I designed a power system on the second floor of my building, spanning the following spaces:
- Exhibition Space
- Education Space 1
- Education Space 2
- Gift Shop
- Utility Room
All electrical elements in this system (including outlets, switches, and lighting) are connected to a 208V, 400A main circuit board located in the second floor utility room.
I aimed to implement plenty of wall outlets because I always get annoyed by the lack of outlets in public spaces.
The main challenge I encountered was that my lighting fixtures were initially placed facing up rather than down. It took me a long time to figure out why my renderings were coming out pitch black.
A second challenge relates to the use of curtain walls in my building. You cannot place outlets in glass curtain walls like you would in regular walls. This points to potential value of alternate mounting locations (like floor-mounted outlets).
I opted for 2x4 parabolic troffer lights throughout the various rooms described above. I selected this fixture type to provide even lighting while minimizing any space use associated with hanging or floor-mounted lighting fixtures (i.e., to keep the rooms and spaces as open as possible.
After establishing a lighting layout, I noticed that my average estimated illumination values were higher than the benchmarks set out in the design brief. To bring down the illumination values while preserving a visually-appealing lighting layout, I simply adjusted the wattage of lighting fixtures in certain rooms to better align with the benchmarks.
The panel schedule below demonstrates that my utility room panel had remaining capacity even after connecting power and lighting systems from multiple rooms.
