© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
If your block lighting looks tired or has stopped being a positive advertisement for your building, it’s definitely time for a change. Built-in obsolescence is a significant part of our lives. With LED lighting technology improving rapidly, lighting really is no different. If you’re sceptical, just imagine still trying to watch videos on a Betamax machine.
Even five years ago is ancient history in the LED lighting world. You may manage a block fewer than five years old and imagine this doesn’t concern you, but that’s not necessarily true.
Badly commissioned lighting, poorly aligned Lux settings, inappropriate fittings and high-energy lamps spell disaster anywhere.
Energy bills will rocket, maintenance costs will follow and the block’s overall look might be compromised. Not to mention the time, hassle and patience expended on getting maintenance teams on site, at the right time and in exactly the right location. Unseen costs can be phenomenal.
Everyone knows lighting is such an integral part of urban living.
It affects experience therefore expectations are high, but the willingness to finance these expectations doesn’t correlate. Therefore, paying attention to small things during installation can stack up in the long run.
One high-specification block, housing million-pound penthouse flats and located by Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout, was struggling with bi-weekly maintenance visits and soaring costs.
With a thorough audit it quickly transpired the lighting manufacturer’s advice was to replace lamps every 10,000 hours or before they failed. In what parallel universe might that be undertaken you might wonder?
The logic of installing such lamps is leftfield to be polite. When that’s added to incompatible occupancy sensors with the communal lighting systems and electric lights were competing with daylight, it wasn’t difficult to create some easy wins to drastically reduce costs while increasing efficiency.
With technology always being developed one lamp or fitting really isn’t like another.
It takes experience and knowledge to get the very best, most effective and energy saving block lighting solutions working for you. This is where expert contractors really do pay off in the long run.
Time and again RCMs and management companies have recouped their outlay within fewer than 30 months while saving 60% more on energy consumption. The accompanying bills have been much lower of course.
Good lighting design is not just about energy and cost.
It’s about efficiencies and aesthetics too.
If communal areas look bright, welcoming and well maintained they are perceived as a more attractive place to live and/or work. When block managers aren’t stressed with constant lighting maintenance issues, they can concentrate on making a difference elsewhere.
Jamie Willsdon is Director at Future Lighting London