Southampton City Council has reduced the energy consumption at its six-storey city centre car park by 35% per cent following the installation of lighting control systems from Ex-Or.
The project was designed to help the council both meet its environmental obligations and to make significant reductions in its electricity bill for the 86m x 40m building on West Park which provides space for 510 vehicles.
Ex-Or's Long Range LightSpot and SceneSelect II systems were installed to completely eliminate the unnecessary use of lighting within the building. At the same time, the outdated metal halide lights were replaced throughout by high-efficiency T5 fluorescents.
“Monitoring reveals saving of £1,400 in just one month”
Kilowatt hours electrical use was measured before and after the installation using a data recorder set at two minute intervals to discover exactly the extent of energy savings achieved. Before the work was carried out, the lights remained on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a typical month the electricity usage would be 39,761kW, costing £2,600. In the full month following the installation and commissioning of the new lighting system, the electricity usage was 22,000kW - an electricity bill of just £1,200.
In the first year of operation, Southampton City Council expects to make a total saving of 170,000kW which will reduce the annual electricity bill for the car park from £32,000 to £17,000 - so saving £15,000 per year for each subsequent year.
“Installed with a minimum of disruption”
Ex-Or lighting control equipment was specified by building property services consultants Capita Symonds for its ease of installation - existing cabling and circuits were used without the need for extra cabling. Contractors D & M Electrical, of Southampton, were able to install the lighting control equipment floor by floor so that disruption was kept to a minimum, and cars could still use the car park.
“Balancing energy saving with safety and security issues”
When designing the lighting control scheme for the car park, Ex-Or had to carefully balance the elimination of wasteful use of lighting with safety and security issues. The interior lights are in three rows: one row along the perimeter of the building, and the other two rows inside the building. Daylight detection and presence detection technology is employed in the perimeter lights. This means those lights only come on when movement of a car or driver is detected within the car park. If levels of natural light are high, photocells prevent the lights from coming on when a car or visitor arrives.
The middle and inner rows of lights are again triggered by presence detection, however Ex-Or's SceneSelect II scene setting and dimming technology ensures a minimum level of lighting is maintained so security CCTV cameras can operate at all times.
Jas Sahota, technical manager with Southampton City Council who is responsible for West Park car park, pointed out that the lighting scheme within the building was more than 20 years old, was inefficient and wasteful, and needed replacement.
He said: “Southampton City Council has a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and meeting its environmental obligations. With the lights on 24/7 at West Gate it looked like a Christmas tree at night with all the lights blazing away. We needed to tackle this, without comprising the safety of users of the car park, and Ex-Or came up with the ideal solution.
PHOTO 1 CAPTION:
A combination of daylight and presence detection technology is used for the perimeter lights. If levels of natural light are high, as here, photocells prevent these lights from coming on when a car or visitor arrives.
PHOTO 2 CAPTION:
Ex-Or controls ensure that wasteful lighting is eliminated without compromising safety and security. Mimimum lighting levels are maintained at all times to allow CCTV security cameras to operate.