A victim of the torrential rains and subsequent flooding during the summer of 2006, Tec Inc. was contracted to provide lighting design services as part of the extensive renovation of this 15-year-old branch library. The original lighting design struggled to provide adequate illumination for the stacks and general area. The skylights at the top of the gable and the perimeter up lights and soffit down lights did not offer enough punch to provide adequate indirect illumination for the book stacks.

Tec’s solution was to suspend linear, direct indirect fluorescent luminaries below the bottom chord of the scissors truss. The small cross sectional area of the luminaries had minimal visual impact on the space, however the high output T5 fluorescent lamps greatly improved the illumination of the ceiling, celebrated the architecture of the space, while increasing the vertical illumination on the book stacks.

The combination of high output T5 lamps, with addressable digital ballasts, and daylight sensors is among the first of its kind anywhere. The advantages to the library are significant. With the large continuous skylight we can take advantage of day lighting, by controlling the luminaries and dimming lamps in zones, providing a substantial energy savings opportunity. As the availability of day lighting decreases the output of the lamps ramp up to compensate, automatically. With digital ballasts and the communication programmed rather than wired the system is extremely flexible, with individual luminaries able to be manipulated from zone to zone, depending on final actual conditions. 

The installation has been completed, and the commissioning of the system is complete. Soon the Brecksville Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library system will be realizing a savings on their lighting energy costs.