Farnworth CE Primary School

02-05-2024

Farnworth CE Primary School is a large primary in Widnes, with over four hundred children attending. The school has a vast campus, with hundred of light fittings, of a variety of styles, suited to each environment. As energy prices continue to rocket, the school engaged in applying for funding in order to upgrade their lighting throughout the school in order to reduce running costs, provide stable maintenance free lighting and improve the quality of lighting and emergency provision throughout the school. Jannette Evans, the School Business Manager (SBM) made contact with Novah, as a local business and asked us to meet in order to discuss the project.

Lighting objectives

The school needed to consider the various areas within the campus, relative to it’s usage and how long the lighting would be switched on for. As it is not possible to use lighting controls, apart from dimming within the classroom environment, due to health and safety concerns, it was important to the school to use the most energy efficient products on the market, which would produce the shortest return on investment – which is where Novah excel, with our high efficiency product range, including many A and B rated energy rating products, this provided the ideal solution for the school. Additionally, the school required a turn-key solution, including installation, so Novah chose their partner, PDR to supply our products and install them.

How did Novah approach this project?

Following our initial meeting with Janette, this then allowed Novah to perform a full site survey and comprehensive lighting scheme with which to base the schools funding application on. Novah listed every product in each area, and then composed a direct comparative list as to what should be used to replace each fitting. Where possible, reductions in the number of fittings were designed in with lighting schemes, in order to ensure the lighting levels and uniformity were in line with guidelines, and despite being able to use fewer fittings, the overall lighting improved dramatically, due to increased efficiency and the design of the luminaires. Novah also provided a full, accurate (including all costs for hardware, installation and additional materials and equipment) return on investment report to enable Farnworth to justify the outlay.

Challenges

Due to the nature of the project, all works needed to be completed in the school holiday period, which meant tight timelines and planned delivery in order to enable the installation to be completed within a short window – this was achieved by using additional manpower and a well planned installation schedule.

Novah solutions

Novah used Horizon LED panels (including DALI) in most of the classroom areas, as they were direct replacements within the false ceiling, and produced the correct illumination with low glare and flicker free as standard to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for the children when studying. In the corridors, a mixture of panels and standard and emergency Solray Select were employed, whilst the kitchen area utilised Barracuda non corrosives to provide adequate protection from cooking materials. Both assembly and sports halls used Horizon LED panels to provide a uniform and bright light. Inbuilt self test emergency was deployed throughout the entire site, along with running men and bulkheads in order to reduce maintenance and ensure high quality site management could be easily implemented going forward with no need for periodic battery rundowns and testing.

Outcomes

The new lighting upgrade has provided the staff and children with a brighter more comfortable working environment, with better lighting control and a safe building which complies fully with current emergency guidelines. Although early days, the energy savings are showing positive results in the metering and the school is already on its way to achieving the calculated return on investment, as reported by Jannette.

Customer feedback

'Farnworth CE Primary School were provided with some funding to support an investment budget we had in place to upgrade our lighting throughout the school. We had looked at this project as a result of high energy costs, where the lighting must be switched on throughout the school whenever the school is open and occupied. The obvious solution, bearing in mind the fact fluorescent tubes are being phased out of use, and most of our lighting used that technology, was to change our lighting to the latest energy saving and maintenance free LEDs. We discovered Novah through their excellent and informative website and asked them to meet with us. From the very beginning we could see that the company understood lighting and more importantly our needs as a primary school. They were incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the specification through to the delivery and even recommended a fantastic local installation partner, PDR to provide a one-stop-solution. The installation was faultless, we hardly noticed the contracting team were on site, and were incredibly professional. We are delighted with the fact the whole school looks brighter, and we have reduced the number of light fittings in many areas, which is amazing and we are already seeing the benefits – we cannot recommend Novah and their partners highly enough.’ Jannette Evans - School Business Manager