Warehouse LED lighting upgrade

Project Payback

ROI: 3 years

High efficiency warehouse lighting delivers a 69% energy saving and enhanced lighting conditions for the St Vincent de Paul Society's Auburn Distribution Centre.

Savings

Energy: 69%

Electricity: 54,600 kWh pa

Project Overview

Given the sharp increase in electricity prices of over 20% experienced in NSW in the last two years, the site's Operations Manager was keen to explore measures to reduce energy consumption.

The existing warehouse lighting was the traditional 400W mercury vapour lights with 250W high pressure sodium lighting at the warehouse entry. The lights operated 10 hours per day (Monday to Friday).

Testimonial

Upgrading to LED lighting has been a successful first step in improving our warehouse & distribution centre's energy efficiency. The feedback from staff has been positive.

Joseph Fernandopulle Manager Retail Operations & Distribution

Gallery

The Solution

enLighten Australia provided a lighting design which supported the specification of its 3 module Tauro Blu 135 watt LED hibay light as a 1 for 1 replacement of the existing 400W mercury vapour lighting and a 2 module 90W Cetus replacement for the 250W high pressure sodium lighting.

The lighting levels of the LED lighting at an 8m hanging height exceeded the AS 1680:2.4 standard requirement of 160 lux maintained illuminance for warehouses. In both cases a 120 degree lens was selected, which provided a wide distribution of light to eliminate black spots and enhance lighting conditions, improving safety & worker comfort.

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Project Background

Having achieved impressive results with the site’s waste management performance, Joseph Fernandopulle, Manager Retail Operations & Distribution for the Society’s Sydney Archdiocese, was open to reduce lighting energy consumption at the Western Sydney site.

A workforce of 25 rotate between unloading & sorting the pallets (open cages) into textiles, electronics and books in the warehouse area, which is adjacent to offices housing management & support staff. The textiles are then further sorted according to gender, size and type in an enclosed sorting room.

Project Scope

The existing warehouse lighting was the traditional 400W mercury vapour lights, which are dome shaped in appearance with 250W high pressure sodium lighting at the warehouse entry. The lights operated 10 hours per day (Monday to Friday).

Natural daylight was also available via the open roller doors at the front and back exits. The lighting levels needed to be of sufficient brightness to run security cameras for the forklift operators.

Solution

enLighten Australia provided a lighting design which supported the specification of its 3 module 135W Tauro Blu LED hibay light as a 1 for 1 replacement of the existing 400W mercury vapour lighting and a 2 module 90W Cetus replacement for the 250W high pressure sodium lighting in the warehouse entry.

Results

The installation was completed in October 2014 and the energy savings results were instantaneous. St Vincent de Paul Society was keen to run this project as a test case for wider rollout potential to other Society sites. The feedback from staff has been positive.

A 69% reduction in energy consumption was achieved for the high bay lighting, representing an annual saving of 54,600 KwH pa based on lighting operation of 50 hours per week. These figures are supported by data logging of the warehouse lighting circuits taken on site pre & post installation.

The data logging results revealed that the former daily spike in electricity consumption caused by the turning on and “striking” of the 400 watt mercury vapour lights was eliminated as a feature of LED lighting is “instant strike”.