302 How-to Guides

How-to Guides 303

Lighting Car Parks

Car parks are primarily illuminated to provide a clear, way-finding environment for their users, and to encourage a feeling of safety and security. Utilising the correct equipment and lighting levels, a car park can provide a welcoming environment which helps to encourage higher levels of usage.
In order to provide a well-lit car park, the following steps should be considered during the design stage:

Lighting
 ighting levels for car parks are clearly defined within the British L Standards and aim to provide a good quality of light, uniformly applied to the desired area. The versatile DW Windsor Diamond Optic, with its adjustable optical distribution (see pages 28 31) is a useful tool for achieving the optimum lighting coverage with the minimum number of fittings.  uminaires with flat glass glazing are generally preferable to L further reduce glare and upward light. f a building has a dedicated architectural lighting scheme, I then it is important that the car park lighting complements this effect. In order to provide clear images to potential CCTV systems, the lamp choice should provide a good colour rendering of 60Ra or above.  roducts such as high wattage, wide-beam floodlights mounted P on columns or buildings should be avoided, as this approach could cause glare to users and create unnecessary light spill onto adjacent areas.
Monaro, AMRC Building, Sheffield

Control
A car park often fluctuates in the amount of traffic usage it receives, which is a major factor in choosing an appropriate lighting level (see table).  he usage of dimming regimes or occupancy control sensors T should be considered to reduce the lighting levels during periods of reduced traffic usage. Controls can be used to reduce the intensity of the lighting to a lower level whilst ensuring uniformity levels still provide good way-finding and CCTV coverage for the car park and associated areas.  urther information on lighting control options and their F benefits can be found on pages 24 25.  he location of items such as parking meters, CCTV equipment T or signage should be considered in areas where the lighting can positively affect their use. Always try to use the minimum number of lighting points to achieve the required illuminance and uniformity in order to reduce both clutter and cost to the scheme.

Protection
Columns can be subject to vehicle damage, so ensure that they are located in areas less likely to encounter vehicular movement. Where columns are located close to traffic routes, bollards or rail systems can be used protect the base area from any impact.

Lighting levels
The following table provides information from Table 5 of BS 5489:2003 for the lighting of outdoor car parks.
Model Outdoor Car Parks recommended lighting levels Light Traffic car parks (i.e. shops, apartments, cycle parks etc) Medium Traffic car parks (i.e. department stores, offices, sports facilities etc) tyle Heavy Traffic car parks (i.e. schools, churches, major sports facilities etc) Average Illuminance (Eav) 5 lux 10 lux 20 lux Uniformity 25% 25% 25%

Location
 he location of lighting columns within a car park may impact T on various different factors, such as the overall car park layout, and therefore should be taken into account early during the design process. deally, columns should be situated in areas to maximise I the number of parking bays available without creating unnecessary obstructions.

Monaro AMRC Building Sheffield

dwwindsor.com | answers@dwwindsor.co.uk