Dynamic companies embrace flexible working techniques to keep them ahead of the game.
In an age of flexitime and hot-desking, work stations within open plan office areas constantly alter in size and location to meet the changing business needs of the company.
However, experience has shown that often changes in work group patterns are not automatically followed by changes in lighting. In fact, the efficiencies made by altering work patterns can be cancelled out by neglecting to optimise lighting.
So says market leaders in lighting management Ex-Or, a Honeywell company. It says it is increasingly seeing cases where lighting is being delivered inefficiently throughout open plan office areas following changed working patterns. This incurs unnecessarily high energy costs, reduces productivity amongst staff and risks non compliance with office lighting legislation.
"There remains a great contrast between the willingness of companies to embrace flexible working patterns and their understanding of the need to match this with corresponding changes to the lighting," said Jason Ng, marketing communications specialist at Ex-Or.
Comprehensive energy audit, servicing and maintenance services are now available from Ex-Or to help companies to achieve optimum efficiency from their lighting systems.
Said Mr Ng: "Changes to building use and layout, together with damaged or ineffective equipment and control settings not optimised for comfort or energy saving, can all contribute to a significant increase in energy use and costs.
"We can carry out a full energy audit of a building’s lighting control system, including a review of luminaires and lighting levels using CIBSE guidelines, and also identify uncontrolled lit areas."
Depending on the results of the energy audit, there are a number of effective measures that can be undertaken to significantly improve the energy performance of the lighting control systems, he said. These could include simple retrofit of control equipment and/or luminaire conversion and upgrade to controllable units.
A regular service and maintenance programme from Ex-Or minimises the cost of ad-hoc call-outs and prevent problems with the lighting control system from developing in the first place. Ex-Or provides a bespoke package that ensures there is only one point of contact for the service and maintenance of the lighting control system.
The service includes annual check-ups, system data back-up, zone tests, visual equipment checks, software and firmware upgrades, system integrity checks, free on-site equipment replacement warranty, technical telephone support and a guaranteed 72 hour on-site response service.