Every night at Clifton Reserve, the turf comes alive.
Players flood the field for practice and competition.
Surrounded by quiet suburban streets, this is the home ground of the Canning Vale Senior Football Club.
CVSFC includes six teams - League, Reserves, Women, Colts, Thirds and Masters.
CVSFC first approached us in early 2021.
Their existing lighting was plagued with issues, being made up of aging 2000W high intensity discharge (HID) fittings.
The club was replacing blown globes often. Due to low availability of spare parts, there was a long lead time for repairs.
One light near the clubroom had completely failed and been replaced a few years ago.
Existing HID fittings were old, slow to start up and in constant need of repair.
Aside from the constant maintenance, the lighting was also under-performing.
The HID fittings had a low lighting uniformity, leading to uneven patches of light across the playing field.
Light levels were far too low.
Existing HID fittings at Clifton Reserve were doing a poor job of lighting the field evenly.
Australian Standard AS2560.2.3 clearly sets out the requirements for lighting a football field.
AS2560.2.3 calls for a minimum light level of 100lux for Club Competition.
The club knew their lighting wasn't up to scratch. It wasn't even close.
CVSFVC was ready to kill two birds with one stone;
- upgrade to high-performance LED's and meet Australian Standards;
- install a low-maintenance sports lighting solution that would last for years.
To keep total costs down, the Club wanted to re-use the four existing light poles.
A structural inspection was commissioned. Safety checks for windage and wind deflection concerns were also undertaken.
The report presented only one issue—the existing crossbeams were too small.
New crossbeams were commissioned to handle the increased size and weight of the new 1200W LED fittings.
The LED drivers were remotely located safe inside the base of the light poles.
By locating the drivers on ground level, safely inside the base of the poles, they're easily accessible by maintenance staff. In the event of a failure, there's no need to hire an expensive elevated work platform.
Australian Standard AS 4282-1997 calls for 'the effective control of the obtrusive effects of outdoor lighting'.
Essentially this relates to managing light spill and glare.
Clifton Reserve is bordered on two sides by residential streets.
Our lighting designers achieved compliance with AS 4282 by using asymmetrical beam angles, together with some clever angling and positioning.
Luminetic Lighting Manager Ben onsite with Kyle from KAPOW! Electrical.
Moving from two HID to five LED fittings per pole = a massive increase in lux.
Upgrading from two to five fittings per pole required some wrangling.
Thankfully for the team, our HMX fittings are easy to adjust without tools when you're up on the EWP.
Tool-less angle adjustment - perfect for when you're up there on the access platform.
KAPOW! Electrical are absolute pro's. They've done this job many times before and the speed and ease of installation reflected this expertise.
HMX fittings have an impact-resistant polycarbonate lens cover rated to IK08.
When a football is eventually kicked directly into a fitting, we'll be more worried about the leather.
Who benefits from upgraded sports lighting?
Everyone's pumped with the new lighting. Read on LinkedIn here.
It's the same as with any industrial environment. There's a reduced risk of injury when you can see what you're doing. With the new lighting installed, players can see the ball, and each other, clearly.
Training staff have an easier job.
Spectators can keep track of players.
Umpires can finally get the calls right (hah, as if).
The difference is night and day. No more patchy, poorly lit playing field.
With an L70 rating of 60,000 hours, HMX fittings aren't expected to even start deteriorating in performance until being run - continuously, 24/7 - for 6.8 years.
No more constant globe changes required. LED burnouts are rare.
So club management benefits from a vastly reduced maintenance schedule.
Less time fixing, more time kicking.
Safe to say, everybody's pretty happy with the new lighting!
Credits:
Fittings Used: 20 x HMX 1200W LED High Mast Flood Lights
Project Lead & Lighting Design: Luminetic
Consulting Electrical Engineers: Focus Consulting
Consulting Structural Engineers: Alliance Engineering
Electrical Contractor & Installers: KAPOW Electrical
All Photography © Luminetic
