Lighting
Lighting is the second biggest consumer of energy in any building. In a world concerned about energy efficiency, we are all under increasing pressure to choose products which are both energy efficient and cost effective. But with so much technology on the market, how do facilities managers decide on what is the right solution for their business? MD of MHA Lighting, Tom Harrison, guides managers through the latest LED
lighting options
available and discusses the increasing popularity of LEDs – their benefits and also their challenges.
Facilities Manager's Guide to LED T
he Carbon Trust reports that energy efficient lighting such as LED can save UK businesses £700m a year and cut more than 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Other research puts the savings closer to £1.4 billion. There is no doubt that the switch to energy efficient lighting such as LEDs can really pay off. But when as a facilities manager do you jump on the LED bandwagon when the lighting market is moving so fast?
And when you do eventually make the switch how do you avoid the pitfalls that have unfortunately been associated with the LED lighting market?
The benefits of LEDs are now well documented. • Efficiency: Energy Savings of up to 80% with intelligent controls
• Lifetime: A minimum useful Lifetime of 66,000 hours
• Zero Maintenance: Reducing routine maintenance costs and disruption
• Cool Light: Radiates very little heat • Shock Resistance: Robust design making it difficult to damage
• Toxicity: Contains no mercury, eliminating disposal costs (RoHS complaint)
But then so are the challenges. Professional LED manufacturers have been working hard to ensure their products are able to achieve the photometric performance of
Fluorescents and Halogens, and to develop luminaires that are as pleasant to look at as Fluorescent. They have also been working hard to publicise how far the industry has come and put distance between themselves and the “sell it cheap / pile it high” overseas manufacturers who seem to care little for the quality or longevity of their fittings. LED lighting solutions have now been developed that have long term reliability built in to their design to overcome previous issues of LED lifetime. For example MHA Lighting’s LED light fittings provide 66,000 hours of useful lifetime which equates to seven and a half years at 24 hours a day seven days a week usage. With a driver upgrade at 66,000 hours, MHA’s luminaires will actually provide a minimum 109,000 hour lifetime. But for all facilities managers the first consideration before choosing new lighting has to be the required quality of the lighting solution to be implemented - key considerations being light levels, colour rendering and uniformity.
For example, the traditional high pressure Sodiums/Halides can no longer compete with any of the above lighting requirements against LED solutions which provide 65 CRI and 5500 Kelvin. The same rules would apply to internal applications too, as there is no need to compromise on light quality to take advantage of energy efficient lighting. The next consideration would typically be whether to go the whole
MHA lighting’s TiLite installation at HellermannTyton provides superb light quality and uniformity
20 lighting Building & Facilities Management – June 2014
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