The team at Future Group tells us about a recent major works project to illuminate the famous roof-mounted turbines at the Strata Tower in South East London.
Our client requested the services of our lighting division to assist with the design, build and installation of a new, energy efficient lighting solution to illuminate the famous roof-mounted turbines at the Strata Tower in south east London.
Following our initial survey and inspection we found the current system was outdated and inefficient. It had been causing our client ongoing problems and excessive costs trying to keep the failing lighting system operating.
The existing installation was utilising 18 250w custom metal halide floodlight cannon luminaires, up-lighting the huge turbines from below and housing bespoke colour-changing-lenses. We had never come across such fittings used in this way before.
Both fittings and design were an incredible piece of engineering for their time; but the design did not allow for optimum performance. The extremely restricted lenses were omitting only a tiny percentage of the lamp output, creating vast amounts of wasted energy. The overused fittings were starting to deteriorate and the client was spending thousands of pounds each year trying to effectively illuminate the turbines.
Following our survey and delivery of a design brief, we installed a custom-built two channel 120W LED luminaire as a trial for the client and the building managers to compare, test and inspect.
After a successful trial we were instructed to install and commission the bespoke system to illuminate the roof turbines using just nine of our custom LED washer floodlights.
The system was installed over a three-day period by utilising the existing wiring loom and with custom-made brackets, enabling us to re-use the existing fixing points.
The lighting is now controlled via a Bluetooth network using the Casambi lighting control gateway, utilising associated daylight harvesting sensors and controls. The system includes the option to mix white and red-light outputs, allowing the turbines to fade from deep red, through pink to brilliant white.
The building now benefits from an annual energy saving of more than 75% (3.5kWs) or £2500 pa, plus the satisfaction of zero maintenance for the building owners and occupiers. More important the London landmark, boasting its impressive roof turbines, is now lit up in all its glory for Londoners and visitors to the capital to enjoy.
This project has been a superb example of collaboration between lighting and building specialists working as one to deliver the right result for the client.
