Residential and commer cial property owners across the country are doing their best to reduce both their environmental impact and their electricity bills. As a result, demand for energy efficient lighting for indoor and outdoor applications is on the rise.
In recent years, a number of developments have been made in energy efficient lighting. This has given businesses and consumers more choice as to which lighting options they would prefer for their outdoor setting.
Thorn Lighting, part of the Zumtobel Group, has a range of environmentally friendly options for those wanting to steer away from inefficient halogen lights — it has LED, compact fluorescent and metal halide offerings. According to Hitesh Solanki, marketing commu nications manager at Thorn Lighting, its outdoor range can be used in a number of different set tings, including vehicular and pedes trian roads, carparks, cycleways, parks and in residential estates or entrances to apartments.
LED lights, or light emitting diodes, are extremely energy effi cient, creating less heat than their traditional predecessors, which means they last longer. Compact fluorescent lights are designed to replace incandescent lamps, fitting into most existing light fixtures and emitting the same amount of visible light but also using less power for longer.
“Energy efficiency has had a great impact on outdoor lighting as a large percentage of outdoor installations utilise mercury vapour, which is a highly inefficient light source,” Solanki says. “For example, a 250W mercury vapour lamp can have an efficacy of approximately 52 lumens per watt whereas a 150W metal halide lamp can have an efficacy of 80 lumens/watt. This means that you are using a lower wattage lamp and getting more light output per watt.”
Solanki has noticed an increase in demand for energy efficient outdoor lighting options, “particularly in the commercial sector where the driving force has been changes in the Building Code of Australia,” he says.
“Commercial installations need to comply with minimum performance levels — that is watts per sqm - speci fied in Part J6 of the BCA. Part J6 has been set in a way that one can no longer utilise inefficient lighting, placing greater emphasis on lighting an area more efficiently whilst main taining the required light levels.”
Beverly Morton, marketing coor dinator at Hunza Pure Outdoor Lighting agrees, but is also seeing increased interest from residential property owners as well.
“We are seeing a steady increase in demand for LED and metal halide products at the expense of halogen. This has accelerated in the last 12 months. Initially it was more prevalent in the commercial sector, however it is gradually moving into the residential sector,” she says.
Metal halide lamps, originally designed for industrial use, are now used in commercial and residential developments and are also popular for sports facilities and site lighting. They are smaller than fluorescent or incandescent lights but produces high light output for their size.
Energy efficient lighting options are a smart choice for outdoor settings, especially now outdoor lighting products have been developed into high performing products which are also aesthetically appealing, if not the same as that of the less environmentally-friendly options.
“We can now replace a 20W and 35W MR16 halogen with LED alternatives and the result is quite similar, while the energy and main tenance costs are considerably lower,” Morton says.
“We also have LED alternatives for the smaller G4 bi-pin halogen lamps, which are the primary lamp types used in low voltage landscape lighting and are suitable for most residences and smaller scale com mercial applications such as hotel pathways and gardens.
“For larger trees and higher struc tures, we are now using MR16 metal halide lamps and these are capable of replacing halogen lamps up to 100W or more, again with considerable energy and mainte nance savings. These lamp types are especially well-suited to commercial applications due to the higher light output,” Morton says.
She says Hunza is constantly developing new LED products with higher light outputs and that as energy efficient outdoor lighting options become more reliable and economical, more and more developments are choosing to invest in them.
Hunza has supplied energy effi cient lights to a number of well- known developments, including the world's tallest building. A total of 130 Hunza Eave luminaires were installed at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai using a 39W MR16 metal halide lamp and ballast combination. The MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas also used a large quantity of LED bollard lights in its design and the New Zealand Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo comprised more than 100 Hunza SafeTouch uplighters, also using metal halide lamps.
The growing popularity of LED lights and the general swing away from halogen has allowed lighting companies to continue to develop new technologies, says Solanki. Over the next 12 months, Thorn Lighting plans to release a number of new outdoor lighting products, including LED columns, LED street lanterns with patented optics and flood lights which utilise dimming.
Solanki says: “At the end of the day, the most important factor that must be considered is whether the end user will be comfortable. By utilising quality and efficient light fittings together with good design you are able to deliver a solution that ticks all the boxes.”
