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Disability Sport Yorkshire, Denhale ARC

As the main hall at Denhale ARC is an active sports hall, it is used by a wide variety of local users, for an even wider variety of activities and sports.

Now obviously the type of light to be fitted in these circumstances requires some careful thought:

  • The staff need to be able to alter the light levels in the hall as different activities require different light levels
  • The lights to be fitted must give off high levels of light, together with an even spread and accurate colour rendering
  • A number of the existing fittings were actually integrated emergency lights too and so the new replacements would need to fulfill this role also
  • The replacements need to be of tough construction and have some form of impact protection due to potential impact damage from balls, etc…
  • The existing lights have suffered from sporadic failures of bulbs, etc… Due to the height of the fittings, access for maintenance is quite difficult. Ideally the replacements should address this issue in some way.
  • As with any installation, energy efficiency is always a concern. Commercial energy costs are always rising and the lights in the hall can be on for many hours at a time. Together with the charitable status of the premises/user, potential energy savings over the existing lighting should be considered.

We knew we would need to use a fitting that wasn’t ‘off the shelf’ to meet these specific requirements. 

As such, we turned to the team at our local YESSS Electrical in Wakefield to see if they could source something with the specific requirements we had in mind. 

We have used YESSS for a number of projects now and they have always managed to source and deliver some pretty specific products, even from the most vague description of what we need to achieve! We thought this would really put them to the test, so we sent them a rough specification we required, together with a picture of the existing lights and the team from YESSS Wakefield set to work…

They pulled through in a spectacular manner, answering our original queries quickly & efficiently, all whilst keeping it local to the heart of the project, Disability Sport Yorkshire

West Yorkshire Winning Team

Putting us in contact with the specialists at local West Yorkshire LED lighting manufacturer PowerLite, we managed to formulate a plan whereby they would do some customisations to one of their standard low bay LEDs producing a compact, powerful solution to the problem of ‘bad light’ for the Denhale ARC.

The 210w Impact Sport LED lowbay met the requirements of the light output required in a light weight, compact package. Providing excellent output at 4000k “daylight” colour temperature ensures the light in the hall seems as natural as possible. This helps to both improve the ability to play sports due to being able to see better, but reduces strain and fatigue on the eyes from harsh (artificial light) with an unnatural colour temperature.

Impact protection is provided via a strong metal casing together with a tight metal grid of quite a depth over the front diffuser.  The extra depth of the front grid helps to ensure stiffness and keep impacting balls well away from the sensitive internals of the light.

The diffuser does a suprisingly good job of reducing glare considering just how bright these lights are.  The diffuser ensures a nice even spread of light throughout the whole front of the fitting.

The PowerLite Impact Sport LED had an emergency option which also meant we could keep the integrated EML (Emergency Lighting) within the fitting. I must comment that the EML brightness on battery was far superior on these fittings to the previous solution with the 55W PL fluorescent lamps.  Even the green charging LED was super bright, ensuring it can be easily seen from the floor when fitted, even with the diffuser and deep sports cage on the front!

PowerLite finally added 3 way switching as an option for us (33%/66%/100%), which required customisation to work with the integrated EML. Their service was impressive and it felt like no request was too much.

A 5 year warranty tops the light off, and we felt very confident on the quality of their workmanship with the  finished units.

Being able to call on local experts in sports lighting manufacture who are based within West Yorkshire has enabled us to exceed our clients expectations.

Smooth Delivery from YESSS Electrical with the goods ready to collect when promised

The lights were all sat packaged at the back door of our local YESSS Electrical Wakefield, ready for collection on the morning of the job.

Installation of the custom sports lighting required building a freestanding scaffolding tower within the hall. Small doors and difficult bends/turns on the other route to the hall meant we could not use powered access.

The installation went without hitch! The light weight of the replacements helped greatly with the fixing of the new lights, not to mention reduced fatigue on our team having to carry everything up & down the scaffolding for each light.

We are proud to say we got the work completed ahead of schedule enabling Disability Sport Yorkshire to reuse their hall with the minimum of down time.

The end result is something that has blown both ourselves and the customer away.

The previous lighting had been suffering from a number of inoperative units and the overall brightness of the hall was quite drastically lowered. Not only that, but colours were not bright and clear, something you need during sporting activities. The hall appeared washed out and dull, almost feeling lifeless.

The crisp, brightness of the replacements are simply stunning. Although more works planned at Denhale ARC to refurbish the hall, simply changing the sports hall lighting has changed the mood of the room dramatically.

Colours appear both brighter and more defined. And whilst seriously bright on the highest setting, glare is surprisingly low even on the maximum setting. Lower settings are diffused easily by the lights, enabling balls and other objects to be tracked across the top of hall without glare from the lights affecting your view.

Not only have the lights improved the feel (and ultimately safety) of the room, but Disability Sport Yorkshire can now enjoy energy savings of approx 40% over their old, inefficient lights. All this, warrantied, without any bulb substitutions for at least the next 5 years.

Now that sounds like a win for the team from West Yorkshire:

ElectricBlu Contractors, YESSS Electrical & PowerLite

lighting up Disability Sport Yorkshire @ Denhale ARC, Wakefield

" This was a first class job from ElectricBlu Contractors. We started with a long list of requirements and desired outcomes, such as the levels of lighting required not only for different activities, but also for the groups and individuals taking part " ....... " Many of our customers are disabled people – some with visual impairment and so it is important to get this right. We ended with a much improved solution which is better for our use and is also more energy efficient, which was high on our list of priorities"
Kevan Halliday-Brown,Chief Executive of Disability Sport Yorkshire

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