# 911 Dispatch center lighting upgrade!



## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

A nearby town has its own little emergency services dispatch center; it's basically just a room in the police station. The lighting in there consisted of some fluorescent troffers and a couple of surface-mount wraps. It's pretty ugly and the dispatch operators have been complaining about the lighting for ages. So we gave them a price to upgrade the lighting, and I started the project today.

Here's what the original lighting looked like:



















What I'm installing to replace those are several can lights with dimmable LED modules. There will be four lighting "zones" so to speak, each of which will have its own dimmer. This way, each operator station can have light adjusted how they want (bright or dim), and they can also adjust the areas in the back of the room with their fax machines, printers, etc. I have all the dimmers ganged in one 4-device box but there's very little load on them so I'm not worried about heating issues. Here's an ugly doodle of what the lighting layout will look like:










I'm not all the way done with the project but here's some of the new cans installed and lit up. The dimmers I used were some Lutron Skylark model with the dimming adjustment dial. They worked great, they dim down to nearly off with no flickering or noise or anything. The can trims I used had a diffusing lens (instead of a spot or beam) so the lighting is really ambient. When you're sitting in front of a bank of half a dozen monitors, you don't usually want bright spots.










After I got the lights installed and dimmed, the dispatch ladies decided they wanted to get a little burbling water feature and some ambient zen music playing :laughing: It looked really great in there, until I found this guy running around  (that's a quarter next to the jar):










I'm going back tomorrow to put the 4" cans in the back section, I'll take some pictures of that too.


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

You need to cut at least 75% of the words out of your postings.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Peter D said:


> You need to cut at least 75% of the words out of your postings.


Admit it, you read it all :brows:


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

Peter D said:


> You need to cut at least 75% of the words out of your postings.


and about 25% of that thumbnail :blink:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

erics37 said:


> Admit it, you read it all :brows:


I skimmed it. :laughing:


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

stuiec said:


> and about 25% of that thumbnail :blink:


That's not mine. I got the dispatch lady to hold the quarter up.

My thumbnails are all chewed off :laughing:


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## EricS (Sep 5, 2012)

erics37 said:


> That's not mine. I got the dispatch lady to hold the quarter up.
> 
> My thumbnails are all chewed off :laughing:





I've been looking at the forums for a little while now and decided to make a user name. Of coarse the first post I look at after registering is one with someone who has the same screen name! :no: Hope I'm not steppin' on your toes here. Eric S's unite!


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## EricS (Sep 5, 2012)

Great design by the way. I love the transformation that happens to a room with hi-hats. It went from looking like what it is(a room in a police station) to looking like someone's comfortable finished basement.


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

I might have put 6 2X2 parabolics or Advante fixtures. Would have made for a really nice job and I would have been out in 4 hours. Probably would have saved the poor taxpayers of this small town 2 grand.

It does look nice though.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

EricS said:


> I've been looking at the forums for a little while now and decided to make a user name. Of coarse the first post I look at after registering is one with someone who has the same screen name! :no: Hope I'm not steppin' on your toes here. Eric S's unite!


This is going to get really confusing if you become a regular :blink:



sbrn33 said:


> I might have put 6 2X2 parabolics or Advante fixtures. Would have made for a really nice job and I would have been out in 4 hours. Probably would have saved the poor taxpayers of this small town 2 grand.
> 
> It does look nice though.


We do tons of work for this town, at this point I'm not concerned about their taxpayers :thumbsup:


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Why are the lights not center of the tile.. it look strange having them so close to the edge..


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## lightingguy (Jun 22, 2012)

B4T said:


> Why are the lights not center of the tile.. it look strange having them so close to the edge..


That would bug the hell out of me working in an office with the lights like that. I'd have to quit.:laughing:


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

B4T said:


> Why are the lights not center of the tile.. it look strange having them so close to the edge..


I agree, what is the reasoning for that? Centering them would hardly change the layout, is there duct or something up there?


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

B4T said:


> Why are the lights not center of the tile.. it look strange having them so close to the edge..





Hippie said:


> I agree, what is the reasoning for that? Centering them would hardly change the layout, is there duct or something up there?


They're sitting like that because they're directly above the workstation desks. Had to get 'em directly above the workspace area.... too far one way, they'd shine on the monitors, too far the other way, the operator's head would cast a shadow. Also had to try to make them symmetrical from one workstation to the other.

It does look kinda goofy in these pictures, but it makes a lot more sense when you see the desks and stuff in the room. I couldn't take pictures of anything else though, they've got classified phone numbers and addresses (like for the women's shelter and stuff) posted all over the place inside.


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## EricS (Sep 5, 2012)

That's what I figured. Trusted ya all along.


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

Peter D said:


> You need to cut at least 75% of the words out of your postings.


A trolling we will go...
A trolling we will go...
High Ho the merry oh
A trolling we will go...


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

WTF is with the can lights up against the wall? :no:


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

BBQ said:


> WTF is with the can lights up against the wall? :no:


-sigh-


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