THE WALNUTS SCHOOL, BLETCHLEY

The Walnuts School is a community residential special school and Children’s Home. All 175 pupils are on the autistic spectrum or have social communication difficulties, as such the learning environment is vitally important. The Walnuts Schools had deployed a lighting solution from INECO Energy at their main school site and building on the success of the project wanted to roll this out to their Bletchley site.

The Brief

Following the successful energy efficient led lighting upgrade at their main site, the leadership team wanted to deliver consistency and maximise benefits across their estate. The school had the following key requirements:

Reduce operating costs – Significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs, as well as safeguarding against future capital expenditure of wholescale lighting replacement.

Improve the light quality – Upgrade the lighting to required standards, enhancing the learning environment and reduced the number of light fittings where possible.

Reduce carbon footprint – Improve the schools environmental credentials by reducing their carbon footprint.

THE SOLUTION

The Walnuts School selected INECO Energy as their solutions partner to deliver a full service energy efficient LED lighting upgrade project utilising high quality, UK-manufactured Dextra lighting products.

INECO Energy were selected because of their previous work delivering the Walnuts Main Site and their unique approach ‘designing for efficiency’ to deliver the optimum light levels, with the least resource, providing the greatest returns.

INECO Energy’s ‘design for efficiency’ methodology includes a complete investment grade lighting audit, energy review and bespoke lighting design. The school were able to benefit from significant improvements to the learning environment and operational cost savings with no capital outlay by the school due to a government funding initiative.

Milton Keynes Council used circuit level monitoring to independently measured the pre and post electrical load to determine the actual energy saving. 74% energy savings were achieved delivering annual savings of £4,770 and a reduction of 18 tonnes of carbon.

“The whole process from survey/design, installation to completion was totally professional and stress free. The installation team were extremely accommodating and friendly, listening to us and working around the special needs of our school. Our light levels have greatly improved and we are seeing the benefits in energy and maintenance cost savings.”

WHY DEXTRA LIGHTING WERE CHOSEN

  • INECO Energy selected Dextra Lighting because of the performance of their products emitting an excellent efficacy of lumens output for the power consumed.
  • Dextra lighting went above and beyond to provide variances in colour temperature of their products to enhance the learning and bedroom environment.
  • The Dextra products are manufactured in the UK, supporting the growth of the economy and reducing the inherent carbon footprint of the products.
  • Dextra Lighting worked with INECO Energy and the school to ensure product deliveries were outside of key school hours to remove disruption to the school.
  • The old lighting waste was collected by Dextra and recycled under an approved Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) scheme.

The Products
Graduates – aesthetically pleasing for the classroom to provide even light distribution and illuminate the walls
EPK’s – high efficiency linear products for the corridor
Hydra’s – robust fittings for the Hall to minimise damage from accidental strikes and provide good quality lighting
AMC’s – high efficiency bulkhead fitting for cupboards and storerooms

The Result
The Walnuts schools initial focus was to implement a lighting solution which reduced the schools operating costs particularly energy and maintenance costs. However, the school were particularly pleased to be able to benefit from a bespoke lighting solution which enhanced the learning environment utilising government funding with no upfront capital cost.

  • Significantly improved learning environment, reducing stress for pupils.
  • 74% reduction in electrical lighting load
  • 46.6 tonnes annual carbon reduction
  • £4,770 first year energy savings
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(+44) 01747 858100
(+44) 01747 858100