Chalmor’s Endurance cuts costs for Knauf Group

At its new warehouse and production facility in South Humberside, Knauf Drywall is achieving high quality, efficient lighting with minimal upkeep costs, thanks to long-life maintenance-free Endurance luminaires from Chalmor. The decision to install Endurance followed comparisons of life cycle costs against the low bay discharge lighting used in Knauf’s existing facility, which predicted savings of over £50,000 per annum.

Part of Knauf UK GmbH Group, Knauf Drywall is a leading manufacturer and supplier of plasterboard and plaster and the Immingham plant is one of the two Knauf plasterboard manufacturing facilities in the UK. Rapid growth created a demand for additional warehousing and production space, leading to the construction of an extension to the existing building in Immingham to double capacity.

A key criterion for the design of the new extension was that the lighting should be bright with a spectrum close to natural daylight light to assist with visual quality checks and ensure safe lighting levels. Additional requirements included high energy efficiency and minimal maintenance requirements.

A comparison of Endurance 150W luminaires against the 400W high pressure sodium fittings the company had been using in the older part of the building indicated that Knauf’s lighting requirements could be met with the same number of fittings, saving 250W per fitting.

The projected annual savings of over £50,000 include more than £41,000 on electricity, with over £4400 additional savings on the Climate Change Levy and a further £7600 savings on maintenance costs.

The result is a payback of less than three years on the Endurance luminaires, with reductions in carbon emissions of over 3700 tonnes per annum.

“Not only do we have a brighter, more natural light compared to the older building, we are also making substantial energy savings and reducing maintenance costs through extended re-lamping and cleaning cycles,” explained Knauf’s Quality, Safety & Environment Officer Warren Fothergill.

“The old discharge lamps require replacing about every 8000 hours, whereas the Endurance lamps have an average life of up to 100,000 hours, so they won’t need replacing for around 15 years,” he continued. “The fact they are sealed to IP65 also means there is no ingress of dirt into the luminaires, so they won’t require cleaning. Even our principal electrical contractor was impressed with the Endurance fittings” he added.

A further benefit of the Endurance fittings is that they do not get as hot as discharge lamps, so Knauf is able to make better use of warehousing space by stacking plasterboard higher and closer to the lighting without a fire risk.

“We have been very pleased with the light quality and cost savings provided by Endurance luminaires, Warren Fothergill concluded.
 

Taking control at Cwmbran

Energy costs have also been reduced at the Cwmbran plant of sister company Knauf Insulation, which manufactures thermal and acoustic insulation and fire protection products. Here, Chalmor photocells and occupancy detectors have been installed to improve lighting control, linked to Endurance luminaires in key areas to provide better responsiveness than discharge lamps.

In the loading bay area, for example, the extended re-strike time of the 400W discharge lamps meant they could not be switched on and off in response to occupancy. These have now been replaced by Endurance luminaires, which provide instant strike/restrike, so that the lighting is only switched on when the area is in use.