Lighting Engineers

BlackEdelweiss

Any lighting engineers on here, either interior or exterior?

C.D.

Out of curiosity, what is an interior lighting engineer? Is it along the same lines as architectural lighting and how do you become one? Definitely sounds different anyway!

PGL

C.D. wrote: »

Out of curiosity, what is an interior lighting engineer? Is it along the same lines as architectural lighting and how do you become one? Definitely sounds different anyway!

my curiousity is getting the better of me too!

what qualification do you have? civil, mechanical, electrical eng degree?

how do you become a lighting engineer?

drunken_munky52

What do you want to know?

Do you think this is where the future is?

I would say switching to CFL will solve all your lighting engineering problems... whatever that is.

Rather than fish for other engineers all the time, can you provide some technical information or questions on the issues you raise?

Stainless_Steel

LOL @ "Lighting Engineer"

Are they as qualified as the engineers that come to install your sky dish?

Heard a good one the other day....a garage told me one of the engineers will have a look at the problem with my car....no way I thought....surely they don't have a japanese design engineer on call from Toyota?! Go figure...engineers now do the same work as mechanics!

Shiny

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

Heard a good one the other day....a garage told me one of the engineers will have a look at the problem with my car....no way I thought....surely they don't have a japanese design engineer on call from Toyota?! Go figure...engineers now do the same work as mechanics!

When I was young I always assumed mechanic = engineer.

murfie

Shiny wrote: »

When I was young I always assumed mechanic = engineer.

oh dear, :eek:

The age old dilution of the engineer topic. I would assume if you were looking for a engineer to design the electrics for lighting in a building, you need a electrical engineer.

Or maybe your looking for a interior designer to arrange the lights in a visually pleasing design, an engineer is not what your looking for.

Do you class yourself as a lighting Engineer, i am sure there is a position someplace for a lighting engineer but I am sure the same person is a electrical engineering based.

Stainless_Steel

murfie wrote: »

..looking for a engineer to design the electrics for lighting in a building, you need a electrical engineer...

That word in bold is what an engineer does.

For example, and no offence to mechanics, they are great at fault finding and fitting parts, but if you handed them a blank sheet or cad software...could they design an engine of the car from scratch???

godtabh

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

That word in bold is what an engineer does.

For example, and no offence to mechanics, they are great at fault finding and fitting parts, but if you handed them a blank sheet or cad software...could they design an engine of the car from scratch???

They probably wouldnt need cad or a sheet of paper. They would probably just build it.

Look at some of the work arounds the use. Thats design

DJDC

If the council binmen, car mechanics or forecourt fuel injectors wants to call themselves engineers whats the big deal? The only people they are kidding are themselves. Life assurance companies, banks all put them in the manual labourers class when assessing mortgages, premiums etc.

Low Energy Eng

Its usually part of the M&E package of the Building Services Engineers.
If your looking for a once off house you may approach an interior designer.

spideog7

I saw an ad in the paper the other day for a hotel engineer
It's like saying your an "animal excrement distribution engineer" when you're spreading slurry... really should put that on my CV

I presume the OP is refering to lighting for concerts, TV etc. similar to a sound engineer, just for lights ?

BlackEdelweiss

A lighting engineer is someone who designs lighting solutions for buildings, towns, roads, sports grounds etc. It is up to them to design a fitting solution to a certain problem, whether that be aesthetic, comfort, safety or dependent on the users requirements.
Why is it ok to say you are an engineer if you design roads but not if you design the lighting system that makes these roads safe for people to use for almost half of each day? Why is it ok to say you are an engineer if you design a building but not if you design a lighting system that makes this building suitable for working or living in?
I studied building services engineering and lighting is one of the major services we studied as part of this, does this not count as engineering.
Lighting can account for as much as 40% of a building's energy consumption, with proper design this figure can be greatly reduced, therefore reducing the buildings environmental impact and energy bills.
CFL's are a stop gap solution until technology such as LED's are developed to such a stage where they can be competitively produced.
The reason I asked are there any lighting engineers on here is that I would like to talk to someone in this field as it is the area I would like to specialise in as a so called engineer. I have no technical information or questions I wish to raise, I just wanted to talk to someone in this field.
Here is a link to the Institute of Lighting Engineers, probably much the same as the hotel engineers and sky dish engineers, why not ask some of the guys on the consultants page who have honours degrees and masters qualifications about that.

Lighting design is done using CAD and other lighting design software.
I enjoy the engineering section of boards, it is usually the least full of **** of all the forums I have been on, why bring it down with negative comments about things you may not know too much about yet, there is more to engineering than civil, mechanical or electronic.

drunken_munky52

Now youv'e lost me anyway. Good hunting with finding one of those... altough I see where you are coming from on lighting been very costly, especially in commericial buildings.

LED technology will become more and more improved in laboratories. Usually people qualified in pyhiscs and instrumentation or chemistry would be developing this, so engineers have little or no input in this, only how it is applied to the real world.

Have you thought about focussing on automation and control side of lighting in buildings? I imagine, this is where the holy grail is. Think about it... been able to walk into different rooms and never touch a switch to turn on the lights... voice command or even software on your phone that could be configured to control them... focus on ways to free humans from doing repetive tasks using technology such as this.

Stainless_Steel

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

A lighting engineer is someone who designs lighting solutions for buildings, towns, roads, sports grounds etc. It is up to them to design a fitting solution to a certain problem, whether that be aesthetic, comfort, safety or dependent on the users requirements.
Why is it ok to say you are an engineer if you design roads but not if you design the lighting system that makes these roads safe for people to use for almost half of each day? Why is it ok to say you are an engineer if you design a building but not if you design a lighting system that makes this building suitable for working or living in?
I studied building services engineering and lighting is one of the major services we studied as part of this, does this not count as engineering.
Lighting can account for as much as 40% of a building's energy consumption, with proper design this figure can be greatly reduced, therefore reducing the buildings environmental impact and energy bills.
CFL's are a stop gap solution until technology such as LED's are developed to such a stage where they can be competitively produced.
The reason I asked are there any lighting engineers on here is that I would like to talk to someone in this field as it is the area I would like to specialise in as a so called engineer. I have no technical information or questions I wish to raise, I just wanted to talk to someone in this field.
Here is a link to the Institute of Lighting Engineers, probably much the same as the hotel engineers and sky dish engineers, why not ask some of the guys on the consultants page who have honours degrees and masters qualifications about that.

Lighting design is done using CAD and other lighting design software.
I enjoy the engineering section of boards, it is usually the least full of **** of all the forums I have been on, why bring it down with negative comments about things you may not know too much about yet, there is more to engineering than civil, mechanical or electronic.

Of course you can be an engineer working on lighting.

But I have never heard of a degree called B.Eng in Lighting Engineering....sorry.

Are you sure you don't mean an electrical engineer that specialises in lighting?

The same way the person desgning walls calls themselves a civil or structural engineer but not a 'wall engineer'.

If you're interested in this field I would suggest electrical engineering....I dont think the members of the institute of lighting engineers you mentioned have their degrees in lighting.

Cheeble

SEI organised a series of roadshows last year by David Mathys-Flynn, a lighting consultant.
If you're interested in this area and ever get the chance to hear him speak, take it up. He's worked in the industry for years and had loads of useful ideas about colour, energy, effectiveness, efficiency, and a supply of entertaining "how not to do it" anecdotes such as the ladder in the swimming pool to reach the single line of strip lights down the middle of the room.
Some of the data is still available at http://www.sei.ie/Your_Business/Bright_Ideas_The_SEI_Lighting_Roadshow/

Cheeble-eers

spideog7

Actually a lighting engineer sounds perfectly reasonable to me, although I'm sure the actual engineering degree would be more along the lines of Electrical or Civil. But a "Hotel Engineer" ? :rolleyes:

murfie

what does a Hotel Engineer do.

OP, no need to get offended to people asking how do you get to be a Lighting Engineer. As with most engineering disciplines you can graduate with degree and your work experience is what makes you more specialised.

Low Energy Eng

I'd imagine if you were interested in getting into lighting design solely the best option would be to work for a supplier such as Philips. I'm a Building Services Eng aswel and just cant see a market in lighting design as a stand alone.