GREEN ISSUES FEATURE
Northampton Borough Council is another authority that has introduced LED lighting in an existing car park and seen a dramatic reduction in energy usage. Advised by LED consultancy InterLED Lighting, its St Michael’s Car Park switched to a Honeywell LED lighting system that, although providing the same lux lighting levels, is expected to cut electricity consumption by around 75 per cent, saving up to £17,800 annually. The existing six-foot twin 70 watt fluorescent units were replaced with five-foot twin 23 watt LED Utility units, reducing the energy consumption of lighting in parking bays from 178 watts to 46 watts and halving the energy consumption in the stairwells.
Councillor John Caswell, deputy leader of the authority and cabinet member for the environment, said: ‘A few weeks after we made the switchover, our energy provider called us, concerned that several lights in the car park must have stopped working as there had been such a dramatic drop in energy usage. Not only are the huge energy-savings – and resulting cost-savings – already obvious, but the significantly lower maintenance costs will also impact our bottom line over time.’
InterLED predicts that the installation of the system will achieve payback within five years on energy savings alone.
Making savings
Other authorities, such as Medway, are following suit, with a lighting refurbishment commissioned in Chatham’s Brook car park expected to save £40,000 per year by replacing 1,000 fluorescent tubes with LED units and motion sensors that will halve energy consumption. The project has been funded by a special energy efficiency fund started by the council, which uses financial savings from projects and reinvests them in further energy saving schemes. Warwick University has also seen significant cost savings by introducing energy efficient LED luminaires and lighting controls into one of its multi-storey car parks, and is extending this to three others on campus with the expectation of
PUBLIC SECTOR SQUEEZE
The ongoing public sector spending squeeze has implications for much of the older stock of 1960s and 1970s municipal car parks, many of which are in need of extensive refurbishment. The cost of retro-fitting to the latest environmental standards may not be high on the priority list of many cash- strapped local government or local health authorities. However, with many local authorities committed to carbon reduction targets, boosting energy efficiency in car parking facilities is a relatively effective option.
Indeed, Kelvin Reynolds from the BPA maintains that not investing in such facilities can have a damaging effect on local economies. ‘A lot of these older municipal car park facilities are in town centres, many of which are struggling at the moment. The government is keen
to promote regeneration, but if these buildings are not properly maintained and become unsustainable, then they may start undermining the regeneration and economic well-being of the town centres they serve.’ Reynolds believes one of the objectives outlined in the BPA’s Masterplan for Parking could boost public sector investment in retro-fitting existing facilities: ‘We want to encourage local authorities to make sure that, when calculating their surplus from off-street parking revenue, they should ensure that costs for running the car park include effective maintenance and lifecare planning – not just running costs. Investing some income to maintain the fabric should help to address the issue of authorities having to find large capital sums every few years for major refurbishment.’
saving up to £50,000 per year in total on energy bills – as well as making a serious dent in its carbon footprint. The first to benefit, a four-storey central campus car park, was revamped by replacing orange glowing sodium lamps that were on 24/7, irrespective of usage, with a retro-fit LED system equipped with presence sensors in each luminaire that brighten lights when movement is detected. ‘We knew there had to be potential for a massive saving in energy use if we could cut out the unnecessary use of lighting,’ commented Gary Price (I Eng. MIET), electrical services design engineer in the University of Warwick Estates Office. Price said: ‘We have ended up with a lighting system in this car park that provides more widespread illumination, delivers white light, and provides a safer environment – yet manages to save more than £13,000 off our annual energy bill.’
Payback time Payback for energy efficient solutions can be remarkably fast. Portsmouth City
www.britishparking.co.uk
JUNE 2013
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