Green Building and Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor lighting can be an integral part of any building design project. The visual impact can be great, not to mention the safety proper lighting can provide. As required by the building code, all outdoor lighting is required to be high efficacy. What does that mean? High efficacy lighting produces 40 lumens per watt, or less. Lumenes are a measurment of the amount of visible light emitted by a source. So, a high efficacy light fixture would be one that produces a high amount of visible light related to the amount of energy it consumes. Most LED and flurescent light fixtures will meet this requirement. As an alternative, the building code allows for outdoor lighting to be controlled by a manual switch or a motion sensor without an overide. The fixture must also be controlled by a photocell, time clock, or an energy management system, all of which must be provided without an overide. The goal of this regulation is to reduce the power consumption of outdoor fixtures and help assume these fixtures are not on, consuming energy, when not necessary. For now, landscape lighting is exempt from this requirement. Your local jurisdiction may have more stringent regulations. Ask your architect, energy consultant or lighting professional to be sure your project meets the code requirements wherever you are.