Education

Lighting in education can make a difference to every students learning experience and their motivation to learn. Good lighting ensures that students can see the learning information and building around them.

Learning environments should be visually interesting, highlighting architectural features and displays as well as being suitable as a working environment.

Areas

Modelling Index

Visual communication between a student and their teacher is very important in education so when a lighting scheme is developed, the designer needs to ensure that a person's face is lit effectively so that someone can clearly read their facial expressions. The best way to measure this is by calculating the modelling index. The modelling index is the ratio between the vertical illuminance and the horizontal illuminance and can be taken at a known point or an average over the whole space. For classrooms, a modelling index between 0.3 and 0.6 is ideal.

Average Cylindrical Illuminance

Horizontal Illuminance at a Point

Daylight

Daylight plays a large part in our well-being, mood and health, and these impact significantly on our ability to learn. New school designs recognise this and bring lots of daylight into learning spaces. This in turn allows the use of lighting controls to save large amounts of energy through dimming and switching.

LED technology is well suited to the switching cycles and flexibility required in educational spaces today.

The SmartScan ColourActive control system uses the principles of circadian rhythms to change artificial lighting throughout the day to provide a varied spectrum of colour and brightness, replicating the natural cycle of daylight.

SmartScan ColourActive

Colour rendition

Learning spaces require a minimum Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of 80 or above. For tasks that require good colour comparisons such as an art studio, a higher CRI of 90 is recommended.

Many Thorlux luminaires can be supplied to special order with CRI 90+ LEDs. Please contact your local Sales Engineer or the Sales Office for more information.