Meeting Building Regulations for Lighting: Electrical Safety and Energy Efficiency

Are you planning electrical work or installing new lights on the exterior of your property in England and Wales? If so, you need to make sure your project adheres to the Building Regulations.

Ensuring Your Lighting Project Meets Regulations

To guarantee your lighting installation complies with the required standards, you have a few straightforward options:

• Hire an installer who is officially registered with a competent person scheme. These schemes ensure professionals meet specific standards.

• Alternatively, you can submit an application directly to your local authority's building control department for approval.

• Your third option is to apply through a registered building control approver, an approved independent body.

Your Responsibilities for Energy-Efficient Lighting

A fundamental goal of Building Regulations is to promote maximum energy efficiency in all buildings. Because of this, you are required to install energy-efficient electric lighting under certain conditions. These efficiency standards apply equally to both your indoor and outdoor lighting installations.

When Efficient Lighting is Mandatory

You must ensure you fit efficient electric lighting whenever:

• You have extended your home or other property.

• You are replacing your existing lighting system as part of a wider re-wiring project.

How to Achieve Lighting Energy Efficiency Standards

To fulfil the energy efficiency criteria for your lighting, you need to make sensible provisions for effective control and/or the use of efficient lamps. This effectively means you must meet one of the following two conditions:

• Option One: You must ensure two conditions are met:

  • The capacity of any individual lamp does not go over 150 Watts per light fitting, AND

  • Your lighting system automatically switches itself off when there's enough natural daylight, and also when it's not needed during the night.

• Option Two: All your lighting fittings are designed with sockets that are compatible only with lamps that have an energy efficacy greater than 40 lumens per circuit-Watt. (Energy efficacy measures how efficiently a lamp converts electricity into light.)