Zeroing in: Old streetlights in towns like Ruthin could soon give way to modern LED luminaries, as Denbighshire takes advantage of a zero percent interest loan from the UK government.

Parrs for the course: Parrs Wood HIgh School has demonstrated significant energy savings from Salix funding. Other schools now stand to gain even more under an enhanced programme.

Lux reports: The UK government entity that provides free loans for green projects has broadened its support for schools, offering an all-in-one programme that funds not just the equipment and installation, but also everything from an initial energy evaluation through training students and teachers how best to conserve energy.

The initiative, from Salix, covers a wide scope of energy-related technologies including LED lighting, computer cooling equipment, hand dryers, boiler replacement and insulation.

Salix will spread £2 million across 40 schools in three tranches. It has already selected the first 13 and hopes to select the next two groups after the summer holidays, a Salix spokesperson told Lux.

‘We are looking for a wide variety of schools including building type and age, geographical location and a mixture of primary, secondary and special schools to ensure the sample is a strong variety,’ the spokesperson said.

The money in this case comes from UK Department for Education. Salix is backed by DfE as well by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.

Salix will require a typical payback period of eight years for the interest-free loans to the schools, although it might lengthen that period in some cases, ‘to ensure a school can implement all technologies identified in order bring them down to best practice and make them an exemplary school in terms of energy use,’ the spokesperson said.

Salix has funded schools’ capital costs previously, but the new programme adds the energy survey and ‘human behaviour’ training for energy reduction. It also includes ‘a document which advises what order to make improvements and to procure against,’ and ‘a financial model to show how to meet the costs.’

Under the former, less comprehensive funding scheme, Parrs Wood High School, a technology college in Manchester, used Salix to fund £10,600 in lighting upgrades and £63,700 on ‘building energy management systems’ (BEMS), leading to 45 per cent savings in lighting, and to 20 per cent and 7 per cent savings on gas and electricity related to the BEMS.

Salix had previously lent Parrs Wood £49,120 for an initial lighting upgrade, leading to annual savings of £13,863.

‘The Salix zero per cent interest loan was the most cost effective way for us to make long term savings and reduce our carbon footprint,’ said Parrs Wood head teacher Andrew Shakos.

Another government entity, the Green Investment Bank, lends money for green projects at commercial interest rates typically allows much longer payback periods. Its streetlighting programme can extend payments to as long as 30 years.

In a controversial move, the government recently said it plans to sell what could be a majority share in GIB.

Please contact Novel Energy Lighting for your school lighting retrofit: Te: 0208-540-8287, Email:sales@novelenergylighting.com

LUX reports: Compared to other conventional lighting solutions, T5 is still seen by some as too efficient for the facilities team to justify upgrading to an LED lighting system. But combined with controls, even the leap from T5 fluorescent lighting to LED can yield significant savings.

Woolworths is a case in point; the retailer’s branch in the South Eastern Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo managed to save 77 per cent energy in its car park area with LEDs and occupation sensors, and earned a Peak Load Reduction Reward for its efforts.

One of the reasons the management was looking for a new solution was the amount of hours the light was on in the car park. The T5 fittings, which had an average life span of two years, were on all day and night, with no control system in place.

The entry to the car part was lit with twin 28W T5 fittings which had been retrofitted in 2012.

When most of the T5s predictably started to fail at the same time, James Dwyer of Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), which has a national building management contract for Shopping Centres Australia’s 77 retail assets, investigated lighting upgrade options. Dwyer was looking for a solution that would last longer than the T5s and save Woolworths the costs of frequent lamp replacements and maintenance.

The JLL team had recently completed a fire stair and car park lighting upgrade at CP1, a commercial office tower in Brisbane, where LEDs were installed. The positive feedback from the building manager there helped convince Shopping Centres Australia, the owners of Woolworths, that LED was the way forward.

Lighting manufacturer Enlighten helped Dwyer complete an unbudgeted capital expense application and detailed return on investment projection, which ‘impressed the owners and ensured that my application was approved,’ Dwyer said.

Dwyer opted for Enlighten’s Chameleon light fitting, which is built for long-lit areas such as fire stairs, car parks and back of house areas.

Most of the new LED fittings will only be on when needed, thanks to an in-built motion sensor which instantly switches the light from the standby 8W light output to the full 35W output for a set period of time which can vary between 15 seconds and five minutes. When the set time ends, the light output returns to standby mode.

A 90W 2 module Cetus LED low bay light from Enlighten was installed in the car park entry. This fitting actually represented a net increase in energy consumption compared to the existing T5 fixture (68W including ballast), but it was necessary to improve the light levels in this area.

All lights were replaced on a one for one basis, with each parking bays having a standard 12 chip bulk head installed. The fittings lighting the driveways are permanently on, and the ones approaching a turn have side-emitting optical lenses to ensure good visibility.

Coorparoo’s Woolworths is located in an area with electricity supply constraints, which means it qualified for a Peak Load Reduction Reward. Energy-saving scheme Energex rewards businesses within the area that contribute to reducing demand on the network during peak periods by replacing lighting with more energy efficient lighting. The reward payment given to Woolworths is estimated to be $500 for this upgrade.

The new LED lighting will save an estimated 77per cent energy in the car park area, which equates to 30,504 kWh per year. The project capital cost was $21,250 after the incentive payment, with a project payback calculation from energy and maintenance savings of 2.7 years.

According to Dwyer, the project has been well received. ‘The Chamaeleon fitting is perfectly suited to our undercover car park operation and I have received an immense amount of positive feedback from the tenants,’ he said.

Dwyer is planning to retrofit another shopping centre’s undercover carpark lighting with in early 2015.

Novel Energy Lighting specialises in LED Tubes, and LED IP65 fittings for business lighting retrofits. Speak to us today to understand the energy savings and explore financing which can be repaid through the energy cost savings.