Chalmor:

Chalmor’s Brilliance gives Lotus a speedy payback

As part of wide-ranging sustainability strategy, Lotus Cars has installed energy efficient, long life Brilliance light fittings from Chalmor at its warehouse and storage areas in Hethel, Norfolk. As well as improving the quality of lighting, the Brilliance fittings are saving the company over £3500 per annum on running costs to give a payback on the investment of less than 18 months.

The storage area originally used 450W high pressure sodium fittings and these have now been replaced, on a point for point basis, by Brilliance fittings using 4 x 54W T5 fluorescent light sources. This has more than halved the installed electrical load and reduced electrical consumption by 48,000 kWh per annum.

In addition, Brilliance fittings offer a 24,000 hour life before lamps need to be changed, compared to 10,000 hours for the sodium fittings. As a result, re-lamping cycles have been extended from around every 2 years to every 5 years to give a saving on maintenance of around £750 per annum.

“Installing Brilliance fittings has been a key element in a raft of energy efficiency measures we have introduced at the site,” explained Environment Manager Lee Preston. “As well as reducing costs and carbon emissions, they have greatly improved the quality of the lighting in the area, making it easier to pick components from the racks. The feedback from warehouse staff has been very positive,” he added.

Upgraded lighting with no capital outlay

Chalmor’s LifeSaver ‘pay as you save’ scheme has enabled leading self-adhesive materials manufacturer Ritrama to upgrade lighting and controls at its production centre in Eccles with no capital outlay. Instead, the lighting installation is being funded through quarterly payments, which are less than the money saved each quarter from reduced energy consumption.

“The LifeSaver scheme has enabled us to greatly improve the quality and responsiveness of our lighting, reduce our carbon footprint and save money at the same time,” explained Ritrama UK’s managing director Mark Evans. “Furthermore, there hasn’t been any capital outlay, so the whole scheme makes perfect commercial sense,” he added.

The work was carried out in an existing facility, part of which has recently been reorganised to create a self-contained finishing centre. The existing high pressure sodium (SON) lighting was no longer meeting the needs of the space, so a total of 650 SON fittings were replaced with 420 Chalmor Brilliance high output, long life fittings. This enabled Ritrama to reduce its installed electrical load by 136kW.

In addition, the new lighting is linked to Chalmor AutoLux lighting controllers, providing presence detection and daylight modulation to ensure that the lighting is only used when needed. The enhanced control is expected to reduce the lighting’s running hours by around 40%, resulting in a reduced electrical load and an annual energy saving of 1,444,956kWh.

Further savings are achieved through reduced maintenance costs. Re-lamping was costing nearly £10,000 per annum, whereas the Brilliance fittings are unlikely to require re-lamping for seven years. The combination of reduced energy and maintenance costs is providing Ritrama with a total annual saving of over £90,000 per annum.

As Ritrama has adopted the LifeSaver scheme, the cost of the lighting, controls and installation has been spread over a period of three years, providing a net saving of over £12,000 a year from day one. After the capital is repaid, Ritrama will benefit from annual savings of £90,000.

“We have been very pleased with the new lighting, which gives us a brighter light and makes the picking of colour vinyls easier through better colour rendering – as well as helping us to save money,” Mark Evans concluded.

Brilliant lighting for BVT shipbuilders

Lighting at BVT Surface Fleet’s shipbuilding facilities at HMNB Portsmouth has been greatly improved by the installation of long-life, energy efficient Brilliance fittings from Chalmor. Energy and maintenance savings achieved are expected to provide a payback of a little over a year.

Brilliance fittings have been installed in a new 4000m2 extension to production hall B and have replaced existing fittings in the 11,900m2 steel production hall.

In the steel production hall, 185 x 400W SON (high pressure sodium) fittings have been replaced, on a point for point basis, by 4 x 54W Brilliance fittings, reducing the installed electrical load by around 50%, with an increase in lighting levels of 25%. Maintenance requirements are also reduced as the Brilliance fittings provide a useful life of at least 24,000 hours, which is 2-3 times longer than SON light sources. As a result, total annual savings on cost of ownership are predicted to be 60% with a payback of 13 months.

Hall B is currently lit using 1000W SON fittings and the original proposal for the new extension was to use 1000W metal halide fittings. Instead, BVT has opted for 6 x 80W Brilliance fittings mounted at a height of around 40m, reducing the lighting load considerably with projected savings of over 50% on lighting, including maintenance costs. These fittings use special long-life lamps with a life of 48,000 hours and the payback for this area is predicted to be 14 months.

“We have been delighted with the results and received very positive feedback from staff about the quality of the lighting,” said BVT’s Julian Amey. “We see this as the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Chalmor as we roll out lighting improvements to other areas in the future,” he added.

Healthier energy consumption for Alara Wholefoods

Alara Wholefoods has reduced its energy consumption and carbon emissions with the help of innovative lighting and control solutions made by Chalmor, predicting a payback from the investment of less than two years.

Alara Wholefoods, one of the UK’s leading muesli manufacturers, has set itself a goal of achieving carbon-neutrality by 2010. An important element in the company’s strategy was to increase the energy efficiency of its lighting at its London manufacturing facility.

To achieve this, Chalmor proposed replacing the existing T8 fluorescent lighting in most areas of the building with higher efficiency T5 lighting, using the company’s EasiFit T5 conversion kit. In addition, high output Brilliance fittings have replaced high pressure sodium (SON) fittings in the loading bay area, to increase the quality of the lighting, as well as reduce energy consumption.

Chalmor has also supplied Autolux controllers to provide occupancy and daylight control of the lighting in offices, changing rooms and toilet areas, and the loading bay.

EasiFit T5 takes less than five minutes to install and includes a T5 lamp, connectors with integral high frequency control gear and a bridge that replaces the starter and bypasses the old gear. Consequently, Alara has been able to initiate a phased replacement using its in-house maintenance staff and reduce its lighting energy consumption by around 50%.

The Brilliance fittings are a high efficiency high output fitting which use long-life T5 light sources; the lamps will last over 2.5 years before replacement is needed. This makes them ideal for areas where access for re-lamping may be difficult or disruptive, such as Alara’s loading bay. Replacement of the SON lamps, which have very limited control capabilities because of their extended warm-up time, has also enabled Alara to introduce combined occupancy and daylight control to the loading bay area.

Energy savings for Cummins – sheer Brilliance
	Chalmor’s energy efficient, long life Brilliance light fittings are helping leading diesel engine manufacturer Cummins to significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs, as well as carbon footprint, while also improving light distribution, at its facility in Ramsgate, Kent. These cost savings are conservatively predicted by Cummins to be in the order of £30-35,000 per annum. The 4 x 80W T5 fluorescent Brilliance fittings have replaced 400W high pressure sodium (SON) fittings, each with an energy consumption of up to 480W including control gear losses. Each Brilliance fitting can be used in a three stage control approach, with different numbers of lamps switched on at each stage in configurations of zero, two or four lamps. “Despite the extensive roof lighting in the building the SON fittings were on for 24 hours a day because of the re-strike time,” explained Cummins’ Facilities Manager Richard Wilson. “With the Brilliance fittings we can automatically reduce artificial lighting in relation to natural daylight to save on energy. In addition, we were previously replacing lamps every 18 months, whereas these are expected to last well over twice as long and maintain performance – providing considerable maintenance savings,” he added. Mounted at a height of 11.5m, the Brilliance fittings provide all of the benefits of T5 lighting, including improved colour rendering for people working in the space. At Cummins, they have also greatly improved light distribution for the workforce. Brilliance luminaires are fitted with long life lamps as standard and are also available with ‘Ultra’ lamps, which in this application would reduce maintenance cycles to approximately 10 years. In addition, they can be supplied with dimmable control gear, where required.
GF Smith benefits from Chalmor’s intelligent lighting Installation of Chalmor’s Intelligence light fittings at GF Smith’s facility in Hull is enabling the company to reduce its lighting operational costs by 89%, with an 87% reduction in carbon emissions. The project formed a key element in a wide ranging raft of measures being undertaken by GF Smith to reduce its carbon footprint. Chalmor’s Intelligence is a versatile fitting that combines long life, high efficiency T5 fluorescent lighting with a range of integrated controls. At GF Smith, these include ceiling microwave dimming sensors (CMD) that modulate the fitting, via dimming, in relation to presence and absence of occupancy and daylight levels. GF Smith is a speciality paper merchant that has been sourcing high quality and unusual papers and card for the graphics and printing industries for over 100 years. The company also has the capability for embossing and laminating paper and manufacturing standard and bespoke envelopes. High visibility is an important criterion in its manufacturing and warehousing operations, particularly for picking coloured paper and card. Forty-four Intelligence fittings, mounted at a height of 14m, have replaced 47 x 400W high pressure sodium (SON) fittings; improving lighting levels and colour rendering while reducing the installed electrical load by over 30%. The six-lamp Intelligence fittings with multi-wattage, dimmable DALI control gear use 4 x 49W T5 lamps, with 2 x 80W high output lamps in the centre. This arrangement provides GF Smith with their required lux levels, whilst providing a high level of flexibility in the control of lighting. “With the SON lamps we were unable to control the lighting in relation to demand based on either occupancy or daylight levels because of the re-strike times for these lamps,” explained GF Smith’s Process Manager Tony Stewart. “As well as saving on installed electrical load, the Intelligence fittings reduce energy consumption through enhanced control,” he added. Further savings are also being achieved through greatly reduced maintenance costs, as the Intelligence T5 lamps provide an average operating life of 24,000 hours, compared to 8,000 for the SON lamps they replaced. Enhanced control, resulting in the lighting being used less, will extend re-lamping schedules even further. An additional major benefit was the inclusion of integral emergency lighting in selected Intelligence fittings; this means GF Smith no longer has to maintain a separate emergency lighting system. “We have been delighted with the quality of the fittings and the functionality of the sensors, as well as the professionalism of the Chalmor team – it is clear to me that customer service is a high priority for Chalmor,” commented Operations Manager Lars Stryg.