The Benefits of Installing LED Lighting and Controls

Lighting uses some 20% of the electricity generated in the UK.  The majority of UK businesses current lighting systems are still reliant on inefficient traditional light sources, this results in wasted energy costs, and a high carbon footprint. There is a significant potential for many businesses to move to low energy lighting, and control systems.  This will not only increase profitability, but also contribute significantly to your sustainability planning and accreditations. In short, upgrading from traditional lighting systems to LED, is one of the fastest and easiest routes for your company to significantly cut costs.  You will also improve working environments, and reduce your carbon footprint.

The case for LED Lighting

The need to reduce carbon emissions presents an opportunity to make lighting both more efficient, and more effective. Reducing lighting electricity consumption is possible for most businesses.  It’s done on a cost neutral basis for the installation by utilising the energy savings to fund the installation, while enjoying savings over the lifetime of the product.

The Carbon Trust states:

• Energy savings of up to 80%* can be achieved when replacing traditional lighting systems, so replace your metal halide, sodium and Tungsten fittings
• Lighting controls such as movement sensors, and daylight harvesting photocells, can result in additional savings of 30-50%

*Figures quoted by The Carbon Trust

LED Performance

Did you know, LED lighting can match the colour temperature range, and colour rendering standards of legacy lighting, whilst providing far superior lamp life and efficacy. This in turn reduces maintenance costs.  Typical traditional lighting systems have a life expectancy of between 2000 and 20,000 hours, whereas all products supplied and installed by The Logical Group are guaranteed for a minimum 50,000 hours.  They also have a life expectancy of up to 100,00 hours, which equates to circa 20 years for many businesses.

Specifying Your LED Lighting System

Are you installing a lighting scheme into a brand new build, or retro-fitting into an existing area?  Either way, designing the scheme to British and CIBSE standards is crucial, so you know you have the correct lighting levels (Lux).  Uniformity, which ensures the light produced is consistent and evenly spread at correct specification, and also achieving UGR (Glare rating).  A simple one for one swap may result in lower energy bills, however it is unlikely that the light levels produced will be fit for purpose.  We can help you avoid producing excessive glare, resulting in eye strain, and avoid underperformance or over performance, resulting in additional energy costs. Bring all components of design together, and they will combine to provide the greatest efficiency possible, and so provide a bespoke fit for purpose solution.

Our No Cost Energy Survey will provide you with a fully costed model and design specification.

General Lighting Level Guide

Glare

Glare is typically caused by ‘excessive and uncontrolled brightness’, whether that is from sunlight, or artificial lighting. Discomfort from glare can be due to the source itself.  This may be from being in the direct line of vision, or from the source reflecting from buildings, windows or computer screens. All of these forms of glare can be distracting for employees, and can make it difficult for them to easily see and complete the task in hand. A well designed lighting system will not only minimise glare but also ensure visual comfort. European Standard EN 12464-1 regulates the lighting of indoor workplaces, so should be taken into account at design stage to avoid having to retrofit glare reduction after installation.

Retrofitting

Whilst retrofitting luminaires is an option, and upgrades individual fittings as they fail, it is also a less effective solution than full luminaire replacement. Existing legacy luminaires and control gear are not necessarily suited to an LED light source, therefore the performance of the unit as a whole cannot be verified. As a result, we would always recommend that the entire luminaire is replaced. This will ensure that the new fitting uses the correct wiring and control gear for the lamp technology, and also that the correct amount of lighting is provided for the space.

Controls

Light Sensors (Daylight Harvesting/ Dimming Photocells)

Daylight is the only freely available light source, and yet all too often it is overlooked. Artificial lighting is still needed of course, so ensuring it is linked to the daylight availability will mean it is most efficient.  It’s important to allow the user to automatically reduce the artificial light source, when natural daylight is present, resulting in the best return. These kind of controls are suitable for use both in internal, and also external applications. As the level of ambient light in a room increases, the result is the light level controls can be used to either dim, or turn off the lights.