BY SCOTT SHELLBERG, Commercial Lighting Manager,
Paramont EO,
www.paramont-eo.com/
Facility and building lighting design is a technically complex and fundamental component of building construction requiring mastery of varied and rapidly evolving product technologies. A knowledgeable and experienced lighting designer integrates the art, science and business of illumination to create productive and aesthetically appealing environments using the latest, most energy-efficient and cost-effective lighting technologies.
Today, many lighting designers use 3D modeling and imaging software on projects to visualize, evaluate and share different lighting scenarios in a room with building owners, architects, electrical engineers and electrical contractors before the lighting equipment is specified, purchased and installed.
There are a number of lighting manufacturer and proprietary, third-party 3D modeling software packages in the marketplace. The most flexible include both lighting calculation, rendering and 3D simulation capabilities that determine the amount of light that will be delivered, based on user-set parameters, and then photo-realistically render the results in gray-scale or color.
Working with the architect’s CAD (computer-aided design) files, the modeling software can typically calculate the amount of light reaching a designated surface or work plane for any type of application and in any given fixture design, interior or exterior. Modeling can incorporate surrounding objects, obstructions and varying shapes like vaulted ceilings or rooms in non-linear design configurations as well as the impact of obtrusive light, such as exterior daylight.
Using 3D modeling, the lighting designer can determine the light level of a room for a given number and selection of lamp types and their lumens. Alternatively, the designer can also determine how many lamps, with how many lumens, will be required to generate a specified level of lighting. If any of the design variables are changed, there is a corresponding dynamic change in the light values.
3D modeling can help lighting designer determine the light level of a room for lamp types. Designer can also determine how many lamps, with how many lumens, will be required to light a room in a desired way.
Lighting it right
The flexibility of 3D allows electrical distributors like Paramont EO in Chicago, where I work, to take on the role of lighting designer and specifier as well as supplying product for a new construction or retrofit project. If the customer has very complex lighting needs, we refer them to a lighting designer that we trust. But if you’re the West Chicago Rec Center or you’re a township or someone who owns a lot of buildings or an architect working on a project that doesn’t require an army of designers, then we’re the lighting design and spec solution to the project.
The main benefit of 3D imaging is that it promotes early customer involvement and visualization of different lighting choices before construction begins which, in turn, validates lighting design decisions and supports customer ownership of the final design. Additionally, 3D improves the accuracy of estimating a project and also minimizes re-work onsite which helps keep the project on budget.
While there’s nothing in the world that is going to make change-orders go away—the owner wants something different than the approved plan, the architect wants to refine something, the ceiling in this room is actually too low—but 3D does reduce change-orders during construction because everyone is getting and reviewing a lot more information upfront.
Covering all the angles
For example, let’s say the project is remodeling a lobby with a front desk. Some questions to ask:
Does the customer want LEDs (light emitting diodes) or linear fixtures?
Recessed cans?
Pendant lighting?
Do they want to accent the walls and put less light in the middle of the space?
With 3D modeling, a lighting designer is able to take a space and quickly render different versions of it for review. Here’s the lobby with LEDs. Here’s the space lit with linear fixtures. These options are going to be on the high side of the customer’s budget. Here is what the recessed cans look like, the regular side of their budget. If a customer says “I want to redo my lobby. Can you give me a good-better-best on price?” Modeling allows a designer to show them what they’re going to get.
By visually showing different lighting options, modeling also allows the customer to visualize price points. The designer can create a 3D model and say “If you want the 50-dollar fixture, this is how it makes the room look. Or, here’s what the 110-dollar fixture looks like.” The customer can’t know the difference if it’s just about price in a vacuum. But if they are shown the difference in price through modeling, that’s a different story.
Everyone relies on fixture and lamp photometrics and the foot-candle numbers on the floor. But people don’t walk through a space looking down at the floor. When you’re walking, you’re looking straight ahead at walls and vertical surfaces. So photometrics only tell a part of the real story.
Customers rarely take that into consideration when making lighting decisions. Using 3D, the designer can show a lot of verticals and angles in the renderings, so the customer can actually understand what a room and the lighting will look like to a person walking into a space. They’re not 190 feet in the air looking down, which is where you are when you’re looking at blueprints.
Modeling is more like a video or a video game. The customer can see the room from different angles. The designer can render the desks, chairs and partitions in the space as well, so the room appears as close to what it actually is going to look like as possible.
Lighting the way
The other person who benefits mightily from 3D design is the electrical contractor. Modeling helps contractors close and win jobs. It’s very beneficial to the contractor because he is wrapping up the cost of the job with the design of the job.
When the contractor presents a 3D design to a potential customer, the contractor is claiming ownership of the design. This gives them value and differentiation against the competition, which probably doesn’t have 12 pages of 3D renderings and product cut sheets. Modeling makes contractors look like knowledgeable and proactive design/build contractors to the building owner.
3D modeling is a powerful resource for a lighting designer and a key value-added service for other design professionals as an increasingly essential component of the construction process. Using 3D saves time and money on a lighting project from the get-go and gives designers the opportunity to strengthen customer, contractor, engineer and architect partnerships. Through 3D modeling and imaging technology, lighting consultants add value to existing buildings and new construction through improved illumination that increases safety, productivity and visual appeal while controlling project costs.
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