SSL lightens the burden of the urban car park

NCP (National Car Parks), the leading operator of parking garages in the UK, is replacing lighting in each of its 500 facilities in towns, cities, airports, and London Underground and National Rail locations to reduce CO2 emissions by around 11,000 metric tons per annum -. led street light with solar panel from the car park company Indeed, the massive project is unique in terms of scale and financing and may serve as a model financial structure for both commercial and municipal entities around the globe that desire to retrofit legacy lighting with energy -efficient LEDs but also struggle with the upfront cost of solid-state lighting (SSL).
The lively seaside town of Brighton attracts many visitors; the town's NCP car park is shown before the retrofit (top) and after (bottom).
The lively seaside town of Brighton attracts many visitors; the town's NCP car park is shown before the retrofit (top) and after (bottom).
The lively seaside town of Brighton attracts many visitors; the town's NCP car park is shown before the retrofit (top) and after (bottom).
NCP was founded in 1931, when there were considerably less than the 32 million cars that are now on Britain's roads alone. Today, it maintains and operates over 500 roof-deck, open-surface, and multistory car parks up and down the country, with more than 150,000 car parking spaces.
Replacing the portfolio of car parks' lighting for a safer, more energy-efficient environment is a two-phase project funded by Miami, FL-based Future Energy Solutions (FES) and the UK Green Investment Bank. The project is noteworthy in terms of size and deliverables. "There is nothing like it in Europe," said Marcus Brodin, commercial director of funding partner FES. "Instead of 5,000 to 10,000 luminaires, this project involves 60,000 to 70,000 luminaires."
It has been an aggressive plan, reported Brodin, with phase one beginning January 6, 2014 and ending in July, with the installation of 66,000 luminaires. This phase concentrated on multistory car parks, where the legacy fluorescent lights suffered degradation over time, and the nature of the car parks is that lights were left on for long hours, which further compromised lifetime.
Legacy fluorescents
The majority of the fixtures (95%) used before the £ 10 million (approximately $ 16 million) retrofit were single, thin T8 fluorescents. These incurred maintenance costs, with regular replacements required and a degradation of the lumen output during its lifetime. Even given the large scale of NCP's business, lighting maintenance was a significant operating cost.
There can be failure rates of up to 20% using fluorescents, according to Brodin, in addition to the degraded light over the lifetime of the fluorescent light. In the point-to-point replacement project, the 58W T8 fluorescent bulbs, drawing 64W to 69W including the ballast, were replaced with 29W or equivalent LED fixtures. Sometimes, these were 21W to 25W LEDs, said Brodin.
As a result, the lumen-to-wattage ratio or efficacy in the facilities is among the best on the market, says Brodin. A three- to four-month roadmap set out how to achieve the impressive efficiency numbers. The 80-lm / W legacy lights were replaced with those that achieve 110 lm / W.
The replacement low-voltage cree xsp series led street light were tailored to the requirements of the car parks, with varying lux levels as needed at floor level, on ramps, in underground areas, and in open-surface car parks, for example.
A twin body installation was created for each light, whether it held a single luminaire or a board of LEDs. The double-body housing held advantages for light spread, explained Brodin, and the volume required for the project meant that there was no price penalty for the design. The structure results in less glare from the new LED fixtures, while providing sufficient light for security and safety in the public spaces. The improved diffusion of light is better suited to car park users suffering from light sensitivity or epilepsy, noted Brodin . The fittings also had to be robust and as secure as possible to deter theft.

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