| AHI Roofing’s premises in Felton Mathew Avenue, St Johns, Auckland is a typical, large, older style factory that has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years in terms of its lighting and energy usage. The power saving figures are impressive to say the least. “We carried out a lighting upgrade a few years ago to improve lighting levels in a number of areas around the factory,” explains Martin Bliss, Roof Tile Group project engineer for parent company Fletcher Building. “I decided to try some of the PowerSave highbay fittings in our production areas to see how they would perform. Since then we have undertaken a review of lighting across the site and calculated the potential power savings from changing all 400 watt highbay and lowbay fittings to PowerSave units. “The theoretical payback period for power savings has been around two years including the installation costs. If all our lights were running 24/7 the payback period would be even less on average”. “As a result of this outcome, we have now changed our factory, warehouse and yard floodlighting to PowerSave fittings,” he says. Bliss says more than 230 units have been installed across the site, with around $35,000 in annual savings. All PowerSave lights are rapid start too. “Obviously this makes it easy to switch areas on and off without having to wait ten minutes for normal light levels to return. “We have also installed additional lights into areas of the factory that were quite gloomy during the night shift, and still achieved power savings as well.” As for PowerSave Light Company’s performance, Bliss says they received good advice. “Initially I was a little sceptical about whether the highbay and lowbay units would put out equivalent light levels to the metal halide bulbs. Grant Simpson from PowerSave came to our site and explained that the same spacing could be used. Some of our lights were previously installed too high from the floor, so he advised us to lower those fittings and benefit from the increased light at floor level. “The more recent installations in the export warehouse have included upgraded highbay reflectors, which have proven to be very effective in increasing the light output over the original models. Installation has been carried out by our normal contract electricians, and it is a relatively simple process. Where any product may have failed prematurely there have been no issues getting replacements under warranty,” says Bliss, adding that service generally has been excellent. Keith Moyle, director of Auckland Electrical Ltd, confirms the ease of installation. “Changing over the fittings, even on the lowbays, was really straightforward. It’s a quick process and the savings are immediate – plus the reliability factor is right up there.” |
Moyle can’t understand why more commercial sites aren’t upgrading. “You’d be foolish not to do it!” |
