The Crown Estate has refurbished and reused light fixtures from one of its buildings in another property within its portfolio.
Working with the lighting design practice 18 Degrees, the property owner reconditioned 130 lights stripped out from one of its buildings and installed them at its property at 7 Air Street in London.
These included 600×600 LED ceiling panels, downlights and wall lights. The LED boards and drivers were upgraded but housings and optics were retained where possible. The fittings were then electrically tested and re-certified.
Intelligence in the form of Casambi-embedded drivers was also added during the reconditioning work. As Casambi is wireless and app-controlled, no new control cabling was needed.
‘The combination of hardware reuse and smart digital control allowed the lighting to perform not just sustainably at the point of installation, but intelligently throughout its operational life,’ said Paul Beale, cofounder and director of 18 Degrees.
The practice also undertook an assessment of the embodied carbon using the Cibse TM65.2 standard which put the carbon saved by the reuse strategy at 800 kilograms of equivalent carbon dioxide, the equivalent of driving 3,500 miles in a car.
Energy use for lighting is said to have fallen by 59 per cent.
The project is estimated to have cost £7,871 or 33 per cent less than a standard refit with new luminaires. Although it was relatively small in scale, the project leaders say that it proves the concept of reusing and repurposing luminaires.
‘The success of the project shows that circular lighting design can move beyond pilot schemes and into and into the mainstream of commercial projects,’ said Beale. ‘By valuing existing assets, combining them with smart technologies, and putting user experience at the heart the of solution, we can deliver a lighting scheme that meets both environmental and operational goals.’
• Learn more about sustainable lighting at Circular Lighting Live 2025, Recolight’s flagship conference and exhibition, which takes place on Thursday 25 September 2025 at the Minster Building in the City of London. Free to specifiers, Circular Lighting Live 2025 will feature leading experts, specifiers and policy makers who will share their insights into forthcoming standards and legislation, emerging technologies and new business models. More info: www.circularlighting.live
Picture: Nacho Rivera
