Low Energy Lighting Retrofit for Radha Yoga and Eatery

Radha Yoga and Eatery, located at 728 Main Street, is a second floor restaurant and yoga studio with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. Daylight is provided through large windows on the West side, and smaller windows along the south side.

To help Radha find alternative ways to light the space, an architect came for a two-hour site visit and interviewed the owners. The resulting 11 page report can be viewed here.

The report concludes that lighting a combined yoga and restaurant will present challenges, one in particular being that the owner must weigh the relative merits of energy efficient technology against teh environmental impacts of the building as a whole. Allocating a portion of the budget to a sophisticated lighting system may yield a smaller net environmental benefit than allocating those same funds to a better HVAC system or kitchen operations.

By reinstalling the ceiling with a high reflectant finish and adding high-reflectance wall panels to the north and south walls the rooms can be brightened naturally. The addition of a light-shelf, or louver, to the south windows can be used to bounce daylight from the south windows into the space.