Back in 2012 E&M Consulting Engineers Ltd. in Gibraltar, began the design of The Ocean Views Mental Health Facility at the old Royal Naval Hospital building on Europa Road. The decision was made to install LED lighting and advanced Dali lighting control systems, both the LED lighting and the Delmatic control hardware and software were supplied by Pacific Coast Limited (PCL) a local Gibraltar LED lighting company.

Not many people involved in the project were aware that this was in fact the largest Dali/LED project in the world at that time and a first for market leader Delmatic, who have supplied lighting control system for over 50 years, but not in conjunction with LED lighting, as this had never been done before.

Being the first brought many challenges for PCL, particularly reengineering the LED lighting control gear to function in Gibraltar’s then erratic power supply environment. This was achieved by adding anti-surge circuitry in addition to better heat dispersal to accommodate Gibraltar’s high summer temperatures. LED fittings are powered by what we refer to as a driver, these convert mains supply to a low voltage DC outlet to power the individual diodes. At the time of design, it was common for the LEDs in a fitting to be laid out in a grid pattern. Neither E&M nor PCL were comfortable with this, so the fittings were redesigned to an edge-lit arrangement, that shows a clean even light, with no hint of the integral diodes. This is now the market norm and only the lowest quality fittings use the grid system today. 

An additional unique requirement was anti ligature fittings which were an important feature of this project, again nothing of this type existed for LED. After many prototypes PCL designed a frame that also doubled as an inspection hatch to the ceiling void. At the time virtually no aspect of the project was a standard item. Today most everything is off the shelf and as, manufacturing improves, prices are falling to comparable old-world technology prices. 

In 2011 a typical LED produced 80 lumens per watt, today its 110 to 120 with a price reduction of 75% or more in some instances. 

The Ocean Views Mental Health Facility opened for business in 2015.

PCL Gibraltar LED Lighting Specialists 

19/2 Road to the Lines,Gibraltar 

Telephone: +350 200 65950 

Email: ian.dallas@pclgib.com 

Website: www.pclgib.com