I am designing the lighting system for 3 major office buildings. Around the building and in some balconies, the architect will specify some green areas and small gardens. The architect is suggesting to install some uplight along the garden, in some cases under small trees and others just in the grass. As far as I understand, uplight under the tree can be considered "landscape lighting" and therefore is exempt from light pollution requirements. Right?
My doubt is for the remaing areas, where luminaires are installed in the grass. Is this lighting also exempt?
Please note that there is more external lighting in the project, but all that is complying with requirements.
Bill Swanson
Sr. Electrical EngineerIntegrated Design Solutions
LEEDuser Expert
731 thumbs up
March 9, 2018 - 4:40 pm
A few things.
1. The wattage for all of this lighting still needs to be counted. The exemption only applies to uplight and light trespass requirements.
2. The landscape lighting must be controlled separately from non-exempt lighting. It is only exempt in LZ3 & LZ4. And it must automatically turn off between midnight and 6am. No local override for the balconies.
3. There are many things that are a judgement call. I'm hesitant to call lighting in grass as "landscape lighting". But there is no firm rule that defines what is landscape lighting. If challenged by a Reviewer, how good of an argument can be made to defend this position? I don't like the lack of clarity between LZ2 and LZ3. It just comes down to a judgement call.