Royal Philips Electronics, working with contractors Castle Building Services, has installed a 100% LED office lighting solution at Randstad’s new offices in Cramlington, Northumberland.

This installation is one of the first of its kind in the UK demonstrating how LED solutions are now a viable general lighting option for commercial applications. By adopting this forward thinking approach Randstad can now enjoy the benefits of excellent light quality, dimmability and low cost of ownership as well as impacting on the need to reduce CO2 emissions.

Family-run firm Randstad is a leading supplier of automotive parts, consumables and disposables to the automotive, health and beauty sectors. Its brand new facilities have been built on the former site of the original premises which unfortunately had been destroyed by fire in 2008. Some twelve months on, the concept for the new building has now been realized.

As Managing Director Martin Dowd explains,” Whilst last year’s fire was devastating for us at the time, on a positive note, this gave us the opportunity to really consider the design detail and investment for our new building. It really was a blank canvas. For us, it made sense to invest in LEDs lighting for a number of reasons not least of which is that LEDs are a clear way of contributing to reducing CO2 emissions. This, therefore, complements our personal and corporate commitment to the environment. As a commercial enterprise LEDs lighting will also help reduce future overheads both in terms of electricity consumption and maintenance costs but without compromise to the light quality.”

Indeed, dramatic improvements in LED performance in recent years, has made it feasible to design LED systems with comparable lumen output thereby competing with other established lighting technologies. At Randstad, the functional office lighting has been realized by using a combination of Philips Luxspace and EssentiaLED luminaires within the general office, corridors, toilets and canteen facilities. The LUXEON Rebel LEDs in each of these solutions deliver superior efficacy and reliability. As with all LED based fittings supplied by Philips Lighting in the UK, both Luxspace and EssentiaLED have a 3 year warranty underpinning the company’s commitment to quality, performance and reliability1.

In terms of energy reduction the savings speak for themselves.The Luxspace downlight consumes only 19W with a system efficacy reaching 60lm/W and delivers a light output equivalent to 2 x 18 W compact fluorescent lamps. It offers an energy saving of 50%. The EssentiaLED GU10 downlights were used primarily in areas where traditionally halogen fittings might have been installed. Here, the LED luminaires incorporate a 7 W dimmable MASTER LED lamp replacing 20 W and 30 W halogen dichroics thus providing up to 80% energy saving. In total the overall energy usage in comparison with conventional solutions has been halved and equates to saving almost 6000kg of CO2 per annum.

This reduction in energy consumption is significant given that 40% of the electricity typically used in offices is for lighting2. Moreover, Randstad will maximize the economic and environmental benefits of LEDs since it has also installed easy to use control systems. The Occuplus and Occuswitch systems are an integral part of the scheme offering daylight linking and presence detection respectively.

Certainly, Ranstad has broken new ground in the early adoption of this revolutionary technology but as improvements in performance continue apace we will no doubt witness the acceleration of LED solutions as the preferred choice in general lighting applications3. As Martin Dowd sums up, “We are very pleased with the LED solution and our decision to move to this technology demonstrates our commitment to Philips as a brand, building on the excellent relationship we have with the Philips Automotive Lighting Division.”