Vechta, Germany
As a result of a pioneering decision to upgrade all of Vechta’s 4,000 obsolete mercury vapour street lights to CosmoPolis lamps in Koffer² luminaires, energy consumption has been halved, saving around 2,000 Euros per kilometre per year. In opting for these pioneering new lighting solutions, Vechta is leading the way in Germany in efficient and environment-friendly public lighting.
The decision to upgrade was taken because most of Vechta’s lighting was very old, so was due for replacement anyway. The town had noticed that road lighting costs were rising at a rate above inflation, though lighting standards were actually falling. SON’s yellow light is unpopular in Vechta, but Günther Nacke, the local government officer responsible for road lighting, learned that CosmoPolis could produce good white light at costs per kilometre comparable with SON. CosmoPolis was tested on a section of road in Philips’ new Koffer² luminaires.
Nacke said: ‘We were delighted at the positive results of these tests. We were particularly impressed by the distribution of the light, which illuminates precisely those areas that it should: the road, the bicycle lane and the pavement, but not the front gardens and fronts of the houses. The choice of optics permits appropriate individual solutions to be created for various applications.’
Manfred Seidlitz, head of the Vechta’s local authority building department, said: ‘The falling standards of the old mercury vapour lighting would ultimately have raised a safety issue, so we had to do something. (enlever: Philips provided us with convincing calculations to prove just how much the new lighting would save us.) Philips provided us with convincing calculations showing that with the new lighting we would save 248,400 kWh of electricity for every kilometer of road over a period of 30 years. That corresponds to the emission of 104.5 tonnes of CO2. There is a lot of talk nowadays about global warming. Combating this is a challenge to all of us. By upgrading our road lighting we as a town are making our own modest contribution.’
Philips Koffer² has been developed around CosmoPolis lamp technology to provide a total lighting solution that offers powerful white light and superior optical performance in compact designs. The luminaire is easily recycled, complies with RoHS and is ready for WEEE. Like CosmoPolis itself, Koffer² has been designated as a Philips ‘Green Flagship’ because of its environmental performance.
The calculation is based on a luminaire lifetime of 30 years. The old installation in this example is 15 years old and will have to be renovated in 15 years at the latest. The Koffer² luminaire starts to play for itself in the calculation shown after 8.5 years, 6.5 years ahead of the planned renovation. The longer renovation is put off, the greater the reduction in potential savings due to the higher operating costs of the old installation.
Fact:
The longer the investment is put off, the higher the cost of the installation over the 30-years operating period.