BRIGHT FUTURE - LIGHTING UPGRADE
Date: April 2025
Funded by: Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council, UK Shared Prosperity Fund via HM Government & Green Suffolk
Project Manager: Jon Betts & Abbie Schug
We have undertaken a significant project to upgrade The Bank's lighting facilities by replacing the 25+ year old fluorescent lighting in the Main Hall with high efficiency LED, and installed additional exhibition and bar lighting. This retrofit will improve energy efficiency, reducing environmental impact, reducing running costs and increasing the Centre’s usability.
To support the lighting upgrade, we hosted a Community Open Call Exhibition exploring the relationship between energy and land in Suffolk. The exhibition presents creative visual interpretations and supporting information leaflet to increase reflection and awareness of energy saving measures and positive impacts it can have on our rural environment.
Bright Futures project is funded by Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council's S106 Eye Wind Turbines Fund, UK Shared Prosperity Fund via HM Government (Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council Rural Communities Fund) and Green Suffolk's Climate Action Community Match Fund.
Read more about project need, impact and outcomes below.
Date: April 2025
Funded by: Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council, UK Shared Prosperity Fund via HM Government & Green Suffolk
Project Manager: Jon Betts & Abbie Schug
We have undertaken a significant project to upgrade The Bank's lighting facilities by replacing the 25+ year old fluorescent lighting in the Main Hall with high efficiency LED, and installed additional exhibition and bar lighting. This retrofit will improve energy efficiency, reducing environmental impact, reducing running costs and increasing the Centre’s usability.
To support the lighting upgrade, we hosted a Community Open Call Exhibition exploring the relationship between energy and land in Suffolk. The exhibition presents creative visual interpretations and supporting information leaflet to increase reflection and awareness of energy saving measures and positive impacts it can have on our rural environment.
Bright Futures project is funded by Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council's S106 Eye Wind Turbines Fund, UK Shared Prosperity Fund via HM Government (Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council Rural Communities Fund) and Green Suffolk's Climate Action Community Match Fund.
Read more about project need, impact and outcomes below.
The Main Hall is the primary location for all our general operations, events and activities, with the lights in almost in constant use, daytime and evening. The Hall had 8 lighting fixtures, consisting of 29 florescent tubes (3-4 tubes per fixing) which was installed over 25 years ago, pre-dating when the building was still operational as a HSBC bank in 1990’s. It is energy-intensive, produces subpar illumination, and is now unreliable. The lack of functional, effective lighting restricts the hall's usage, impacting the quality of our activities and limiting the space's potential as a hub for exhibitions, performances, and community events. Notability all these issues have greater significance during evening opening/events (which we rely on for generating revenue). Not having flexible or dimmable lighting often causes health and safety issues when working at evening events with inadequate lighting in the necessary places. These issues directly impact the community project's sustainability and longevity in not being able to provide worthwhile, practical and quality experiences.
Through comprehensive community surveys and direct feedback from customers, users, and community partners overwhelming conclusion that an upgrade needed to be made.
Through comprehensive community surveys and direct feedback from customers, users, and community partners overwhelming conclusion that an upgrade needed to be made.
Image: Initial Lighting Design by Beacon Lights - Lighting & Electrical Distributor
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Project phase 1: Lighting The replacement of existing fluorescent lighting system involved removal of existing lighting fixtures, repairing the ceiling underneath old fixings, and installing high-efficiency, dimmable LED lighting system. We worked with Suffolk based company Beacon Lights to develop the lighting design and specification for the retrofit - ensuring the new facilities would reduce our energy consumption and utilities bills whilst increasing usability of the space, particularly for exhibitions and live events. The new lighting system features eight circuits of dimmable LED lighting – replacing existing overhead lighting and further installing additional lighting over exhibition and bar area. |
Our pre-project running costs for the lights averaged over £1100 annually, which consumed 3,673 kWh per year.
The retrofit to high-efficiency LED is predicted to:
- Reduce annual C02 emissions by at least 66%
- Save 500kg of C02e per year (that is comparable to 50 large beach balls full of gas)
- Predicted annual saving of over £830 per year on energy bills
- Reduce annual energy consumption by 2416 kWh (equals enough to charge 1311 smartphones for an entire year)
The works are taking place 14th April - 1st May 2025.
Project Phase 2: Exhibition
To support the lighting installation, we developed an open call exhibition - Light & Flux - to address themes of environmental risk and deterioration across Suffolk and the need for significant change. This collection of visual artworks created by 23 regional artists present unique perspectives and conversations around our relationship with land, light, energy and transformation.
The exhibition presents an accessible and abstracted consideration of the achievements of our lighting upgrade and hopes to engage audiences in a creative way.
We created a supporting leaflet presenting an overview of our project with statistics and practical tips to support visitors to take small steps toward energy efficiency improvements at home. With our retrofit acting as an example for the significant savings - both financially and environmentally - that can be achieved.
Light & Flux is open to the public for free, from Wednesday 30th April to Saturday 24th May 2025.
This exhibition project was made possible thanks to the Suffolk Climate Action Community Match Funder, which was provided by Suffolk’s public sector organisations, as part of the wider work to address the climate emergency. Find out more about the Community Match Fund and the Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan here: www.greensuffolk.org.
To support the lighting installation, we developed an open call exhibition - Light & Flux - to address themes of environmental risk and deterioration across Suffolk and the need for significant change. This collection of visual artworks created by 23 regional artists present unique perspectives and conversations around our relationship with land, light, energy and transformation.
The exhibition presents an accessible and abstracted consideration of the achievements of our lighting upgrade and hopes to engage audiences in a creative way.
We created a supporting leaflet presenting an overview of our project with statistics and practical tips to support visitors to take small steps toward energy efficiency improvements at home. With our retrofit acting as an example for the significant savings - both financially and environmentally - that can be achieved.
Light & Flux is open to the public for free, from Wednesday 30th April to Saturday 24th May 2025.
This exhibition project was made possible thanks to the Suffolk Climate Action Community Match Funder, which was provided by Suffolk’s public sector organisations, as part of the wider work to address the climate emergency. Find out more about the Community Match Fund and the Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan here: www.greensuffolk.org.
Project Outcomes:
- Reducing our energy usage by 66% and lowering our carbon footprint.
- Increase lighting functionality with dimmable, zoned lighting systems, enabling flexibility, energy efficiency, and enhanced user experience.
- Using UK-made lighting fixtures and contracting a local business to limit transportation emissions and supporting the local economy.
- Improve community well-being by creating a more pleasant, productive, and comfortable environment.
- Improve usage and engagement of a community asset.
- Enhance The Bank's sustainability and future-proof its operations, allowing us to expand our programming and reinvest savings directly into community-focused initiatives.
- Increase community awareness for environmental issues and practical energy saving measures
Project funded by
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