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045


With the huge investment made by the hotel industry to create the perfect setting for guests, it is vital to understands the potential implications of a switch to LED light sources. Clockwise from top Radisson Resort & Spa Alushta, Ukraine (interior design by LWA Architects Gothenburg, Sweden); Blu Hotel Bukovel, Ukraine (interior design by Bost / Stefan Bock, Berlin, Germany); Swisshotel Dresden, Germany (interior design by Atelier Zürich / CM Design, Hamburg); Radisson Blu Hotel Hamburg, Germany (interior design by LWA Architects Gothenburg, Sweden).


but light levels are not everything: lighting creates the atmosphere of an entire space. In one and the same project you have a lot of different lamps. Lets keep on with the MR16. In some areas you need a focused light with a narrow beam angle and in other areas wide beam angles are used. This creates a differentiated lighting atmosphere and different lighting zones. If the lamps are changed without paying attention to this particular specification (and that is the standard procedure in refit business), you have the same light distribution everywhere. The atmosphere is completely different and it loses its original design intention and room impression. And – not to forget the light quality – the LED refits often have a very low colour rendering of about 70-85%; halogen has 100% - and you will never get a light as brilliant as halogen from an LED (never say never...). Besides this, LED offers a poor colour stability (within one lamp type you can have big differences in colour temperature), so this is also a loss in light quality. In some parts of light quality we might need to make a compromise, looking at the sustainability of a project. All these ‘lost’ promises are even worse the cheaper an LED refit is – produced by a new ‘green’ company, without proper heat management and with no knowledge about colour rendering and colour stability. So it seems that all this ends up in unfulfilled promises? Not necessarily. With these explanations I would like to highlight the difficulties that are found when relamping or refitting existing luminaires which are not shown by the manufacturers who want to sell refit lamps. In our position as lighting designers it is a real problem that there is such an aggressive market, lying about lamp life, light output, light quality, promising an easy solution and raising customers´ expectations. Most of the time, investors or hotel owners put a lot of money into the interior design, materials and lighting system, and have also paid an interior designer and lighting designer to create the warm and nice atmosphere needed in each specific area. With this - let’s name it - “quantitative


refitting”, all the investments, plus the new investment for the refit itself, are wasted, as there is only a theoretical payback. It is decreased by lower energy savings and shorter lamp lifecycles and by additional costs, such as new transformers, reprogramming etc., together with a loss of light quality and interior atmosphere. That is why I think it is important that operators, engineers and general managers are aware of the problems mentioned above, to ask for a proper refit plan, looking at all these aspects, which are important to keep both the payback and the light quality. Lighting designers and consultants can organise sufficient relamping with the hotel´s technical engineers and can, by examining the existing system, light sources, beam angles and dimming facilities, can calculate a realistic payback period - and, based on that, decide whether it makes sense to relamp now or wait for a better generation of LED refit lamps. Considering all these ‘specialities’ in the relamping process, one can create a truly sustainable project by getting a realistic payback and proper energy saving, while keeping the original lighting atmosphere and room impression – which means: protecting the investment. So: LED relamping? YES we can! But only with the knowledge and awareness that you don´t always get what you’ve been promised, but that you always see what you got!


Katja Winkelmann is president elect of the PLDA and founder of Licht01 Lighting Design. www.licht01.de www.pld-a.org


*Example chosen: Halogen - Osram DECOSTAR 51 ECO 35 W 12 V 24° GU5.3; LED - Osram PARATHOM PRO MR16 advanced 35 24° ADV 7 W/827 GU5.3


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