Seeing people having a smoke outside their workplace reminded me of the pre-ban days . We used to do lighting maintenance at a large city centre open plan office . Fittings were recessed 5ft X 4 lamp with flat sheet diffusers .
It was change all tubes , all starters , replace ballasts as necessary and wash the flat sheets which were covered in thick brown nicotine . It was also on the tubes , dripping onto the inside of the flat sheets.
Although it was late 1950's design it was quite forward looking . The recessed lights ( 5ft X 2ft X 4 lamp) had an open egg crate grille at one end , the vent system drew the heat developed by the lighting up into the ceiling void and recirculated it .
The lighting circuit was a ring main in the dado power trunking .... each architect had two or three fittings over his section ( open plan office) switched from a spur unit on the dado .
They would often be out on site so their lights would be off . There was just one row of lights down the length of the office which were on all day .
Most large offices had , say a 12 gang switch at the door which the first one in each day wacked them all on even in summer when they made little difference .
It was change all tubes , all starters , replace ballasts as necessary and wash the flat sheets which were covered in thick brown nicotine . It was also on the tubes , dripping onto the inside of the flat sheets.
Although it was late 1950's design it was quite forward looking . The recessed lights ( 5ft X 2ft X 4 lamp) had an open egg crate grille at one end , the vent system drew the heat developed by the lighting up into the ceiling void and recirculated it .
The lighting circuit was a ring main in the dado power trunking .... each architect had two or three fittings over his section ( open plan office) switched from a spur unit on the dado .
They would often be out on site so their lights would be off . There was just one row of lights down the length of the office which were on all day .
Most large offices had , say a 12 gang switch at the door which the first one in each day wacked them all on even in summer when they made little difference .
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