Better lighting, better productivity
July 01st 2008 The vast majority of the world’s buildings use older, energy inefficient lighting technology - some dating back to the 1950s.Office workers and students may be squinting and suffering headaches due to the lower quality of light from this costly, old lighting technology
Today's energy saving lighting solutions and controls can change all that and provide significant benefits - experiential, economic and ecological. They produce better lighting, which has a positive impact on people.
On top of that, they cost less to run thanks to their reduced energy consumption and this means less CO2 emissions as well. Studies show that we feel better working under higher quality lighting. In offices this means enhanced productivity. In schools this translates into better learning environments.At work or at school, this results in greater levels of motivation and lower levels of absenteeism.
Tremendous potential
In terms of environmental impact,buildings represent 40% of the world’s energy demand. This is projected to rise substantially as population grows, moves to cities and becomes more affluent. Clearly there is tremendous potential for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in this sector.
Cut energy costs by up to 75% with HF gear and controls Fluorescent lighting is still the preferred option for the workspace because it is considered efficient. However advancements in fluorescent technology means systems have improved over the years and many companies still use lighting that is way behind modern efficiency standards.A complete refit of an office or factory using Philips fluorescent lamps with Philips HF (High Frequency) electronic gear delivers economic and operational advantages improving lighting performance and reducing energy consumption.
Add lighting controls such as Philips ActiLume and companies can further improve energy saving thanks to daylight linking and occupancy detection.
Benefits of lighting controls
A fully featured and functional lighting management system is capable of reducing lighting costs in three significant ways:
1. Making sure that lighting is not ON when people are absent.
2. Daylight linked dimming to reduce perimeter lighting levels when there is sufficient daylight.
3. Controlled luminance, which compensates for initial over lighting. Simply introducing controls able to ensure lighting is OFF when noone is present in a typical office can take the usage down from 6000 hours to no more than 3500 based on a 14 hour 5 day week; a 40%+ reduction.
These numbers could be improved with detailed movement detection used to ‘set-back’ the lighting to a lower level in unoccupied areas. Calculating these additional savings is quite complex but – if this was a typical office – a round figure of 15 – 20% is feasible.
Moving to the potential for daylight linked savings.This will largely be limited to areas nearest the daylight source and if just the first row of the linear fittings near each source is considered then daylight dimming can typically be applied to about 17% of the main lighting.If the daylight dimming in this zone was to achieve a 60% reduction in lighting energy used due to dimming with respect to available daylight then this produces a further 10% saving.
Finally the benefit of limiting light output to the required design levels can generate average savings over time (between lamp changes) of around 7-10%.
Guaranteeing performance
Philips was the first company to develop electronic gear.Right from the start we offered service and support wherever necessary and continue to do so. When you invest in Philips electronic gear you know you can expect high quality performance and the very best of technology standards.However,to further demonstrate our confidence in the reliability of our lighting systems we now offer different guarantees for our Fluorescent Lamp and Gear systems. More articles from Philips Lighting: | 
