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 Energy efficient lighting provides
a
shining example
There is great pressure on organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and save costs. This pressure is on organisations across the board from retail premises through offices to local authorities. Many buildings have old lighting which can be very wasteful in energy use, and is a prime target for improvement and savings by upgrading to modern energy-efficient lighting.
 This case study describes how one organisation has improved their lighting, made a contribution to carbon reduction, and expects to make considerable cost savings.
The public area lighting in Hitchin public library had been in place for many years and was an obvious opportunity for improvement. Herts county council, along with their consultants The Mace Group, undertook a review of potential savings and improvements in conjunction with lighting specialists, Fluorel.
As a result, much of the existing fluorescent lighting was replaced by using the Fluorel retrofit lighting system. This incorporates the latest in lighting control systems and lamps. A key benefit is that it is designed to fit into existing light fittings and utilise the existing wiring. The old control circuits are bypassed. This means that the installation was completed in much less time, with less disruption, and at lower cost than if the complete fittings had been replaced.
 The replacement lights use much lower energy and are brighter than the ones they replace. This was achieved by a combination of both latest technology T5 fluorescent tubes and modern high frequency control electronics.
The installation is targeted to achieve around 40% energy savings.
For an installation like this, the expected return on investment is typically between 3 and 5 years. For this project the payback period was defined to be within 4 years.
A further benefit is that the lighting environment is improved with modern daylight lamps providing a brighter and fresher environment.
Richard Brewster, Project Manager for Mace group (the project consultants), said “The retrofit route was the only way the project could be made to work with the required payback period. The response by Fluorel to the installation requirements by changing the configuration of the delivered product, made the installation much easier, which resulted in a successful project. The client is very pleased with the result.”
With the increasing awareness of environmental issues from authorities, customers and end users, and increasing pressures to save costs, it is expected that more and more existing lighting systems will benefit from being upgraded to the latest lighting standards.
 Lighting Manufacturer moves to new premises to cope with growth
Fluorel Lighting, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of industrial lighting, has moved to new premises just outside London. The move will provide the new base for the company to service ever-increasing demand for energy-efficient fluorescent lighting.
The business has expanded over the years and had ended up occupying a number of separate premises to cope. The new premises enable all the operations, including design and manufacturing, to be bought under a single roof, which will help reduce costs through work efficiency and improve customer service.
Demand for very efficient fluorescent lighting has seen a sharp increase partly driven by the pressure on local authorities and businesses to reduce costs and their carbon footprint. Fluorel have taken a significant share of this demand with their approach of providing expert personal help to specifiers, architects and electrical engineers; and delivering very efficient, innovative fluorescent lighting.
David Jones, (Director of Fluorel), said, "We are really pleased with our new premises. The company has moved along way from our start under the railway arches in the 1960’s and this is an exciting new step for us."
 Bernards Heath Junior School –
St Albans
The job was an extension to the existing school that was linked by a corridor. Comprising of extra classrooms and IT room with associated office and toilets and cloakrooms. It was designed by Mace (the Consultants) to the latest standards and had to visually tie in with the existing school with regard to exterior colours and appearance.
We worked with closely Mace to design the lighting installation to comply with the design parameters with regard to illumination levels, uniformity and energy saving requirements. The teaching space light fittings were a mixture of our J series suspended linear T5 continuous system and recessed TK series T5 luminaires, all of which were controlled by daylight and absence detection sensors and were able to keep to required light levels by regulating their light output dependent upon the amount of daylight coming in. The fittings were all direct/indirect and gave upward light as well as lighting to the working plane, with the suspended fittings in particular required to illuminate the higher level ceiling areas of the classrooms.
In the corridors and circulation areas our shallow circular 2D opal polycarbonate EC3 range was used with decorative trims which again gave a halo lighting effect onto the mounting surface as well as general lighting to the areas.
The Consultant Engineer at Mace commented that he was particularly pleased with the lighting installation and had received very good feedback from the school themselves.
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