Lighting a pub is a well trodden process. At Front of house a dimming system allows the pub to adjust the light levels to suit the ambience required for an intimate evening drink or a bright lunchtime meal with friends and colleagues. Typically this light is shed by downlights and ceiling mounted spotlights using halogen dichroic lights throwing warm, pools of light onto the table tops. Wall lights with clear incandescent 40W candles provide a stylish light source from behind elegant shades. The bar counter is lit from small downlights which provide plenty of light for the business transaction of pouring drinks and handing over the correct change. Behind the bar bright downlights keep the way clear and spotlights and downlights in tilt light fittings throw light onto the bottles showing the range of drinks on offer. Often a fluorescent tube sits out of view behind the bottle gantry throwing a light up the wall behind, silhouetting the bottles and illuminating the appealing colours of the liquid therein. The wooden boards or elegant carpet at the entrance and on the way to the lavatories are lit by downlights that are not dimmed and the lavatories themselves have either halogen downlights or large 2D CFL units providing the right light levels. These do not dim. There is no need to dim the lights in the lavatory.
Well trodden and familiar though this is, it is a path full of headaches. The fittings break, the lightbulbs always blow, the heat from the lights burn the heads of the staff, as well as sometimes actually igniting the actual pub, the lights are of fragile glass and a danger in a food and drink dispensing environment, but most of all these lights are extremely expensive to run. Every single 50W downlight in a pub is costing at least £35 a year in energy. Add up all of the lights on the site and the lighting alone is costing around £2,000 pa in a small pub and up to £8,000 in a larger site. With electricity bills predicted to rise by 60% in the next 3 years and Government charging £12 for every Tonne of CO2 emitted, the costs of this lighting is too high.
Are new technologies the answer ?
Over the last few years two new technologies have arrived to help the pub save energy. The initial source was the “Low-energy” or compact fluorescent lamp. Projecting an unfamiliar blueish light from a bulbous or tube like lamp these lights do use much less energy but are not at all liked by the cutomer. Furthermore they contain Mercury. Sure not alot of it, but research at Stanford University illustrated that the Mercury contained in one single lamp could render 30,000 Litres of water undrinkable.
The second new light source is LED light but this source too seems to come laden with issues. The key problems are that most LEDs on the market look funny, emit not very powerful light, the colour is rather blue and they cost a lot.
Lighting is hugely important to the atmosphere of a pub, and therefore to the appeal and subsequent success of that pub. How do you retain all of the lighting qualities which you need and yet use less energy and get rid of all of these headaches ?
The answer does lie in one of these new technologies – but you can only benefit fully from this if you think about lighting in a new way. Lighting was always breaking and you simply headed to the shop and bought a new bulb. That old bulb was thrown away and sent to landfill, hopefully not cutting anyone’s finger on the way. That old bulb was a low cost disposable consumable product from an age when the cost of electricity did not matter. To get the answer open your mind to a world in which you put in the right light once and it works consistently for ten years. To get the answer you must recognise that by spending more in 1985 to purchase your Mercedes you still have a car which works beautifully but your neighbour’s new Hillman Imp which he purchased for peanuts in 1985 died in 1989. You are beginning to see the new light. In this new world you will need to spend more money to get the right light, but that light will last and save you enormously. A pub we are currently working on spends £1700 a year on lighting. Working with us he will save £5,000 over five years. The estate has 120 sites and the investment will save well over £1.100,000 over the next ten years.
The lighting type that will work is good LEDs. We have already observed that “most LEDs look funny, emit not very powerful light, and the colour is rather blue”. That is the case with most LEDs but good LED deliver enormous benefits without these weaknesses. Good LEDs retain their light levels for 50-80,000 hours – IE 15 years of typical use in a pub where the lights are on from 7am until 1 am. Good effective LEDs use about 1/5th of the energy of a halogen bulb and about 1/2th of the energy of a Low energy bulb. Good LEDs have a sympathetic colour temperature which suits your required task. Good LEDs run at about 70° C. You can hold an LED lamp. Good LEDs are entirely recyclable. Good LED lights need simply be refitted at end of light. Good LEDs can amortise the carbon emitted in their manufacture and lifetime over 15-30 years.
Good LEDs can deliver all of the benefits defined here, but it is extremely difficult to find good LEDs from your existing light source. The source for the LEDs which can deliver these benefits is through an independent LED specialist whose job it is to get you the right solution which will provide these benefits for the period specified. The specialist knows where to find the answer to the specific challenges of your project and has tried and tested the solutions.
And how can we prove these extraordinary benefits are real ?
Visit the following sites and simply ask their management - Visit the lovely Suffolk town of Woodbridge and go to the pretty Crown Hotel on the corner of the Square. Next time you are in Covent Garden visit the busy American Diner called Maxwells and simply ask for Salvo. He can show you the lighting and happily explain the benefits of working with LEDs. For a grander hotel visit Marriott’s Marble Arch hotel or the RadissonBlu hotel in Portman Square in London. If you in Scotland speak with Brian at the King’s Manor in Musselburgh or over in Western England talk with John Clifford at the 4* Blunsdon House in Swindon. These sites each champion getting good LEDs for their new lighting and are saving a great deal of money in doing so.
Finally, does it need to cost so much ?
The answer is a simple “yes” if you want good LEDs which deliver these benefits, but it need not come out of your pocket. For smaller pub chains with sales of less than £34 million and fewer than 250 staff the Carbon Trust will offer an interest free loan for changing to this new technology, but only if the supplier is reputable. Larger companies can access finance from various sources which will allow for an immediate saving or will simply invest from their own funds. With a Return on Investment of around two years for even the best LED solutions this represents an extremely efficient use of capital.
