Lighting

Lighting here covers the luminaires the building owner is responsible for: lobbies, corridors, stairs, toilets, car parks, plant rooms, loading docks, external areas, façade and landscape lighting, and lighting columns on site. Tenant lighting is usually part of fit-outs but may revert to the owner at lease end. Emergency lighting and lighting controls have their own pages.

Required light levels vary by space: stairs, car parks and external paths have minimums for safe movement and security; offices and work areas have task levels. Many older car parks and stairs fall short because fittings have failed or been removed, lamps have depreciated, or layouts have changed.

What shortens life:

• Heat in enclosed fittings and hot ceiling spaces.
• Water ingress where seals and glands fail.
• Coastal and road-salt exposure on fittings and columns.
• Surges from lightning and switching, especially on long external circuits.
• Vehicle impact in car parks and on columns.
• Poor-quality retrofits.

Lamp obsolescence

Fluorescent, compact fluorescent, metal halide and other mercury-containing lamps are being withdrawn under the Minamata Convention and related rules: most fluorescent tubes left the European Union and British markets in 2023, several United States states have banned them, and Australia is phasing mercury lamps out. Inefficient general-service lamps are also restricted. Buildings still lit by these lamps face rising lamp costs and scarcity and are converting to LED.

LED driver and product quality

LED chips age slowly; their drivers fail from heat and surges. Early-generation and low-cost LED products suffered colour shift, flicker, poor dimming and early failure. Retrofit LED tubes in fluorescent fittings can be unsafe if the fitting was rewired incorrectly or the tube is unsuited to the ballast.

Inadequate light levels

Stairs, car parks, loading docks and external paths lit below the required level create trip, vehicle and security risks. Causes include failed fittings left unreplaced, lamp depreciation, dirty or yellowed diffusers, fittings removed in fit-outs, and new layouts.

Lighting column failure

Steel columns corrode from the inside and outside at and just below ground level, where water and salt collect, and at the access door opening, which weakens the section. They fall without warning in wind. Columns struck by vehicles are cracked or bent at the base. Concrete columns spall when reinforcement corrodes.

Fixing failure

Suspended fittings in car parks and warehouses hang from fixings that corrode in damp, exhaust-laden air; fittings on façades and soffits corrode at their brackets. Falling fittings are a safety finding.

PCB capacitors

Fluorescent and high-intensity discharge fittings made before about 1980 often contain capacitors filled with PCBs. As they age they leak an oily residue, and they must be removed and disposed of as hazardous waste.

Glare, spill and planning conditions

External lighting that spills onto neighbours, the night sky or habitat can breach planning conditions and invite complaints; glare from poorly aimed floodlights reduces visibility rather than improving it.

On site

• Lamp and fitting types, counted by area; fittings out; flicker; colour mismatch between fittings.
• Dim stairs, car parks and paths; dark zones between fittings.
• Yellowed diffusers; water and insects inside external fittings.
• Corrosion at column bases, missing or loose access doors, cracked bases, leaning columns.
• Suspended fittings with corroded fixings; fittings hanging by cables.
• Old fluorescent fittings in plant rooms and car parks; oily residue at capacitors.

In the records

• Lighting inventory and maintenance records; failure rates.
• Lux surveys.
• LED retrofit records and product data.
• Column inspection and testing records.
• Hazardous materials register.
• Energy data for common area lighting.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

An electrical contractor or lighting engineer; a structural engineer or specialist for column testing.

• Inventory of luminaires by type, wattage, area and age, with failure counts.
• Lux survey on a grid in stairs, car parks, loading docks and external areas, against the relevant standard.
• Column inspection: visual check of base, door and foundation; ultrasonic wall thickness testing at the ground line; tests at intervals set by an inspection regime.
• Fixing inspection of suspended and façade fittings.
• Hazardous materials: identify pre-1980 fittings and sample capacitors where needed.
• Energy review: installed load and hours, savings from LED and controls.
• External lighting review against planning conditions and spill limits.

The report should give the inventory, light levels against standards, column and fixing safety, hazardous materials, and an LED conversion plan with energy savings.

• LED conversion with new fittings rather than retrofit tubes, designed to the required levels, usually combined with controls.
• Car park and stair upgrades to bring levels to standard.
• Column replacement, or base sleeving and repair where testing shows limited loss; impact protection in car parks.
• Fixing replacement with corrosion-resistant fixings; secondary safety chains on suspended fittings.
• PCB removal and disposal as hazardous waste.
• Surge protection on external lighting circuits.
• External lighting redesign to control spill and glare.

• Maintenance factor: design new lighting with realistic allowance for dirt and depreciation, and schedule cleaning.
• Car park protection: guards on low-mounted fittings exposed to vehicles.

LED conversion is priced per fitting or per area, with access (high-bay and car park work), design, and disposal of old fittings. Columns are priced per column including foundation where needed. Fixing works are per fitting. PCB removal is per fitting with hazardous waste disposal. Lux surveys and column testing are lump sums, with testing recurring.

LED conversion is lifecycle or an energy upgrade with payback; column safety, levels below standard and PCB removal are code compliance; relamping and repairs are repairs and maintenance.

• Australia. AS/NZS 1680 sets interior lighting, including safe movement in stairs and circulation; AS/NZS 1158 sets public and pedestrian area lighting, applied to car parks and external paths; NCC Section J limits lighting energy in new and altered work; Australia is a party to the Minamata Convention and is phasing out mercury lamps.
• United Kingdom. BS EN 12464-1 and 12464-2 set indoor and outdoor workplace lighting, BS 5489-1 road and public area lighting; the Institution of Lighting Professionals' TR22 sets inspection and testing of lighting columns; most fluorescent lamps were withdrawn from sale in 2023; Approved Document L limits energy.
• United States. Illuminating Engineering Society recommended practices set levels (including parking facilities); ASHRAE 90.1 and the IECC limit lighting power; federal efficiency rules restrict inefficient general-service lamps, and several states have banned fluorescent lamps.

• Lighting inventory and maintenance records.
• Lux surveys of stairs, car parks and external areas.
• Lighting column inspection and test records.
• LED retrofit records and product warranties.
• Hazardous materials register.
• Common area lighting energy data.
• Planning conditions on external lighting.

• Lighting design reports for recent upgrades.