Security lighting in horse riding halls: Development of a simulation-led testing methodology in VR

Sammanfattning: Security lighting plays a vital role for safe evacuation during an emergency such as power outage or a fire related incidence. Installing a security lighting system properly is more crucial for a horse riding facility for two reasons. Firstly, if a sports activity is ongoing at the exact moment of an emergency, the activity needs to be ended safely with the help of security lights to avoid injuries and accidents. Secondly, the security lighting is required so that horses stay calm and do not react from the sudden absence of light. Daylight is scarce between winter solstice to spring equinox in Sweden. This phenomenon makes scheduling events and competitions during completely daylit hours more difficult, especially during the winter, making the facility more dependent on electric lighting. Emergency situations occur rarely in horse riding halls, thus the cost related to the energy use is not such a big concern. On the other hand, the large volume of occupied space makes it a costly affair to install the whole security lighting system, including cost for lamps, luminaires, controls, and batteries. This study investigates the possibility to introduce new security lighting solutions that can potentially reduce the lighting installation costs, while making the system safer, more secure, and efficient. However, the study does not go into details of the associated costs of the system, rather focuses on the design and visualization of the lighting system. The main purpose of the study is to adapt a simulation methodology and develop a testing methodology that can be used to design security lighting systems. Installing a trial version of the system in situ to evaluate its performance can be costly and time-consuming. Alternatively, computer-based simulations and visualizations with Virtual Reality (VR) provide a cheaper solution to test and iterate different design solutions. This project focuses on developing a testing methodology in a VR environment that can provide lighting professionals with an immersive experience of their design. In real life situations, the VR environment can also be utilized to let the user group experience the environment and obtain their feedback. This exercise can be helpful in the design process to make informed decisions. To validate this process, the developed VR environment in this project is tested on volunteer participants to get their feedback. The simulation results suggest that it is possible to provide same level of illuminance in the case building during emergency situations with fewer luminaires and less installed power according to the existing minimum lighting requirement. However, the participants’ feedback as well as test data from the VR experiment suggest that the current minimum requirement for security lighting in the specific building type may not be enough for its occupants to be able to see everything properly and safely evacuate the space during an emergency. The eye tracking data obtained from this study can be analysed in future to get a better understanding of the test participant’s gaze behaviour.