Cat A office luminaires are re-used in training college

Office lights have been removed from a Cat A fit-out in a London office and reused in a craft college.

Office design and fit-out firm Morgan Lovell asked lighting remanufacturer Silent Design to save the 300 linear metres of luminaires from a commercial office building on the South Bank when a tenant moved in and wanted a custom Cat B scheme.

The fittings – initially earmarked as waste – were then taken to the company’s Marlow, Buckinghamshire, facility where they were upgraded and tested.

A number of 3m runs of linear LED were cut and fabricated into shorter 1500mm units. Each had two custom end-caps added.

Downlights were converted from fluorescent to LED. The company even reused floor tiles rescued from a job in Watford as packaging for the lights while they were transported.

The luminaires were then upgraded where necessary, remanufactured and tested.

They are currently being installed in the Building Crafts College, an educational establishment in Stratford, East London which trains bricklayers, stone masons, joiners and carpenters.

They are controlled via presence and daylight dimming using wireless Casambi technology, a discrete Bluetooth-based system that lends itself well to remanufacturing projects.

Silent Design has given the customer a five-year warranty on the reused lights.

‘It’s the complete refurb package as far as I can see,’ says Silent Design boss John Bowden.

‘When I walked the floors with my colleagues Lina Grinceviciute and Paul Richardson, we agreed that we had to find a practical solution and that we could not let the unused lights go for WEEE recycling,’ said James Ivin, environmental and sustainability manager of Morgan Lovell. ‘We were persistent in finding a solution and through contacts at Recolight, we found John of Silent Design who took the lights away, and repurposed them.

‘We obviously have a long way to go, but giving these things ‘a go’ has had positive impacts and overall carbon savings. Happy clients and customers all around.’

• This project will be the subject of a presentation at Circular Lighting Live 2023, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition which taking place on Thursday 21 September 2023 at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2023 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. For 2023, the organisers have moved to a bigger venue with more expansive exhibition floor and included a dedicated track for lighting designers. More info: www.circularlighting.live