Getting the lighting right is fundamental to the ambience of a successful restaurant, but how can we do so “sustainably” ? New technologies are fast appearing, existing lighting staples are being banned, new lighting seems ugly and bland, where do you turn and who do you believe ?
For over twenty years we have developed a familiarity with a variety of types of lighting in the restaurant market. Large pendant lamps using GLS Edison screw or bayonet lamps parade above tables or above the bar. Warm halogen dichroics or metal halides downlight the primary spaces, reception and lavatory areas, bright in the day and dimming to soften the evening atmosphere. Incandescent clear candles burn behind wall sconces or chandeliers. These are all familiar and we are all used to their characteristics, but stand back and reflect on how frustrating and wasteful are these technologies.
The incandescent and halogen Lightbulbs use 90% of the energy they need to heat and only 10% to light. If you have a 50W halogen dichroic downlight, you will need 18W of air-conditioning to pull that heat away. In the short life of the halogen dichroic the light output will slide from the initial 900 Lumens to less than 300 Lumens and the energy it takes to generate this lesser light rises from 50W to 60W. Generating less than 20 Lumens for every Watt of energy employed this is highly inefficient lighting technology – each bulb is costing you around £40 to run a year in energy alone. And your team spends their life replacing them. If you fail to replace them, your restaurant looks shabby. A halogen dichroic lifetime varies from 1500 – 3500 hours at best. In a busy restaurant you will need to replace each bulb twice a year. Although the halogen dichroic is not on the banning list, all clear candles and clear GLS lamps will be banned from September 2012.
What then does the “sustainable” answer look like ? The primary task is to get the light right. The reason why these traditional technologies are employed is because they offer bright, sparkly light, which dims to an attractive warm glow. These are qualities that a restaurant still requires. “Sustainable” obliges the solution to employ minimal embedded carbon – make it once and it will last a long time. Use recycled materials in the manufacture. Use materials which themselves can be recycled at end of life. Most importantly use minimal energy to light efficiently. IE use the least amount of Watts to generate the most number of usable Lumens. We say “usable” because metal halide technology is very efficient at over 90Lm/W and at over 3000 Lumens at source it is bright but is often used in extremely inefficient fittings. One of the most popular restaurant metal halide fittings only allows 6% of that light out of the fitting – so only 200 of those Lumens are being used !
The more eco conscious of us replace the GLS and incandescent lamps with new “energy saving” bulbs. Yes they tick the efficient light box, but they most certainly do not tick the sustainable box. Given that research at Stanford University illustrated that there is enough Mercury in each lamp to poison 6,000 litres of water, this is not a technology to be encouraged over the long term.
Salvo Alfano at Maxwell’s American Bar and Diner in London’s Covent Garden argues that LED lighting is the answer because it does tick all of the boxes. For Salvo the most important challenge was to get the light right. With 50W Low Voltage halogen dichroics he was spending over £6,000 every year on electricity but they offered a bright light which could be dimmed on his Mode Mirage system down to a lovely orange glow each night. He selected a 3.3 Watt dimmable LED lamp which offers fewer Lumens initially but is extremely efficient at 56 Lumens per Watt and the Lumen output will not decline. In fact it will take 50,000 hours or over 5 years before he will notice any light quality decline. He is saving an astonishing 3,750 halogen dichroics heading to landfill with this decision ! Marriott hotels put a nominal budget cost of £2.00 for every lamp change and assume a cost of 50p to buy each lamp. By this criteria Salvo will have saved £9375 in lamp change costs let alone the £25,000 he is saving over the same period in electricity costs and the 164 tonnes saved in carbon emissions.
With LED flexistrip offering sustainable efficient and stable cove and decorative lighting, new clear candles with dimmable 4W LED light sources, dimmable GLS using 8W LEDs and a host of downlight luminaires and LED spotlight lamp solutions, the sustainable solution is now available.
“But this technology is prohibitively expensive”; we hear you say. Let us make a distinction between new build/refurbishment and retrofit where you want the savings by replacing existing bulbs. For a new build, the cost difference between the best LED solution and your new traditional lamp and fitting is approximately double, but this extra investment will be paid back typically in a restaurant within 18 months. Make this decision at the beginning and it slashes your running costs and your design is not compromised because the lights rarely break. In a retrofit the relative costs are higher and the payback will probably be longer, but it does depend on the task being lit and the amount of time that the lights are on for. Salvo’s payback at Maxwells was less than 13 months because his lights are on all of the time. At the moment the Government is prepared to help companies of less than £30 million sales and fewer than 250 employees by offering them an interest free loan. This is well worth it and will save you money immediately.
How do you find this technology ? This is the crucial question. This is not a regulated technology and manufacturers are making outlandish claims for very ordinary products. Most of the primary sources for your lighting and electrical equipment simply do not have the understanding or testing capacity to measure these claims. Many of the design, mechanical and engineering, and energy management community are also rightly suspicious. The leading lighting sources of traditional lighting do offer LED solutions but they are often still relatively inefficient at 28 Lm/W. Compare that with 70 Lm/W for the new LED luminaires from specialist LED manufacturers in the UK and the US. These solutions do exist and the most effective route to them is via an LED specialist. A business which offers a selection of solutions, which stands by the specifications and guarantees and which allows you to trial and assess each option yourself.
You can achieve attractive sustainable lighting solutions for every task in a restaurant, and combined with developing staff behavioural patterns and using light and movement sensors it is realistic that the restaurant of the future will use well over 50% less energy in lighting than currently used. This article focuses on the why and what, but does not give the specifics on how to do so. The specific answer lies in the specific challenge. Tread carefully and work with specialists and you can achieve this today.
About Ian-Peter MacDonald MA, FRSA. With a background in product design, Ian Peter MacDonald has spent the last four years introducing LED technology to the leisure and retail market in the UK. Working closely with both large chains such as Marriott Hotels, Whitbread and Radisson Hotels and smaller individual restaurants and hotels, Ian Peter is driving understanding of the benefits and processes of making the change to LED. Recently through the MacDonald Tait Light company, as well as specific light projects, Ian Peter has been concentrating on informing the design and engineering community of the issues around selecting this breakthrough technology.
Some LED Light specialists:
England and Wales: MacDonald Tait Light, www.macdonaldtait.com
Greenled Light. www.greenled.co.uk
Scotland: Solas Lights for Life. www.led-solutions.co.uk
Ireland and NI: Insight Energy www.ienergy.ie
