The Building Code of Australia (BCA) Part J.6 regulates the energy consumption of artificial lighting in commercial buildings. It sets maximum illumination power densities (IPD) for each space in the building, but it also credits intelligent lighting solutions that save energy, such as dimming, motion detectors or daylight dependent dimming with adjustment factors.
Besides offering energy efficient luminaires and intelligent lighting control systems, Zumtobel has created an Australian specific calculator for the quality side of a lighting solution (ELI) as well as the energy side (LENI). With it you can determine the compliance of your lighting solution in an easy, intuitive way. Please contact your local sales office for more information.
Australian legislation
To check the compliance of the lighting solution for one space (e.g. a boardroom), the installed power load has to be multiplied by the according adjustment factors and then divided by the area of the space. This is the installed adjusted or consumed IPD of the space which cannot exceed the maximum IPD given by the BCA. The BCA allows for two adjustment factors for each set of luminaires.
For a whole project to comply to Part J.6 of the BCA, the sum of the adjusted IPD's of all spaces may not exceed the sum of all allowances. Therefore you may design high quality lighting with more IPD than the maximum in certain spaces as long as the aggregate stays below the maximum for the whole project. Download some calculation examples here
