Blythburgh Church increases light levels and reduces annual running costs by 46%

Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk, is known locally as 'The Cathedral of the Marshes' and it stands tall, visible for miles from the A12 trunk road. Like many other churches, Holy Trinity relies on carefully designed external lighting to make its flint decorated architecture a local landmark by night as well as by day. A warm colour rendering, minimal light pollution and restricted glare were inherent factors in the design brief of this relighting project, which covered every elevation of this wonderful building.

Following a successful re-lighting of St Peter & St Paul, Wangford, which is in the same group of parishes, the design and installation team of James Laws and Boggis Electrical of Wrentham was chosen by Blythburgh PCC to re-light Holy Trinity. They selected Pulsar Light Eco-Range floods for both projects.

Holy Trinity Church was previously lit externally with a variety of sodium and other discharge fittings, with an estimated total power consumption of 2800 watts. The use of the Eco-Range products enabled this figure to be reduced by 46% to 1500 watts, using the same floodlighting positions (saving on re-wiring costs).

To reduce light pollution and to give even coverage, the lighting of the tower was achieved by use of narrow angle 130 watt Eco-Range for the upper parts and wider 60 watt units for the lower masonry. A total of 18 new floodlights replaced 10 old fittings but with a much more accurate containment of light around the architecture.

One factor that made the Pulsar Light Eco-Range a front runner was a tough IP rating requirement which is rarely considered - ingress of ants! The churchyard has many lively ant nests and their activities made the old lights unusable without frequent maintenance. The new LED Eco-Floods will need no ant patrols and no lamp replacements.

Local lighting designer James Laws and Jeremy Turner, MD of Boggis Electrical, completed the exacting brief on time and within budget. Blythburgh PCC are delighted and their 'Cathedral of the Marshes' can resume its proud place amongst the features on the night skyline of East Suffolk.

Pulsar Light of Cambridge manufactures a wide range of colour controlled LED lighting for large-scale international architectural projects, television shows, live performances, hotels, and many other applications. Pulsar’s EcoRange provides high power, high efficiency white LED lighting backed with Pulsar’s commitment to quality, reliability, and durability.

For further information visit www.pulsarlight.com