There are many easy ways facility managers can make fast and permanent changes to their lighting that will save on energy, slash maintenance and give quick paybacks. Swapping traditional technologies for LED is the easiest of all…
There must be things that the hard-pressed facilities manager can do to make their job just a little bit easier, and maybe save a bit of money for better things. Here’s a list of actions that shouldn’t take too much effort to work out and which should see immediate benefits.
Replace 2D lamps with LED modules
There’s no reason why utility bulkheads in service areas should still be fitted with 2D fluorescent lamps. There are plenty of efficient LED alternatives designed specifically to replace the 2D lamp. They’ll provide around 70% energy savings, with improved light output across a lamp life of around 50, 000 hours.
But be careful and do a bit of research. Switching from a fluorescent 2D lamp to an LED retrofit isn’t only an easy fix for you; it’s also an easy option for unscrupulous manufacturers and suppliers, so be sure of who you’re dealing with.
Eliminate all tungsten lamps
There may be a very special reason why THAT filament lamp needs to stay in THAT fixture in THAT room, but otherwise there really is no excuse to be holding onto any filament lamps.
Let’s remind ourselves of the facts: tungsten and tungsten halogen lamps operate at around 10 – 20 lm/W, compared with LED retro-fit lamps that start at 60lm/W and only get better. And some of those LED lamps can be dimmed, making the savings even greater.
The usual warning about LED product needs to be aired here. There are companies out there who just want to take your money and offer very little in return apart from problems. Make sure that you know who you’re dealing with when it comes to LED retro-fit lamps.
Swap out T12 fluorescent tubes
Extraordinarily, it’s still possible to buy T12 fluorescent lamps, because there are still companies making them. It’s like calling into a Ford dealership and being offered a Cortina. The only reason for still using a T12 fluorescent lamp is because no one’s got round to changing those 1800mm and 2400mm battens that were installed thirty years ago.
So, on the grounds that anything else is better than a T12 lamp (except a filament lamp) it’s time to replace the old fixtures with some modern technology. These days that will mean a one-for-one replacement with either an LED fixture or a T5 fluorescent equivalent, depending on which gives you the better performance for the task.
Install presence sensors in toilets
Lights being left on when rooms are vacant is just wasted energy. The simplest fix is to install a movement sensor on the ceiling, wired between the light switch at the door and the light fittings. Then all you need to do is to change the wall-switch to a secure key switch – and leave it in the ON position.
The sensor will detect when someone comes into the toilet and switch on the lights automatically. So far, so easy, but there is one issue that always needs to be taken care of – its no comedy when the lights go out and you’re tucked away in a cubicle. Good sensors are fitted with adjustable time-settings to avoid embarrassment.
Fit absence detectors where you can
If we accept the argument that lighting an empty room is a waste of energy, then we might shift our attention to an energy management structure that might bring savings from working spaces beyond the toilets.
The quick fix is to accept that every room needs to be taken on its merits and provide such energy saving technology as may be relevant. Don’t get hung-up on an estate-wide solution; do what you can and what makes sense.
The common situation is that a room is vacated and stays empty for a decent length of time, with the lighting left ON. Installing absence sensors into the lighting circuit ensures that an empty room automatically switches to an unlit room. Absence detectors switch the lighting off but do not switch the lighting back on when someone comes into the room; that decision is left with the occupants.
The only gripe about absence detectors is that they promote lazy thinking – see ‘education’ below.
Use daylight controls
Most of the time we’re thinking about saving energy from artificial lighting after dark, or in rooms where there is little or no natural light. But, where its available, natural light equals free illumination.
The easy catch is the area along windows where daylight ingress will exceed interior light levels for much of the day. What happens next depends on the state of the ceilings. If rooms are fitted with a suspended ceiling system then there is a readily available easy fix. Install daylight sensors along the window line and create two zones, one that is lit 100% by artificial lighting, while the other benefits from available daylight.
There are varying levels of sophistication around daylight controls, with some buildings controlled so that each run of light fittings (parallel to windows) has separate control. That may be a step too far, but there’s no need to walk away from the idea when a simplistic option is available.
Manage your exterior lighting
This calls for a bit of analysis but can give you a satisfying return on the effort. All external areas can be assessed by their usage and their security needs. A space that is in use at all hours and has serious security requirements will need lighting throughout the hours of darkness, and will probably be supported by a CCTV system. On the other hand, a back-of house loading area that is only ever in use during normal working hours and which is otherwise inaccessible may need nothing more than some low-level security lighting that can be triggered by sensors.
Working through the estate, zoned lighting installations can be retro-fitted with sensors and time-switches to guarantee energy savings, and probably make life for those in neighbouring properties a bit more comfortable.
Swap emergency bulkheads for self-test luminaires
The emergency lighting regulations require regular testing of the emergency lighting installation. In a large estate this has been compared to painting the Forth Bridge and it’s not surprising to hear that some installations receive only the minimum attention needed to stay on the right side of legal.
The easiest fix is simply to remove the old self-contained luminaires that are controlled via a key-switch by the door and replace them with luminaires that contain internal circuitry that enables the luminaire to monitor itself. Regular checks then only require a visual check of the LED display on each fitting, making life far easier for technical staff.
An important note, though. You’ll still have to carry out the annual real-time inspection. Getting free from that chore requires a far more complex solution.
Educate your occupants
The most cost-effective method of energy management is to have knowledgeable building users who understand the implications of lights being switched on and left on when it’s not necessary. The best type of sensor is the person with their finger on the light switch.
Of course, the potential hazard lurking behind any kind of well-intentioned behavioural training is that you end up alienating exactly those people you need to encourage. Teaching staff members to be more alert to energy management needs careful handling; but once the argument is won, the benefits are there for a long, long, time.
Oh, and clean your fittings!
Once all is said and done, and the installation is working well, with all the sensors fitted and staff members on-message there’s still one thing to get to grips with, and that is cleaning.
Most commercial and industrial light fixtures are technical constructions. They have reflectors and diffusers and these will need regular cleaning if the light levels aren’t to fall below acceptable standards. What ‘regular cleaning’ means in practice will be determined by local environment and health & safety factors. Clean Rooms are probably already being kept in an immaculate state, but back-of-house service areas are possibly running at less than the optimum level.
A good cleaning regime means that money is not being wasted by dust and grime stopping that expensive light getting out of the fixture.
Call us to discuss lighting for your premises: 0208-540-8287. Visit www.novelenergylighting.com to explore our range of LED downlights, LED tubes, LED panels, and sensors.
Customers use the app to receive information relevant to the items around them such as special offers and they can even look up prices of items on their phone instead of on the shelves.
Lux reports: UAE supermarket chain Aswaaq has become the first retailer in the Middle East to install connected lighting which communicates with its customers.
Its supermarket in Al Bada’a, Dubai, now boasts so-called Visible Light Communication technology, which is imperceptible to the human eye but detected by smart phone cameras. The lights act as a positioning system which allows shoppers to find items in the store to an accuracy of 30cm.
Smart-phone owners must first download the Aswaaq-branded app. This allows their phone to communicate with the individual light points transmitting their location through the high-frequency modulation of the light. The data stream is one-way and no personal data is collected by the lighting system.
They use the app to receive information relevant to the items around them such as special offers and they can even look up prices of items on their phone instead of on the shelves. The store managers can use the system to identify the most popular areas of the store to better place products, as well as help streamline tasks such as stock checks and restocking shelves.
The project has been installed by Philips Lighting and an American specialist in ‘digital store mapping’, Aisle411.
Other retailers trialling visible light communication include Target in the US, and Carrefour at its hypermarket in Lille, France.
Modern offices are increasingly dominated by display screen technology. Whilst appreciable quantities of paper documents are still in use they are normally in association with computers, and this balance is gradually moving toward increasing display screen use and decreasing quantities of written or printed text. A side-effect of this is the reduction in the amount of filing requirements as documents are stored on a computer disk.
This has resulted in a change in office furnishings with fewer storage cabinets and an increase in technology, and also in a fundamental shift in task position, from predominantly horizontal documents to predominantly vertical display screens.
Additionally in many offices collaborative working is encouraged where formal or informal face-to-face discussions occur to consider short-term issues or long-term plans.
Building design has also developed as energy costs and sustainability issues gain importance, resulting in a high proportion of modern office space receiving significant levels of daylight.
Best practice
These changes impact all aspects of the design of modern office building services including artificial lighting. Lighting must be designed to prevent disturbing reflections on display screens, requiring a high level of optical control and technical competence in luminaire design. Lighting must also provide adequate illuminance to occupant’s faces, modelling features sympathetically and therefore allowing good visual as well as aural communication. This interplay of display screen versus human requirements needs careful planning of a lighting installation to produce a fulfilling space suitable for the task. Recommendations for lighting for DSE and also for modelling of faces and vertical surfaces are provided in the European Standard EN 12464-1:2011 Light and lighting – Lighting of work places Part 1: Indoor work places.
EN12464-1 provides recommended illuminance levels for a variety of office tasks. These illuminance values are task related and best practice is to layer the lighting levels, balancing the level on the task, the level on the surrounding area and the level on the background. It has been shown that the perception of how light or gloomy a space appears is based upon a 40° band in front of the viewer. This is generally the room walls and a portion of the ceiling. It is therefore important that room surfaces are lit to prevent a gloomy, oppressive ambience and EN 12464-1:2011 recommends an average illuminance of 75lx on the walls and 50lx on the ceiling.
Taking control
Supplying comfortable and effective light is not the same as supplying controlled and energy-efficient light. A lighting system should interact with the space, dimming in response to increasing levels of daylight, turning on or off in response to occupancy within the space, and with increasing use of technology, especially within meetings, allow lighting scenes to be set to provide the optimal conditions for the task at hand. Lighting should be an integral part of the office ambience, giving a calm or lively atmosphere dependant upon the needs of the task and space, providing a fulfilling workplace for people to enjoy and be stimulated in, benefiting both the individual and the business.
Call us today to discuss your office lighting needs, tel: 0208-540-8287, or email: sales@novelenergylighting.com. We supply a full range of LED panels, tubes, and downlights suited to office requirements. Visit us at www.novelenergylighting.com to explore our range of Thorn LED products.
With Philips CityTouch, Los Angeles remotely manages more than 100,000 street lights to create a more livable city.
Customer challenge
The 215,000 street lights in Los Angeles include more than 400 different styles distributed across 7,500 miles of roadway. Maintenance has traditionally depended on crews who scout the streets at night to identify outages— that, and calls from citizens. The bureau handles 40,000 such calls per year. They needed to find new technology that could improve customer service, make people feel safer, and create a more livable city.
The right system
After piloting systems from several different managers, street lighting directory Ed Ebrahimian selected Philips CityTouch, “the best product at the lowest price.”
CityTouch capabilities that helped decide Ebrahimian included remote monitoring, automatic notification of outages and other events, easy installation and simple commissioning, accurate lighting asset information, integration with the bureau’s existing management systems, and futureproofing through software as a service delivery.
Carrefour, the largest retailer in Europe, was opening a new hypermarket in North West Spain. With no points of entry for daylight in the building, the company needed a way to create a natural shopping environment. Could Philips help Carrefour to attain the right levels of light and reach its sustainability goals?
The right lighting
With over 9,500 stores over 32 countries, Carrefour knows a thing or two about shopping. The company, founded in 1959, has built itself up to become the largest retailer in Europe and the second biggest in the world. When it opened a new hypermarket in Santiago de Compostela, illumination posed a significant challenge as the premises had no entry points for daylight. In line with the group’s sustainability efforts, a bright yet energy-efficient lighting solution was needed.
LED was the answer. For general illumination, Maxos LED was used to bring natural-looking light to the aisles. The crisp, white brilliance creates a refreshing atmosphere for customers without any uncomfortable glare. Ecostyle LED was used for accent lighting, bringing out the quality in merchandise with excellent color rendering. These two fixtures represent energy savings of 55% and 50% respectively – no small chunk of change for a large store.
In the coolers and freezers, Master LED SA tubes were installed to give produce an enticing white glow, and delivering a 60% energy saving. Their virtually heat-free operation means that cooling units can be kept at the required temperature without using extra power, leading to further cost reductions. Control of all the lighting systems is achieved through with Philips Dynalite in combination with the DyNet network. This control system enables the use of pre-programmed light settings, for set-and-forget convenience.
The new 100% LED lighting system saves over 60% of the energy used for lighting compared with Carrefour’s standard lighting systems. This is expected to reduce C02 emissions by an impressive 96 tons per year.
Novel Energy Lighting supplies Philips trade and pro range LED products. Call us today: 0208-540-8287, to discuss your project needs, or visit our website to explore some of the products on offer.
The industry is recycling more lamps and luminaires than ever, according to data from the Environment Agency.
In 2015 the number of lamps being recycled leapt by 44 per cent while luminaires were up 4.4 per cent. Commenting on the news, Nigel Harvey, CEO of specialist lighting WEEE compliance scheme Recolight, said: ‘It is particularly pleasing to see that the 2015 recycling rate bounced back up from 2014. This is probably due, in part, to the recycling of fluorescent waste resulting from major LED integrated luminaire roll outs in business premises across the UK. The lamp recycling rate from 2013 to 2014 saw a drop when, for the first time, the data included LED lamps as well as Gas Discharge Lamps. With very large quantities of LEDs being sold – but very few being returned as WEEE, the inclusion of LEDs inevitably reduced the rate.’
Turning to the luminaire recycling rate, he added ‘The luminaire recycling rate has increased from 2014 to 2015. However, the tonnage of luminaires collected in 2015 is only 5 per cent higher than in 2014. The rate increase is therefore primarily due to the 12.7 per cent reduction in the tonnage of luminaires reported as put on the market. This reduction is likely to be a result of dual use classification, which means that any luminaires that could be used by consumers are now out of scope of the WEEE Regulations.’
The Environment Agency data also reveals that membership of Recolight has increased more than any other UK scheme. The number of members increased by 23 producers between the end of 2014, and the beginning of 2016. That is also Recolight’s biggest annual increase recorded since the scheme was established in 2007.
Visit Novel Energy Lighting to explore LED retrofit lamps and tubes for your project. Out with the old, in with the new!
The inventor of the blue LED, Nobel Prize winner Shuji Nakamura, says laser diodes have ‘compelling advantages’ over LEDs. PLUS: The biggest LED order in history; and we interview new Harvard CEO Paul Hussey. Lux Today webcast 2 March 2016 with Courtney Ferguson.
INGENIUM® Smart Lighting gives you full control, via your smart device or remote control, of the on/off, dimming and scene setting of your environment. Its ease of use, installation and scalability makes INGENIUM® perfect for an endless list of applications.
When critically acclaimed restaurateurs, Fabienne and Philippe Amzalak decided to open a high-end dining experience in Paris, they enlisted the help of design empresario Tom Dixon. The end result is a dramatically lit interior that references the 1970’s heritage of the building, yet uses the latest in LED lighting technology to create impact and drama. By using over 120 MEGAMAN® LED Classic 7W lamps, the scheme will also deliver a combined saving of €2,500 in electricity costs per year compared to traditional equivalents*.
Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio was commissioned to create a scheme that would make the most of the stark concrete interior of the restaurant. Éclectic is located in the Beaugrenelle Centre, a refurbished 1970’s shopping complex situated in the 15th Arrondissement, beside the Seine. The shopping centre is now home to many high-end brands and since its opening, the restaurant has become a focal point for midday shoppers and the business community alike.
Using the building’s 1970’s heritage as a basis for his design concept, Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio created a solution that celebrated the 1970’s love affair with all things geometric. The Tom Dixon Cell Pendant was chosen to light Éclectic, as its structure, constructed from layers of minutely etched brass with a hexagonal cross section, brings 1970’s sophistication into the 21st Century.
Clusters of the Tom Dixon Cell pendants have been hung from circular acoustic panels constructed by interiors lighting specialist Chelsom throughout the space. Located in the main dining room and private dining booths, they create a visual backdrop to the breathtaking 3.5 metre diameter chandelier that hangs in the centre of the restaurant. Containing 124 Tom Dixon Cell pendants, the central chandelier looks dramatic yet uses minimal energy, due to the incorporation of MEGAMAN®’s LED Classic 7W lamp.
Tom Dixon, Creative Director for Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio, comments: “Drawing inspiration from the 1970s architecture surrounding the restaurant, the design plays with colour, simple repeat modules and clean geometry. The design intends to soften the hard finishes of the contemporary building; warmth and comfort are the key drivers for the interior finishes, and the concrete is softened with brass, and the whole restaurant is furnished in abundance with custom-designed products. The MEGAMAN® LEDs add warmth and sophistication to the scheme.”
Éclectic is a testament to the power of combining quality design with elegant LED lighting. Thanks to the creativity of Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio and MEGAMAN®, energy efficiency and 1970’s urban chic have never looked so good!
* Based on calculation of: Operation hours: 12 hours per day, calculated based on 1 year period. Total number of light point: 124 pcs (124 x 7W MEGAMAN® LED Classic used instead of 40W incandescent lamps).
Visit www.novelenergylighting.com to discover the range of Megaman LED lamps and fittings available. We would be happy to work with you on project quotations. Contact us: 0208-540-8287, or drop us an email: sales@novelenergylighting.com
Introducing GE’s latest LED road and street fixture, the 56W SLBt, which makes the advantages of outdoor LED lighting available for everyone, even those on tight budgets. Designed to replace 35-100W HID and 24-36W CFL fixtures, the SLBt is a great LED solution for minor roads, residential streets and other public spaces where modest levels of illumination are required. Comes with 90,000hr (L90) 5 year warranty.
Application areas: Street and residential road lighting; Pedestrian street; Car parking
Designed for side mounting on 42mm-60mm poles, or post top on 48mm-76mm posts.
The SLBt can be upgraded with a dimmable driver and minicell photocell for contrability.
In 2015 the number of lamps being recycled leapt by 44 per cent while luminaires were up 4.4 per cent. Commenting on the news, Nigel Harvey, CEO of specialist lighting WEEE compliance scheme Recolight, said: ‘It is particularly pleasing to see that the 2015 recycling rate bounced back up from 2014. This is probably due, in part, to the recycling of fluorescent waste resulting from major LED integrated luminaire roll outs in business premises across the UK. The lamp recycling rate from 2013 to 2014 saw a drop when, for the first time, the data included LED lamps as well as Gas Discharge Lamps. With very large quantities of LEDs being sold – but very few being returned as WEEE, the inclusion of LEDs inevitably reduced the rate.’
