Minimising energy consumption and easing maintenance
Cooper Lighting and Safety has supplied over 200 Linergy fluorescent luminaires incorporating passive infra-red control for a new Delta Group warehouse in London.
The lighting scheme, which was designed in conjunction with electrical contractor Hawk Systems, will not only help Delta to minimise its energy consumption but also limit any disruption from ongoing maintenance of the fittings.
Since being formed in 1991, the Delta Group has grown into one of Europe's largest suppliers of printed promotional materials for retail marketing campaigns, with a client list including global brands, European retailers and international entertainment companies. The company is an environmentally responsible supplier and has an ISO14001-certified Environmental Policy and Management System.
When Delta was looking at the lighting scheme for the new 180,000 square foot warehouse at its London site, the overriding considerations were minimising energy consumption and reducing the company’s carbon footprint.
Paul Brittain, Delta’s Head of Facilities, explained: “Because we operate our printing, storage and distribution facilities 24/7, our energy costs are inevitably huge, and we are always on the lookout for any sort of leverage we can get to reduce those costs.” Although LED technology was given some initial consideration, the lighting scheme ultimately took a more established route. “The LED fittings we saw were good, but on balance we decided that T5 fluorescent technology would be more appropriate for our particular needs.”
Contractor Hawk Systems then provided Delta with a choice of four designs based on fluorescent luminaires from different manufacturers. After a thorough evaluation of the fittings, Delta selected the Linergy luminaire from Cooper Lighting and Safety. Providing a T5 fluorescent alternative to the discharge luminaires that are traditionally used for high-bay and low-bay lighting, Linergy offers benefits such as instant illumination, excellent colour rendering, white light appearance and emergency lighting capability.
However, what clinched the decision was Linergy’s first-fix mounting plate and plug-and-socket connections, which make both initial installation and ongoing maintenance straightforward.
Martin Cook, Project Manager at Hawk Systems, explains: “To achieve the necessary energy efficiency, we needed dimmable luminaires with individual PIRs in each fitting, so that only areas where people were working would be illuminated. All of the luminaires we considered were able to fulfil that requirement, but Cooper’s fitting was just so much easier to install and maintain.
“The way it’s designed, you can complete all the wiring and testing with just the mounting plate installed. Once that’s done, you simply hook on the body of the luminaire, put in two screws, plug it in and it’s finished. If any maintenance work is required, we can just unplug the fitting and take it down to work on it, which is far better than trying to carry out repairs 12m up in the air.”
The Delta lighting scheme consists of 120 standard Linergy fittings and 105 emergency versions, which provide a three-hour duration in the event of a mains power failure. With an integral high-level PIR detector and photocell in each fitting, the Linergy-based scheme provides both occupancy detection and daylight-harvesting facilities. “The roof of the building incorporates numerous skylights…” commented Paul Brittain, “…which means that on a really nice day there is a lot of natural light available, and so the Linergy fittings dim down to 10% of their output. Then, if the weather turns cloudy, the output increases in order to maintain the required average lighting level of 350 lux.”
In addition to the DALI dimming gear specified for the Delta scheme, Linergy is also available with standard high-frequency gear. The luminaire delivers outstanding efficiency thanks to the advanced design of its reflector system, coupled with the use of T5 fluorescent lamps.
Paul Brittain added: “We are projecting electricity cost savings of around £30,000 a year compared with conventional discharge lighting, so the Linergy luminaire is certainly helping us to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s an impressive product and I’m sure we’ll be very happy with it.”
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