Client: University of Sussex
Location: Falmer Campus, Brighton, East Sussex
Project value: £400,000
Programme: June to August 2026
Services: University LED lighting upgrade, emergency lighting, commercial electrical installation
Installer: Lake Electrical Limited
Lake Electrical Limited delivered a £400,000 university LED lighting upgrade at the Sussex Library on the Falmer Campus in Brighton, replacing more than 1,500 luminaires across the basement and ground floor, along with the associated emergency lighting.
The Library is a Grade II* listed building designed by Sir Basil Spence, and it stayed open the whole way through. Students and staff carried on using it while the work went on around them. The University estimates the new lighting will save around 84 tonnes of carbon a year.
The challenge behind a university LED lighting upgrade
Replacing 1,500 light fittings is a large job in an empty building. This one had to happen in a working library, over a summer programme, with a fixed completion date at the end of it.
A library is a harder building to work in than most. People are studying. Noise matters in a way it does not on a building site, and every area taken out of use is study seating somebody wanted. On top of that, the listed status meant the installation had to be planned carefully to respect the existing building and its architecture.
What the project needed was an approach that would:
- Replace more than 1,500 existing fittings with energy-efficient LEDs across two floors
- Upgrade and extend the emergency lighting at the same time
- Keep the Library open and usable for students and staff throughout
- Hold the lighting design intent in a Grade II* listed building
- Finish on programme and within the agreed budget
Starting work at four in the morning
We built the programme around the Library rather than the other way round.
Our installation teams worked mostly between 4 am and 1 pm, Monday to Friday, so the noisy and disruptive work was finished before the Library’s busiest hours. The installation was then phased across the basement and ground floor, so completed areas could be handed back into normal use while work carried on elsewhere in the building.
That meant close and regular communication with the University, the Library team, the project consultants, the lighting designers and the manufacturers. Where something specific to the site came up, and on a building of this age it does, it was raised with the project team and worked through, rather than absorbed into the programme and dealt with later.
The university LED lighting upgrade and emergency lighting
More than 1,500 existing fittings were replaced with modern energy-efficient LED across the basement and ground floor.
Emergency lighting formed a substantial part of the job, with testing, upgrades and additional emergency luminaires fitted where they were needed. Custom and site-specific lighting was coordinated with the project team and the manufacturers, so the finished installation met the lighting levels the design called for while respecting the character of the building.
The result is better light across the refurbished areas, more comfortable conditions for students and staff, and a good deal less electricity used to achieve it.
What it saves
The University of Sussex estimates the upgrade will save approximately 84 tonnes of carbon a year, feeding into its wider carbon reduction targets. That figure is the University’s own estimate rather than ours.
The saving comes from the same place it always does on a job like this. Modern LED draws far less power for the same light, and it does not need replacing anything like as often, so the maintenance bill drops alongside the electricity bill.
The result
The university LED lighting upgrade was completed on programme and within the agreed budget, and the Library did not close for a single day.
Key figures from the project:
- £400,000 project value
- More than 1,500 LED luminaires installed
- Basement and ground floor of a Grade II* listed building
- Emergency lighting upgraded and extended
- An estimated 84 tonnes of carbon saved a year
- Out-of-hours working, mostly 4 am to 1 pm, Monday to Friday
- Delivered on programme and within budget, with the Library open throughout
Talk to us about lighting for your estate
We carry out university LED lighting upgrades and commercial lighting work for universities, schools and education, churches and commercial buildings. We will survey the building free of charge, tell you what a switch to LED would save, and set out how the work can be programmed around the people using it.
Request a quote, or call the team on 01732 758 985.
Lake Electrical Limited, commercial electrical contractors since 2008, working across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East.
