The NEC saves energy with new lighting system

The NEC in Birmingham has refitted its Skywalk with LED lighting in order “to improve its visitor experience” while saving energy and lowering carbon emissions.
 
MHA Lighting devised a bespoke solution for the Skywalk that would reduce energy bills while improving light quality.
 
MHA Lighting were also selected to replace the traditional fluorescent lighting in their Concourse and Gallery suites with its LED lighting that uses wave guide technology to achieve energy savings of up to 80 per cent with intelligent controls.
 
“The NEC has committed to a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050,” Project Engineer at the NEC, Andrew Cope, said. “Lighting is a massive part of us achieving this target.
 
“We have around 70,000 lights throughout the site – that equates to a fifth of our energy usage. That is a huge cost and finding solutions that improve light quality while reducing energy consumption is key.”
 
MHA Lighting installed 144 TiLites in the Concourse and Gallery Suites and 260 bespoke RodLites above the 400m long Skywalk that were designed to be match the NEC’s corporate branding and to be in-keeping with lighting finishes in other areas.
 
The 30-watt RodLites replaced 54watt T8 Tubes (58-60watts with ballast). The NEC says this immediately created an energy saving of 50 per cent.
 
As the lights are on continuously, software was installed that uses sensors to detect when the Skywalk area is empty and dims the RodLites to just 10 per cent. With these intelligent controls more than 70 per cent energy savings have been achieved..
 
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