difficulty , but with a determination to surmount all the challenges of optical control and thermal management – we have now successfully repurposed considerable numbers of these with carefully-engineered and combined LED elements .
Our picture-light retrofitting service is especially welcomed by heritage properties up and down the country .
Not only have the original lights been restored to full functionality , but the light quality has been dramatically improved and the need to change lamps ( previously a somewhat irksome task , given their oftenelevated locations ) has been eliminated for the next twenty-five or more years ! Quite long enough for new lighting technologies to have emerged when they next need to be re-purposed ….
PICTURE LIGHTS
Charter Lighting ’ s original claim-to-fame in the retrofit game has been with our picture lights . We have re-purposed an astonishing number of different styles and sizes of these with our high-quality , warmtoned LED components – to the joyous delight of our clients : -
Above , picture lights . Below , St Dunstan ’ s
“ The lights are now magical ! My pictures have never looked so good !”
This exercise really is transformative . Most traditional picture lights featured no optics at all – just an array of different light bulbs . Not only were these often very hot ( bad for most paintings ) and emitted UV rays ( harmful to colour pigments ), but the lighting coverage was appalling . Usually , just the top of the painting was illuminated with a bright , glaring splodge of light , with the rest of the details being shrouded in gloom and lost to the viewer .
Our picture-light retrofitting service is especially welcomed by heritage properties up and down the country – for example , where the interior of a National Trust or English Heritage residence needs to be preserved as faithfully as possible to its last owner ’ s tastes . But many people have picture lights that have aged comfortably in their homes , and our clients are generally happy to engage with us in the demounting of their old lights and their despatch to our workshop . Here , with our specialist crafting and painting , metal-machining and even 3-D printing facilities , we can ‘ make do and mend ’ in a truly liberating way . And , because the LED modules that we fabricate in-house are fitted with a range of optically-variable lenses , the newlyrestored picture lights – when returned – will actually illuminate their painting properly for the very first time .
ST DUNSTAN ’ S
This wonderful old Church on Fleet Street in London was given a complete lighting overhaul some ten years ago –
with some specially-fabricated cylindrical brass fixtures designed to be suspended high and to harmonise with the soaring architecture of the vaulted space . So , when the light bulbs kept failing – with the attendant travails associated with such high-level fittings – it was clear that a solution was urgently required which would re-use these special fittings , distribute enough light for the congregation to read by , and fit within the constraints of the fixture body .
This , in fact , was one of the earliest light fixture retrofits that Charter Lighting undertook – we learnt a tremendous amount in the process , and much of the
technology and hardware we developed for this application have been modified for use in subsequent exercises .
There will be different challenges in the future and more to learn , we are sure , but our skilled craftsmen and pro-active and creative facility is waiting to be of wider service to the market .
www . charter . lighting
www . refurbandrestore . co . uk - 53