By Zane Wylie, Sales Representative, Raylinc Lighting
Zane calls them key spec lockers: features a quality fitting has and a cheap option lacks. Ask for them in the specification, and the cheaper alternatives drop out. “If they have it, they’re probably not going to be one of the cheap options,” he says.
Optics are a common example. Some fittings use optics designed for a particular task. They throw light further and allow wider spacing between fittings. A standard floodlight “just puts a blob of light” below it. It can’t reach as far, so the spacing in the design stops working.
“You’re either going to need more of them,” Zane says. “It just changes the design.”
When a design depends on a particular light distribution, name it in the specification. Wattage and lumen output alone leave the door open.
At tender and procurement stage, Zane recommends a simple clause: “All alternatives must be signed off by the specifier.”
Some engineers go a step further. If a contractor wants to use an alternative, they must supply a full lighting design for the entire site using that product. The design has to show the alternative works in every space on the project.
Many proposed alternatives fall over at that hurdle. The contractor may not have the right photometric files to run the design. Or the work involved outweighs the saving.
Clients can also write a review of the installed lighting into the engineer’s engagement. That way someone with the specification in hand checks what actually went into the ceiling.
A spec locker is a requirement that quality fittings meet and cheaper ones don’t, such as a specific optic or light distribution. Writing it into the specification makes a like for like swap harder.
Only if the contract allows it. A clause requiring the specifier to sign off every alternative gives the engineer the final say.
Ask for a full lighting design of the whole project using the alternative. If it can’t meet the design light levels at the same spacing, it isn’t an equivalent.
A generic floodlight spreads light close to the fitting. Fittings with task-specific optics push light further, so fewer of them cover the same area.
Zane Wylie is a sales representative at Raylinc Lighting, working with engineers in Townsville, Cairns and Brisbane. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Lighting and is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society.
Contact the Raylinc team for help writing a specification that holds through to installation.