Intelligent LED Lighting
LED lighting isn’t exactly what first springs to mind when you’re discussing renewable energy. But it’s a significant player when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint.
If you’re new to lighting and the affect it can have on your energy bill - then like me, you might have switched off the moment someone started talking about Lux or Lumens or Kelvins.
Kelvin…wasn’t he one of the chipmunks? That was Alvin actually…
Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson) was a very cleaver mathematician, physicist and engineer and absolute temperatures are stated in units of Kelvins in honor of his achievements.
Once you start looking into it - lighting is a beast in itself and shouldn’t be dealt with lightly (pun intended).
Now if you’re reading this thinking - I don’t care what you say, I’m never going to get excited about a conversation on LED lighting…then lets talk numbers.
£27,236.20
This was one of our clients monthly spend on lighting alone. Their warehouse in Brighouse had a mixed up jumble of Sodium, Fluorescent and LED lighting and didn’t even adhere to CIBSE guidelines.
We carried out a lighting survey, provided them with an intelligent design (in line with CIBSE guidelines) and once installed, their new monthly spend was reduced to £3,411.76
That’s a monthly saving of 87.5%
Starting to get interested? You should be.
Now I’ve got your attention, before we go any further let’s make sure you’re clear on the measurements being referenced.
You know who Kelvin was but not what Kelvins are.
In layman’s terms:
Kelvins – think light colour (like a rainbow).
Lux – just think brightness
Lumens – just think brightness again.
I also referenced CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers).
CIBSE is the UK standard setter and authority for best practice when it comes to building services.
So on the topic of lighting, CIBSE set a standard level of brightness (or Lux) required for a person to perform a particular task. In a warehouse for example, the walkway’s won’t need to be as bright (or have the same lux levels) as an inspection area.
The standards set by CIBSE can often be a minimum, so if you don’t meet their guidelines, you are in breach of your insurance…serious stuff.
Boring bits out of the way – lets get back to how this saves money!
If numbers didn’t do it for you – how about graphs…
I thought you said boring bits out of the way…?
Humor me for a moment…
To sum up, this graph shows the lighting consumption from two identical bays, in the same warehouse.
The green line is our intelligent LED.
The red line is fluorescent.
Our LED, or the green line, is using approximately 172 kW less each day.
For this client – its daily saving of approximately £89.44!
This is the difference from just one bay…they have six of them!
Ok I get it, big savings…so how does it work?
So you’re probably aware LED require less watts than their gassy cousins yet shine brighter.
This alone usually cuts costs in half.
Where we start to see further increased savings, is in controls.
You’ll have no doubt encountered lighting controls in everyday life.
We’ve all been in a place where the light unexpectedly goes out and either you or someone near you suddenly appears to be attempting the YMCA dance to get them back on…
That’s PiR (or Passive Infrared).
Just think of an invisible light beam that needs breaking to stay on.
Microwaves are a bit more advanced, although not always as suitable as PiR.
These can be triggered even when you’re stood still (provided you aren’t impersonating Sir Winston in Parliament Square).
Just think of a fog. If you’re in it, and moving only slightly, the light remains on.
A control you may not be aware of is Daylight Savings.
Intelligent LED lighting can sense the natural light levels around it and therefore, adapt accordingly.
So if we set the light to emit around 500 lux, and the skylights or windows are already letting in enough light for the designated area, then our intelligent LED will dim to the necessary level – using even less power. Therefore, the savings increase further.
So…to sum up. Intelligent LED lighting (LED with integrated controls) is actually very important to overall energy consumption & reduction and if just a small amount of thought is applied – it can save you a lot of money.
If it’s not already part of your journey to reducing costs and carbon – then it should be.
