As I sit in the kitchen of Los Angeles City Fire Department Station 94, I can see the depressing quality of institutional lighting that has been a standard for the last 50-some years. The feeling at the time was that there should be a lot of light at a low cost of operation. Little regard was given to the fact that people need to live and work in this building 24 hours a day, every day of the year, forever.
The largest complaint I hear from firefighters is that they got a beautiful building, but the design failed to take into consideration that a fire station is many types of buildings under one roof and therefore needs different types of lighting considerations. Unlike a single-function structure, we are dealing with an office, a restaurant, a gym, a hotel, a conference center, a workshop and a garage, just to name a few. All these functions require different light levels, light color and in some cases the ability to be dimmed or go on/off when the room is in use or empty—building automation for both comfort sake and energy management.
LED lighting
First let’s talk about LED as a light source versus fluorescent or high-intensity discharge (HID) such as Metal Halide. For all intents and purposes there is no longer a reason to be using fluorescent or HID on projects anymore. In addition to the hazardous material they contain, the need to dispose of them correctly and the fact that LED can outlast them at a minimum of two to one (a standard 4-foot fluorescent lamp has a life cycle of 20,000 hours versus an inexpensive LED retrofit device with a lifecycle of 50,000 to 75,000), which equates to less maintenance and less liability because there is always the correct level of lighting needed to make the space safe. In addition, there is also the LED’s ability to make as much or more light for half the traditional light source's wattage levels. For example, a standard 4-foot T8-size fluorescent lamp will use about 32 watts of power (plus a little bit more when we add in the ballast), where an LED-equivalent lamp will use about 15 watts and produce the same amount of usable light for a longer lamp life. Also, the LED produces almost no infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV), so it will not fade paint or fabric. And given that every watt of lighting produces 3.4 BTUs of heat that needs to be removed from the building to maintain comfort levels, LEDs also make half as much heat.
Now let’s talk about color of the light. Fluorescents have always had a hard time making pleasant colors of light. They are very good at making daylight, but very poor at making light that looks like that produced by a light bulb. The explanation is simple, the basic principle that makes a fluorescent tube make light is a lightning bolt shoots from one end of the lamp to the other making the mixture of prospers on the glass emit light. It’s easy to see that a source like this can produce a lot of blue light (it’s an arc light in a tube) unlike a light bulb which, by passing voltage through a filament makes a warm glow, very heavy in reds and yellows because the filament is burning. With the advent of special prospers, LEDs are able to simulate almost any color we need—daylight for working in areas with lots of glass, warm for sleeping quarters and dining areas and so on. We can even simulate a skylight using only LED lamps and a lens on the ceiling. By combining the daylight LEDs with the warm LEDs we can make it look like a sunset is coming through the ceiling.
There are two terms are used to note with the selection of LEDs. The first one is color rendering index (CRI), which is used to tell you how close the colors trueness is compared to a light bulb. You will find the cost for LED equipment is tied to this number for the reason that the lower numbers (a CRI of 75 to 85) are easier to make because of the sheer abundance of LEDs at that level. It’s harder to make an LED with a CRI of 90 or higher as these LEDs are harder (and fewer) to make. I live in California and we have mandatory energy requirements that my designs must adhere to and one of them is the LED fixtures I use must have a CRI of 90 or higher to meet the current code. But as the quantity of sales of this color gets larger with time, the cost will come down. And because of California’s strict energy codes and the success we are having with our programs, I believe most of the country will be adapting our codes sooner or later.
The second one is a measurement called Kelvin (for the engineer William Lord Kelvin), which tells us that a blue sky can be between 5,000 and 6,500 Kelvin where as a 25-watt light bulb has a Kelvin of 2,300 to 2,500. These numbers tell us where the color of the light will fall as our eyes perceive them. For example, a gym or laundry facility will work better using a 4,000 Kelvin source at 90 CRI for a few reasons. First trying to match up a black or blue sock will be obvious under this color and people (and most colors) look very good under this color. I do a lot of retail store lighting design and this is the color I use exclusively. At the other end of the spectrum is the warm or most commonly seen as 2,700 Kelvin. This color is very soothing so I use it for kitchens and bathrooms and halls. You can see where a warm source of light in an apparatus bay would look a little strange or in a building lobby with a lot of glass where the warm would fight with the daylight coming in. That can change with night use, but because of the requirements of a fire station, daylight (better known as white light) will work out better in the long run.
Now let’s touch on dimming. Only recently has the dimming of LEDs gotten a lot better. The LED came onto the market so fast that the dimmer manufacturers have had to do a lot of catching up to get to where we are today. This option makes such a difference in its use in a fire station. First the dorms (the hotel aspect of the project) can now be made so much more comfortable and there need not be the shock of even some of the lights coming on in order to prepare for a run. A side note here is how I love to use low-level lighting, which you would call step lights. This can be accomplished a lot of ways, with thin slots in the walls with LEDs on ribbons hidden inside the extrusion either pointed at the floor or, as I have also done by mounting these slots 7 feet above the floor and pointed up at the ceiling, which I think makes the halls look so much nicer during the all-night stints. The standard type of wall mount step light traditionally seen with the louvers on the front also will work fine, but with the advent of the LED so much more beautiful designs for step lights has been realized. You can also include these step lights directly to the walls in the dorms or the individual rooms and they can also be made to put out red light to preserve night vision should the need be required. I have done fire boats and the red light is a must for deck lighting. The step lights are also a good choice for bathrooms (yes, even as adults it still nice to have night lights) and when you combine any or all of the hall lighting solutions with motion detectors (occupancy or vacancy detectors) you create a safe and worry-free environment for the guests of your firehouse.
Lighting control systems
Now let's look at lighting control systems that can regulate your interior and exterior lighting. Once you have programmed it with the latitude and longitude of the station, the system should be smart enough to recognize sunrise and sunset for every day of the year. So you will never come back from a run only to find the yard lights have not come on yet when it has been dark for a few hours.
Some of these systems can even calculate the amount of daylight your architect has designed into your new facility and can regulate the level of light depending on the amount of sunlight making it into the building. In California, we call this daylight harvesting and it has become a mandatory part of our lighting designs. These same systems can also control the opening and closing of skylights and transom windows for ventilation. One of the best things to come from this wave of automation is the ability to operate shade systems—now there is no reason to not have windows off the TV room, dining area or even in the dorms because you can now have shades open or close to meet your lighting requirements. You can open or close them with the push of a button or the automation system can close them automatically when the sun starts to stream in. Some of the new roller shades come as battery-operated systems up to 12-by-12-feet so they can be added later or as the need arises.
Lighting fixtures
There are three basic groups of light fixtures. The first is recessed lighting, where all of the light fixtures are mounted within the ceiling. I feel this makes for the nicest look. The second is surface-mounted, which is common in utility areas such as closets and stairways and any area with an open-ceiling design. Then there is the wall-mounted fixture or wall sconce, as it’s commonly known. These work well in large open areas where putting lights in the ceiling will either be impractical or hard to get to for future service or become an obstruction, like in a hallway.
There are building codes that restrict the use of anything that will stick out beyond a certain distance from the wall and up to a certain level above the floor, which can make wall sconces impractical. Another consideration for avoiding wall sconces, hanging lanterns or chandeliers is not just the maintenance factor but the fact that such designs will look dated at some point in the future and most building budgets will not allow a change. I would recommend steering clear of too much decorative lighting, after all, it is still a public-funded facility.
Closing
Just like with an apparatus committee, when designing your new station or retrofitting your existing one, ask lots of questions, especially where lighting and switching are concerned. I may be sticking my neck out on this, but it seems that a lot of fire stations I have seen or worked on had been designed by some very good architects, most of whom had never spent a single night in a station trying to sleep between calls or make it to the apparatus (with or without a pole). And the action committee was so intimidated that they let it slide with the hopes they could fix it later, but it is very hard to go back and make changes, especially where lighting and switching are concerned. Treat it as if it is going to be your next house.
DAVID STEINTZ is owner of F.I.R.E. Lighting Technology Design (LTD) in Los Angeles. They work with customers on lighting automation and installing various lighting systems.
