Thinking about explaining LEDs to my granny

My granny used to know exactly which light bulb to buy for each room in her house: you used 100Watt for the standard lamp in the sitting room; 40Watt for bedside table; 60Watt for corridors; and got a man in to do the fluorescent tubes in the kitchen. When you left a room you turned the lights out and sometime the lamp shade got a scorch mark where the hot bulb had burnt it. A whole other area of confusion existed because there could be two circuits in the house - the one for lamps with small round pins - and the one with big round pins - and the square pins. So, it wasn't really a simpler time, just one where there was a shared understanding that the bigger the number on the bulb the bigger the plug the brighter the light and the hotter it got if you left it on (so, remember to turn the lights off!!!).
Now, if I had to explain to my Granny which lamp she needs to read her paper I am going to have to start sharing the vocabulary of Lumens - "What Watts?", I imaging her saying, "Not Watts really", I reply, "LEDs don't need many of them to get a similar result. So if you think that your 60Watt bulb in the corridor is giving out about 800 Lumens if you used an LED bulb you would need one that used about 15Watts. "I could see to read with a 15Watt bulb... you're not talking about those energy saving bulbs are you; Mavis got some in the supermarket for 10p each. They are rubbish..." hummmm

Perfect LED versus cost dilemma in lighting Barn shop

There is a lovely farm conversion near us in North Norfolk at Wroxham. It comprises several shops, a garden centre and a cafe. It is quite rightly very popular throughout the year.
At the moment they are doing some development work - turning an old office into a food shop. We have been specifiying lights to make the most of the beamed ceiling while showing the food to best advantage. The Track Spot Aero we recommend comes in at £136 a unit: in a big space with some dozen units that makes it quite a big commitment. And on paper it can be hard to see what is so special about really good LED lighting.
We took a sample unit for the customer to see: and the wow! of great LED lighting at only 10W each certainly had a positive effect. He loved it... fingers crossed he makes the jump to better light.

Early Adaptors to LED light

Spike and Toni are our neighbours. We bumped into them on Sunday and were invited in for a drink. Spike brews his own wine using grape juice and a secret blend of herbs. They have an adult games room with pool / poker table, bar with optics , piano with candles and two cockatiels. Toni is a counsellor and Spike is a well known local musician – trombone.

Over a glass of white and some fabulous sounds (Speedometer) we chatted about our business.

“LED’s”, stated Spike, “are the light source of the future. They give out minimal heat; are re-cyclable and use much, much less energy. They are GREAT! – What to you think?”

“Well,” we replied, “you’ve just used all the best bits of our sales pitch – so not much to add really... and the wine is delicious.”

We left wishing we could pick up how to do jazz improv as simply as Spike had understood LEDs.

Job Opportunity for LED Specifier

Business is going well and so we are now looking for some one - or some company - to come and support us with specifiying and designing. As a small company I don't think we are yet in a position to offer full time employment with all the commitment that would entail, but a self-employed specifier would be perfect: some one with a range of interests and enthusiasms in the lighting world; someone with a keen attitude and good eye for detail and product developments; someone prepared to meet the customer and us in either Norfolk or London; someone who is as concerned about delivering top class customer care as we are; oh! and someone who can brew up the perfect cappucino and produce a coffee walnut cake. (I know, the last bit may be wishing for the moon.) Fingers crossed.

One Aldwych Hotel lights up the swimming pool

Congratulations to One Aldwych who have just completed a fabulous lighting design in the hotel's swimming pool area. The task was not without it's challenges - hiding the work from the keep-fit gang in the gym and scaffolding over water to mention two. The guys at B & P Services did a great job and it was worth it in the end!  The results are a clear example of the beauty that can be achieved with high quality LED - and the energy reduction will make a positive difference to the bottom line.

How to light a pub effectively with LED lights

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 1/5^th 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.

Ian-Peter MacDonald. MacDonaldTait Light. ianpeter@macdonaldtait.com Tel: 01603 -788448

Lighting restaurants sustainably

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.

Ian-Peter MacDonald. MacDonaldTait Light. ianpeter@macdonaldtait.com Tel: 01603 -788448

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