Reducing a shopping centre’s operating costs and carbon footprint

Tamworth’s boutique shopping centre, The Atrium, recently installed Philips Lighting’s latest LED lighting technology, LuxSpace Compact Power LED downlight throughout its mall.

With 6000 m² of retail space, the arcade-style shopping centre accommodates 30 specialty retailers and a business centre.

To heighten the retail experience, the Atrium underwent a full refurbishment two years ago, involving the full replacement of the existing fluorescent and mercury-vapour lighting with modern metal-halide lamps. However, with the rising costs of electricity, the mall’s management began looking for strategies to reduce its operating costs and carbon footprint. The Atrium’s monthly power audits identified that the biggest consumers of electricity were lighting and air conditioning.

In looking for ways to reduce the lighting component of this energy bill, the Atrium’s Managing Director, Bruce Read, sought advice from local electrical wholesaler, Lawrence and Hanson, who referred him to John Ralston, Key Account Manager at Philips to provide guidance on energy-efficient lighting solutions.

According to Read, Philips provided excellent education and advice on the benefits of emerging LED lighting technologies, stating: “I was initially cautious about the suitability of LED lighting for the Atrium. However, it soon became apparent that the latest LED technology could easily meet our lighting needs, while substantially reducing our energy bills.”

The message hit home when Ralston demonstrated the results from an in-progress Philips LED lighting project at Winston Hills Mall in Sydney. Here, it was possible to stand in the food court and directly compare one recently renovated wing featuring Philips LEDs, with another un-refurbished wing where standard metal-halide luminaires awaiting replacement still provide the lighting.

“The difference was astounding,” recalls Read. “The LEDs gave a uniform output, both in terms of light intensity and colour consistency. By comparison, there were noticeable variations in colour and brightness from the metal-halide globes.”

Where the Winston Hills project utilised Philips 35 W LuxSpace Compact LED luminaires, Philips recommended its latest development, LuxSpace Compact Power, for the Atrium.

“With a rating of 45 W and 60 lumens/W, the LuxSpace Compact Power delivers a greater light output than the Compact variant,” says Ralston. “This makes it especially suited to meet the lighting requirements of the Atrium, which has 4-8 m ceiling heights.”

Installation proved to be a streamlined process, as the LuxSpace Compact Power fits into standard 200 mm-diameter downlight cut-outs and connects directly with existing wiring and controllers. This allowed the legacy 150 W metal halides to be simply removed and replaced with the new 45 W luminaires.

“It’s amazing that these LEDs can deliver the same light intensity as metal-halide lamps, which consume three times the power,” says Read. “As such, we expect to be able to save at least 70% of our lighting energy requirements, and significantly reduce our carbon footprint.”

However, the energy-saving potential goes far beyond the lighting requirements.

“These LEDs produce significantly less heat in the lit area,” Ralston explains. “When you consider that it’s possible to get the same light output from a 45 W LED as you do from a 150 W metal halide, it’s obvious that a great deal of energy is wasted as heat by metal halides. Not only will the move to LEDs reduce energy consumption by lighting, it will also noticeably reduce the air-conditioning requirements, as far less waste heat will be generated.”

The LEDs are also rated for 50,000 hours, providing an extended service life over the metal halides they replace. Read states that this equates to a 12-year operational life span for the Atrium, adding: “We expect this longevity to minimise maintenance costs and reduce disruption to business. By comparison, we’ve already replaced 30 of the 75 metal-halide lights we installed two years ago.”

Philips’ remote-phosphor technology further ensures consistent light output and stable colour performance over the long life of the lamp. Where metal halides tend to vary in colour and lumen output over time, the LuxSpace LED range delivers a uniform performance over their entire life, an important consideration for retail space.

Read says the Atrium expects a payback for this re-lamping project in less than two years, adding: “If we additionally factor in the reduced maintenance and air-conditioning costs, the payback will be even shorter. The future for the Atrium looks bright, with unparalleled performance and reduced operating costs.”