A lighting upgrade project, designed by Chalmor, is helping Everards Brewery to reduce its carbon footprint and save around £15,000 annually on lighting costs at its facility in Leicester
Encompassing a large warehouse divided into two areas, a draught beer cellar a loading dock and a garage area, the project involved replacing existing lighting and introducing lighting controls to minimise energy wastage, taking account of activities within the building to provide the most cost-effective solution.
“Upgrading the lighting was one of a number of energy-saving initiatives we have implemented recently," said Everards’ Engineering and Compliance Manager Steve Brassington. "It has brought significant additional benefits in terms of health and safety and improving the working environment for our workforce, as well as facilitating more accurate picking and reducing maintenance costs.”
Both the warehouse and cellar areas were formerly lit by 250W high-pressure sodium (SON) light fittings, while the loading dock and garage were using elderly T12 fluorescent lighting. In these warehouse and cellar areas, Chalmor’s Brilliance 3 x 54W T5 fluorescent fittings have been installed on a point-for-point basis, while in the garage multi-wattage Brilliance fittings have been used, each fitted with 2 x 28W and 1 x 54W lamps. In the loading dock the Chalmor design has used Resilience 2 x 35W IP65 T5 fittings.
The Resilience fittings in the loading dock are zoned into three rows, each controlled separately through an AutoLux 6-channel lighting controller. This enables the lighting to be switched off row by row, in relation to the penetration of natural daylight into the space, with the row closest to the outside being switched off first. In addition, the AutoLux controller also provides timer control to ensure lighting is not on when not needed.
Chalmor also analysed the shift patterns in the various spaces and determined that additional lighting control would not offer significant energy savings over and above those achieved by the more efficient lighting.
In addition to reducing its energy consumption and creating a brighter and more pleasant working environment, Everards will benefit from lower maintenance requirements as re-lamping cycles have been extended from two years to six years. This will also reduce the cost of lamp disposal in compliance with the WEEE Directive over the life of the lighting system.
