Ryan Centre

The Ryan Centre in Stranraer is a sizable community leisure centre owned and operated by Dumfries and Galloway Council. The Centre houses swimming pools, a gym and sports hall, a café, a cinema, a theatre, and private hire rooms.

The pool area was lit with ageing DALI-operated Thorlux Solow first-generation LEDs that were beginning to fail from constantly running 12 hours a day since installation many years before. Energy costs were high, and ceiling height and the luminaires’ wall-mounted positions made finding a direct replacement difficult.

However, the Ryan Centre pool is notable for its large wall and ceiling windows, which raised the possibility of saving energy and reducing costs through intelligent lighting and daylight harvesting. Following discussions with the building operators, the existing fittings were taken down and returned to the Thorlux factory in the Midlands while the pool was closed for other works.

Thorlux refurbished the gear trays, replacing the LED PCBs and drivers to increase their performance and efficiency. Additionally, the luminaires were upgraded to use SmartScan controls. The SmartScan sensors constantly monitor the ambient light levels and only illuminate if they drop below a set level.

Thorlux commissioned the SmartScan controls, tailoring the lighting to suit the venue’s requirements. As a result of this retrofit, the luminaires are now mostly off during daylight hours, extending the LEDs operating hours and reducing their energy consumption by an impressive 75%. This has resulted in a calculated saving of over £4,000 per year, preventing the generation of approximately 3,300 kg of greenhouse gases.