LED lighting upgrade in car park

Expected to save $26,000 pa

enLighten and the City of Sydney have replaced 850 fluorescent lights with light emitting diodes (LEDs) at the Goulburn Street car park in Central Sydney. The LED lighting upgrade is forecast to: reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 220 tonnes per year; save 206 mWh of electricity per year - the equivalent energy used by 28 typical Sydney households annually; and save the City of Sydney approximately $26,000 in energy costs per year.

enLighten’s founder and CEO, David Whitfield, said: “The cost of lighting in Australia equates to more than 20 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions generated annually, with large commercial buildings being the major culprit. Replacing all 50 million fluorescent tube lights in Australia would reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 2.5 million cars from Australian roads.”

In addition, enLighten’s LED lighting can last up to 50,000 hours, compared to 12,000 hours for fluorescent lamps, therefore resulting in reduced maintenance costs of approximately $8,000 per year in the case of the Goulburn Street car park.

A trial of the LED lighting was conducted by enLighten in the Goulburn Street car park in February 2010. The trials proved light levels that exceeded the Australian Standard for car park lighting and resulted in a 62% reduction in electricity. During the trial, savings increased a further 6% with the introduction of enLighten’s daylight switching feature, whereby the LED lights around the perimeter of the car park switch off after sensing sufficient natural lighting.

enLighten anticipates that the energy savings for the Goulburn Street car park will further increase after installing 56 of enLighten’s low-energy lights in the fire stairs. According to enlighten, the new lights provided an energy saving of more than 85% over traditional fluorescent lights during pilot trials.

The company has also been contracted by the City of Sydney to upgrade the lighting in the gymnasium at the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre and at the Andrew Boy Charlton pool in the Domain. Both projects began in January.