of industry is an inappropriate focus given by policymakers on the issue of energy efficiency at the cost of the range of products that can be used and, as a consequence, on the wellbeing of occupants. There is a well-established and growing body of literature demonstrating a strong connection between lighting and the productivity, alertness and utility of occupants in the built environment. This field of research — human-centric lighting — has led to considerable advances in the range of products that are used, particularly within the office environment, with tangible benefits for both business owners and those exposed to the lighting systems. The current draft of the NCC emphasises energy efficiency, which is an important aspect of evaluating a lighting installation but is by no means the only or most important aspect of the lighting approach to be used within a building.  High-quality lighting systems can be both energy efficient and yield the benefits presented by human-centric lighting systems. Lighting Council Australia will work to ensure that building designers and owners are not needlessly denied the ability to use fit-for-purpose, high-quality installations in the pursuit of a bottom-line energy efficiency figure.

The lighting industry remains a highly dynamic market with a fast rate of product development. LED technology has revolutionised the industry, most significantly in the last five years. Few industries have seen product performance improve multiple times over with respect to product life, energy consumption and reliability. The industry members are finding their products increasingly integrated into broader systems, including commercial building automation systems, smart home systems or smart city networks. Given lighting’s central role to the built environment, we are excited about the coming years in our sector.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/chones