Will you be attending the world’s largest facilities management event? UKLED will be exhibiting
UKLED's 2012 Stand
on stand 2H116 at the NEC Facilities Show, 14-16 May.
Do you want to cut the lighting costs of your factory or warehouse? Reduce your office’s carbon footprint? Improve the quality of lighting in your shop, restaurant or hotel? Visit us at the show where our expert lighting consultants will be waiting to help you find a solution to your lighting requirements.
Lighting consultant Alex Mackenzie has this to say about the show:
“This will be my third time at the show and each year it exceeds my expectations, not only in how we can solve our customers’ problems with our products but that the awareness of LED grows each year. Our clients are realising more and more that it’s not if but when with LED in their businesses.
Lighting Consultants Jan McSkimming and Alex Mackenzie (left and right) and Technician Richard Mason (centre).
“I look forward to meeting new customers and old alike. Come along and have a chat. See you there!”
UKLED’s stand will feature our complete range of products, from spot lights to retrofit tubes and panels, to flood lights and high bays.
Whether you’re interested in saving money or reducing your carbon footprint, want to discover the cost of your existing lighting system of improve the quality of light in your building – come and visit us on stand 2H116. We’ll be waiting to help you.
Don’t forget to register now to avoid the £30 on site
registration fee.
The government has imposed a minimum price for companies emitting carbon, despite concerns that the measure will drive up energy bills while having a negligible impact on global greenhouse gas emissions.
The new carbon floor price, which came into effect today, will see firms charged £16 per tonne of CO2 for fuels used for power generation this year.
The move is designed to provide a long-term price signal for low-carbon investors and will increase gradually every year to reach the Treasury’s goal of £30 per tonne by the end of the decade, and £70 per tonne in 2030.
But businesses and green groups have consistently warned that in setting a carbon floor price that is significantly higher than the rest of Europe, the Treasury will simply drive heavy energy users out of the UK, a problem dubbed “carbon leakage”.
According to figures published last week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), an average energy intensive business will pay £130,000 for the carbon floor price in 2013, rising to £1.1m in 2020.
The EU Emissions Trading System has been in meltdown over the past 12 months, caused by the economic crisis and a surplus of carbon allowances. Prices are currently languishing well below €5 per tonne, compared to a €37.78 high in 2008.
Reg Platt, senior research fellow at think tank IPPR, yesterday warned that without action in Europe to prop up the ailing carbon price the UK’s carbon floor price will fail to drive down emissions.
Research by IPPR has found that the floor price will push up the wholesale cost of electricity by 17 per cent in 2015/6 compared to today’s price, undermining the competitiveness of British industry.
The floor price could also provide £1.2bn in profits for the nuclear and wind energy companies over the next three years, as they will be exempt from the price floor, the report said.
Meanwhile, the carbon floor price is expected to raise £4.42bn for the government over the next three years but could push 30,000 to 60,000 households into fuel poverty during this year alone.
“Green industries offer huge potential for unleashing economic growth and creating jobs but there are far better ways to support them than through this tax,” said Platt.
“The key test now is whether the Treasury pursues an ambitious EU-wide strategy on climate policy.”
A spokeswoman for DECC said the floor price was expected to drive down energy bills in the long term.
“The carbon floor price is designed to drive £30-40bn of new investment in low-carbon technology, encouraging green growth and driving down electricity prices in the long term,” she said.
The government has also revealed plans for a £250m support package to help heavy industry cope with the impact of the government’s planned carbon floor price.
Read the original article at Business Green.
There is significant demand for low-energy lighting in the UK’s manufacturing sector, according to a survey commissioned by GE.
The survey of 405 high-tech manufacturers, carried out in November and December 2012, found that more energy efficient lighting was the energy-saving option most likely to have been considered, beating off other measures such as insulation, solar power, and combined heat and power.
Overall, about half of the businesses questioned said they had considered some kind of power-generation or efficiency measures to make their energy supply cheaper and more secure. Eighty-one per cent of those that had thought about such changes had considered lighting.
Energy use was a key concern – with 84 per cent of the manufacturers surveyed saying they were worried about rising energy costs. However, less than half voiced concern about carbon emissions.
On the whole, the survey found the sector ‘cautiously upbeat’, GE said. UK CEO Mark Elborne said: ‘The UK has a strong manufacturing heritage and there is good potential to build on this.’
Read the original article in this month’s edition of Lux Magazine.
The government is looking into ways to slash energy demand by encouraging homes and businesses to install low-energy lighting and controls.
A consultation on ways to reduce electricity demand, which was launched alongside the Energy Bill in November, will run until the end of January.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change believes that a quarter of the potential energy savings to be made in homes by 2030 could be achieved by eliminating incandescent lamps. More than a third of savings in the public sector could come from lighting and controls.
The government says the major barrier to adoption of new lighting technologies in the residential sector is a lack of awareness. In commercial buildings the main problems are lengthy payback periods on lighting upgrades and the fact that the person using a building and paying the bills is not always the one with the authority to make changes.
The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has welcomed the consultation and will be making a full response on how good quality lighting can help reduce electricity use.
Read the original article in this month’s edition of Lux Magazine.
As more and more organisations seek to improve their environmental performance, the installation of energy-efficient lighting can be a viable way to cut costs and boost a company’s green credentials.
So where do lighting upgrades appear on a business’s to-do list when they’re looking to go green or reduce their carbon emissions? Is it high on the agenda or does it get overlooked? Are companies even aware of the benefits? And is the initial investment just too daunting?
White heat of technology
Technological developments in the lighting industry in recent years have been ‘breathtaking’ says Geoff Smyth, head of technology and partnerships at the Carbon Trust. Thanks to the ‘innovation and ingenuity’ of lighting manufacturers, modern lighting systems can offer massive savings – but not everyone has caught on yet.
Smyth adds: ‘In our experience the speed of technological developments has been missed by some companies.’
In his view, there are a number of barriers to increased investment, including a general lack of awareness in businesses of ‘the cost of lighting and the opportunity that exists to upgrade to modern, more efficient lighting systems’, and a lack of confidence in the solutions being promoted or marketed to them.
‘We have seen many businesses reduce their lighting energy costs by more than half – however, for some businesses the old adage of “if it sounds too good to be true it is too good to be true” wins through and reinforces inertia,’ says Smyth.
Toby Marlow, sustainable development manager at John Lewis Partnership, says: ‘I think in the main, educated and well-informed companies are aware of the benefits. The supply chain can help in this by honestly describing these benefits and look to long-term relationships as opposed to short-term gain. With business difficult for many companies, it is difficult to balance capital and operational expenditure, however, with good communication I do feel that energy efficiency in lighting and other aspects is coming higher profile for businesses.’
…
Payback time
In the current climate of austerity, the need for organisations to be confident of a return on their investment is particularly pressing in the public sector. Moreover, in critical facilities such as hospitals, management must be assured that the inevitable disruption caused by a lighting refurbishment is minimised. Bill Dickson, environment manager at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, says the trust managed to install LED lighting in the ‘vast majority’ of corridors without any disruption to activities in the A&E department and operating theatres.
‘I think the payback is pretty quick compared with other energy-saving initiatives,’ says Dickson, ‘but you must buy good products – you know the old saying “you only get what you pay for”, and I believe that. LED lighting has made the hospital corridors and other areas a lot more welcoming.’
Read the rest of the article in this month’s edition of Lux Magazine.
Fast approaching, if largely unnoticed, is yet another massive shock the Government has in store for us with its weirdly distorted energy policy. It is surprising to see what an abnormally high proportion of the electricity needed to keep our lights on has lately been coming from coal-fired power stations. Last Wednesday evening, for instance, this was over 50 per cent, with only 1.3 per cent coming from wind power. Yet by next March, we learn, five of our largest coal-fired plants, capable of supplying a fifth of our average power needs, are to be shut down, much earlier than expected, under an EU anti-pollution directive.
One reason why these plants are being hammered through their remaining quota of hours allowed by the EU is that a new UK tax comes into force next April, which aims to make fossil-fuel power significantly more expensive. In 2012, George Osborbne announced his intention to impose, from April 2013, a “carbon floor price” of £16 on every tonne of CO2 emitted by British industry, rising to £30 a tonne by 2020 and £70 a tonne by 2030.
An explicit purpose of this tax is to make the cost of electricity from fossil fuels so uncompetitive compared with “renewables” that it will, in the Treasury’s words, “drive £30-£40 billion” of investment into “low carbon” sources such as wind and nuclear. On paper, the effect of Osborne’s new tax on our electricity bills looks devastating.
Using the latest figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), our power plants burnt 40 million tonnes of coal in 2011, emitting 116 million tonnes of CO2. They also generated 175,000 gigawatt hours from gas, at just over half a tonne of CO2 per gigawatt. At £16 a tonne, this CO2 would cost £3.5 billion – on top of our total current wholesale electricity cost of some £19 billion. Thus the new impost would represent nearly 20 per cent added to our electricity bills next year, and would almost double them by 2030.
Some of this, however, we already pay through the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), which counts towards our £16 floor price. Osborne’s calculation in 2010 was that, initially, we would have to chip in less than an additional £2 per tonne to make up the £16 price. (The ETC price at that time was predicted top continue rising towards £40.) Since then, however, with falling demand due to the EU’s recession, the price of EU carbon permits has fallen dramatically. To reach the initial £16 level, the Treasury says we will now have to pay nearly another £5, making our electricity significantly more expensive. But since it made that guess the EU price has slipped still further, to well under £6 – leaving a gap of £10 a tonne to be made up by Osborne’s tax, rapidly rising every year thereafter.
Thus, to meet that tax level in the years after 2013, we in Britain will have to pay electricity bills soaring to a level far higher than any others in Europe. All this is to promote the building of thousands more heavily subsidised windmills, which will in turn require us to build more gas-fired power stations to provide back-up for the constant fluctuations in wind speed. And these will be paying Mr Osborne’s fast-rising tax on all the CO2 they emit, with the bill to be picked up by the rest of us on a scale which, within 18 years, could alone almost double the cost of our electricity.
In short, the Treasury has made an incredibly damaging miscalculation. Even if there is little chance that our Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey, could get his head round such lunacy, perhaps someone might lay out for Mr Osborne the bill that his delusional new tax is going to land us all with.
Read the original article on The Telegraph
China has today launched the world’s first exchange for rare-earth metals, at the same time as revealing plans to cut supplies of rare earth minerals by 20 per cent.
The government said the restrictions, which follow a series of moves to curb the supply of rare earths and metals, are necessary to raise environmental standards across the mining sector and protect limited resources.
However, the news is likely to raise fresh concerns in the US and Europe that China is restricting exports of metals that are crucial to a wide range of electronic and clean technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels and hybrid cars.
US officials last month said they were “deeply troubled” by China’s attempts to restrict exports of rare earths.
Read the rest of the article at Business Green.
As the LED lighting revolution continues to gather pace, particularly within the commercial sector, contractors are looking at products available, keen to specify lighting solutions that demonstrate quality, durability and continuity of components with a watertight guarantee. Whilst the UK market remains dependent on the Far East for the majority of its LED lighting supplies, concerns remain that these products don’t fully meet the criteria demanded by our UK industry.
Colin Griffiths, technical director of UKLED
With limited regulations governing the way manufacturers procure raw materials in the Far East and little consistency with their quality processes, many UK installers and contractors are reluctant to specify LED to their own commercial customers. UK company UKLED says it is the first of its kind in the UK to manufacture, produce and distribute from within its own shores. Colin Griffiths, technical director of UKLED, explains why they have taken this approach.
He began, “We launched the business some 18 months ago with the aim of capitalising on what is definitely a booming and rapidly growing market. We carried out extensive research in the Far East and appointed a small team to begin manufacturing through our own operation in China. The immediate challenges we faced were based on consistency of products and quality as well as turnaround times and delivery.
UKLED's Mike Parker, MD (left) and Tony Griffiths, director
“By piloting various approaches, we soon recognised that the only way to realise the product that we wanted to create, we had to bring the manufacturing arm of our business back to the UK. At the end of last year, we achieved this and today we manufacture the LED tube at our own manufacturing plant in Wirral. Whilst other products are still manufactured in our manufacturing facility in China, they each undergo a rigorous testing process and the finished product is assembled here in the UK.
“This isn’t a patriotic move for us but it is one that has allowed us to guarantee a certain level of quality that meets our customer’s expectations. End-users are constantly looking at ways to reduce energy consumption and if the right product is used and has the capacity to ‘live’ as long as it claims, will produce incredible savings. LEDs are amazingly efficient and use only a fraction of the energy needed to light a single incandescent lamp. In fact, LEDs use a quarter of the energy of standard bulbs and last ten times longer than their CFL replacements. A typical LED bulb or tube can last up to 50,000 hours, or 20 years (dependant on average use), without needing to be replaced.”
One kilowatt-hour of electricity will cause 1.34 pounds (610g) of CO2 emission. A GU10 halogen downlighter rated at 50W left on for an average of eight hours a day will, over a year, cause 195 pounds (89kg) of CO2. The 3-Watt LED equivalent will only cause 11 pounds (5kg) of CO2 over the same time span, a reduction of around 94%. A building’s carbon footprint from lighting can be reduced, typically, by between 64% and 95% by exchanging all lamps and tubes for new LED lamps and tubes. Based on projects completed to date, energy cost savings alone fall between 64% and 90% of current lighting energy spend, giving a project return on investment of between 18 to 30 months (at typical current energy costs).
UKLED recently supplied products to leading electrical contractor, Ormiston Electrical Services Ltd, who are involved with the ongoing maintenance of the external lighting at Maritime Business Park in Liverpool for client Ashtenne Industrial Fund Limited Partnership, where by specifying UKLED products they have reduced their client’s future maintenance and energy costs.
Under the scheme’s first phase of works, 26 of the 150W SON lamps have been replaced with UKLED’s 30W DIP LED lamps resulting in the following projected savings:
More energy savings have been made at the business park by the installation of a further eight LED lamps leaving just 22 left to convert in the next phase of works. Meaning there is site potential to save in excess of 15K over the next five years in energy while positive reports back from the night security on the site say there are improved CCTV images to that of the old ‘orange’ light of the existing fittings.
Nick Ormiston, of Ormiston Electrical Services Ltd said, “As a contractor, we are keen to help our customers make savings from an energy reduction point and LED lighting is an obvious way to achieve this.
“We strive to deliver the best possible service, workmanship and advice so when specifying an energy saving scheme it is important that the quality and longevity of the product is high. There have been well publicised and on-going issues with the LED lighting historically and the right quality specification and choice of product is critical for us.
“It’s good to see a manufacturer now operating from the UK, who recognises clearly the criteria we must adhere to and the expectations from the market. UKLED’s products are of a high quality and are consistent in their makeup and we look forward to specifying them again in the future.”
This article appeared in the Electrical Times
Have you missed our July newsletter? You can view it by clicking the link below:
UKLED July Newsletter – Saving Energy with LED Lighting
Insurance giant RSA has today announced that it has teamed up with the Carbon Trust to offer its business customers free advice and information on how to improve energy efficiency and curb environmental impacts.
The companies said that RSA’s Engineering Inspection and Consultancy division will work with Carbon Trust Implementation Services to “actively promote the benefits of installing new energy efficient equipment”.
A spokeswoman for RSA confirmed that the initial consultancy and information service would be provided free of charge to corporate customers.
Read the full article at BusinessGreen.com
