I have had a number of conversations with different people recently regarding LED lighting. One of these was with a friend who is a commercial lightning designer for Thorn Lighting. He said last week that they are beginning to see LED fittings that are of the quality that they are happy to use in commercial situations.

They are wiring them up to some electronic systems that measure the amount of daylight present and adjust the output of the LED’s to get the required amount of light in the spaces. For offices these can go as far as having motion detectors so that when a space is unoccupied the lighting levels ramp down until a person enters.

They are getting predicted power consumption levels that show significant savings, plus when combined with the lower maintenance requirements due to the long bulb life they can show that the extra cost in fittings is paid back very quickly.

The biggest concerns are that it is still a new and evolving technology and there has been a huge variance in the quality of fittings they have looked at, and there is some conjecture over the actual life of the bulbs which are tested under `ideal’ conditions, plus colour consistency is still an on-going issue.

There are apparently an uncountable number of factories in China producing LED so the quality is bound to increase while the cost reduces. Our regulations for recessed downlights have recently changed so that all downlights must be able to be completely covered with insulation. This causes heat build up within the light fitting reducing the life of an ordinary incandescent bulb but since LED’s run much cooler there is little doubt that LED will become the dominant lighting method in the near future.

The MagRoc website is now live www.magroc.co.nz with information about this amazing new building material which can be used for internal and external linings plus as a new (for New Zealand) structural insulated panel with the MagRoc Insulated Building System.

The production machinery has arrived and set up will be completed by mid March, and the appraisals for NZBC compliance are being completed by Colin Prouse and his team at BEAL. I strongly believe that this type of construction is the future of building in New Zealand as it provides so many benefits in a very simple system.

Insulation ratings for walls of around R4.0 (final values to be determined by BEAL) for a 165mm thick wall with no thermal bridging, very high air tightness levels, won’t support mould, won’t rot or rust or burn, is totally non toxic, and has very high structural resistant to earthquakes – it is almost impossible to find a down side to this product other than its newness to the market.

The response to MagRoc from people within the industry has been very enthusiastic to date and as soon as we have a project under construction we will have an open day for public viewing – stay tuned for details.

We are designing in MagRoc now for residential and commercial projects in the Christchurch area, SI West Coast, Queenstown, and with several very interested parties in the wider Auckland area. If you wish to find out more about the possibilities call Dean on (03) 337-1713.

Here is a link to an interesting sound control material.  I don’t believe it is available in New Zealand yet but it certainly appears to be effective. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIxwNvhCoy4