Riegens Lighting has designed and developed a versatile and energy efficient lighting system for the sales floor of the Tesco Homeplus store at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. Working closely with the Tesco design team, Riegens came up with a solution that would meet all of the requirements of the scheme. This included achieving the required illuminance of 900 lux throughout the store with a distribution that enhances the products and attracts the customer, whilst maintaining Tesco’s green credentials.
Tesco Homeplus stores are warehouse style units operated by the British supermarket giant and the latest store at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol is the first store where you can pick up items from the Tesco direct book in-store. In contrast to many Tesco supermarket stores, the Homeplus store are located in retail parks offering all of Tesco’s ranges except food, for instance homewares, electrical goods and cosmetics.
The Cribbs store is also a new format for the Home Plus name and is moving away even more from the typical aisle themes of supermarkets to which this format is heading towards for all its stores. The pressure on the existing sales space in the stores is intense so the idea of two floor trading was conceived with the introduction of the in-store mezzanine. Providing an effective lighting solution for below the mezzanine and the upper mezzanine trading floor was an irresistible challenge for Riegens Lighting.
For both the below mezzanine and upper mezzanine Riegens utilised the same solution for the main store trading ambient lighting. Due to different mounting heights, 2x49W T5 lamps were used below the mezzanine and 2x80W T5 lamps were used in the upper mezzanine area. A continuous, direct/indirect, wire suspended, 1500mm T5 1-10V analogue dimming extruded aluminium luminaire, with a depth of just 50mm, combined with an energy efficient white aluminium louvre, provides the main ambient solution. The continuous run of luminaires has 500mm extruded aluminium infill sections to enable the installation of adjustable spotlights or a PA speaker system to provide accent lighting in key areas. A 9 wire loom is contained within each luminaire and infill section which allows for the lighting to be switched between stocking and trading, an unswitched live supply for the emergency lighting and the 1-10V analogue dimming signal to set the lighting at the desired ambient. The continuous luminaires and infills are combined with corner sections to create a clean architectural aesthetic.
An elegant and effective, direct/indirect pendant luminaire was utilised to compliment the main ambient lighting. The direct illumination is provided by a 70W CDM-T metal halide lamp and satin-matt reflector within a spun aluminium housing and the indirect element is provided by a 57W TC-TEL lamp within a decorative matt blasted opal glass. The facility to separately switch the direct and indirect light sources allows the retailer to transform the ambient lighting within the entrance atrium and above the full length of the travelator.
To further enhance the accent lighting contained within the 500mm infill sections, an LED solution was provided within the header of dedicated cabinets to provide uniform vertical illuminance of the products on the shelving.
The overall scheme ticked all the boxes in terms of Tesco’s requirements. A uniform ambient lighting solution, accent lighting in keys areas, the facility to change the ambient lighting levels, speed of installation and a clean aesthetic appearance to compliment the surrounding interior environment.