6 school lighting lessons from our electricians in Melbourne

Are you ready for class? Because we’re about to teach you something you probably had no idea about!

Every student deserves a healthy and safe learning environment. Before you can start focusing on things like resources and curriculums however, you’ll want to make sure that all of the little things are taken care of first.

What you might not know is that this includes school lighting.

Just like air-conditioning in schools, good lighting directly impacts the health – and more importantly, the academic performance – of the students in your care.

“But wait,” you ask, “how exactly does lighting impact my students?”

We’re glad you asked. Get comfortable, turn to page 64 and start taking notes as our electricians in Melbourne explain why good lighting is so important for schools!

Lesson 1: lighting directly influences student performance

You know how people keep recommending you get a blue screen filter for all of your devices to reduce eye strain when checking your phone or doing office work?

Well, school lighting has a similar effect!

The type of lighting in classrooms has a major impact on things like attention, alertness and fatigue, all of which directly affect your students’ educational outcomes.

“Too dim” and “too harsh” can both impact students:

• Lights that are too weak can forcing them to subconsciously strain their eyes, resulting in fatigue, sluggishness and drowsiness
• Lights that are too strong can cause migraines and headaches

Of course, it isn’t just students that can suffer thanks to a poorly thought-out lighting arrangement – teachers can also find themselves struggling.

After all, they’re spending just as much time in the same light as their students are!

Lesson 2: natural light above all else

The best type of lighting in school? Natural light.

As much as possible, you’ll want to rely primarily on natural light instead of artificial light, as it’s the type of light that offers the most physiological and psychological benefits. After all, we did spend literally millions of years adapting to it!

Natural light:

• Boost your vitamin D intake
• Improves your mood
• Helps improve sleep

With benefits like these, you’ll want to find ways to maximise the usage of natural light in your school.

Of course, sometimes that isn’t always possible.

Maybe you run night classes. Or maybe there are just some rooms on your school property that simply don’t have very good natural light owing to their location or small, high-up windows.

Fortunately, our commercial electricians in Melbourne can set you up with a lighting system that can compensate.

Lesson 3: good lighting is comfortable lighting

Some of your students may have existing visual problems such as:

• Strabismus
• Lazy eye
• Slow eye-tracking
• Lack of visual focus

And unfortunately, bad lighting can often make these conditions even worse.

Flickering lights can cause students and teachers to blink, squint and even look away, affecting their ability to focus on what they’re doing.

Another problem is failing to diffuse light properly.

Good lighting setups spread light evenly throughout your classrooms, ensuring that no student has to struggle, and that there isn’t one corner of the classroom that’s dimmer or brighter than the rest

A good lighting setup ensures that the light is consistently pleasant and comfortable throughout your school. No matter which room they have to go to next, students will be able to focus without having to worry about bad light affecting them.

Lesson 4: a lesson in colour temperature

If you’re the head of the visual arts department, you’re probably already very familiar with this idea.

If not, here’s a quick lesson!

Light doesn’t just have brightness – it also has colour.

For example, computer screens typically use blue light. And as anyone who spends a lot of time checking their social media or browsing the web immediately before going to bed knows, blue light can impact your ability to fall asleep.

While nobody’s going to be falling asleep at your school, colour temperature can still affect your students and staff in other ways.

For example, cool lighting improves concentration on school tasks and projects, while warm light can influence stress levels and hyperactivity among students.

Lesson 5: lighting for security and safety

Lighting doesn’t just impact your students – it also plays a key role in keeping them safe!

Does your school have a lot of corridors that don’t have windows? Do you have enough emergency exit lighting to ensure that people know where to go if the worst happens?

If so, you’re going to need to make sure that you have the right lighting solution to ensure that students and staff alike are kept safe.

Among the many electrical services in Melbourne that our team of sparkies provide, emergency lighting is one of them.

We’ll devise an emergency lighting system that ensures that emergency exits are visible, and that should the worst happen, your emergency lights won’t fail on you.

Lesson 6: choose energy-efficiency

While your primary purpose is to educate, that doesn’t mean that money doesn’t matter!

You still need to keep the lights on, no pun intended. And constant light use is often a large part of where your money is going towards.

This is especially problematic if you run night classes and after-school activities as well, or loan your school property out to other organisations and groups after-hours.

When designing your lighting setup, our Melbourne electricians will use energy-efficient LED lights and fixtures that use up to 50% less power than incandescent bulbs (and sometimes, even moreso!)

Not only that, but they also last for way, way longer, reducing maintenance costs and allowing you to keep running classes without having to worry about the lights going out.

Upgrade your school lighting with our Melbourne electricians

Our Melbourne electrical service has your school covered

Let that be a lesson to you about the importance of good lighting in your school.

Of course, now it’s time to put that lesson into practice by ensuring that the lighting setup at your school is up to par!

Briggs Electrical’s Melbourne electricians work with a variety of clients – and that includes schools just like yours.

Our experienced sparkies create a comprehensive, customised electrical setup for your school, including lighting. On top of choosing and installing lights, our team also helps you by designing:

• Electrical wiring for staff rooms and ICT labs
• Socket and plug installation
• Projector installation for classrooms and lecture rooms
• Wiring for portable classrooms

And with school still out, now’s the perfect time to look at getting your school’s lighting and electrical wiring upgraded.

Need a sparkie? You need Briggs Electrical. Contact our team today on 1300 300 222 or fill in the form to lodge a job with us today.