Kingspan Insulated Panels, the global leader in the design, development and delivery of advanced building envelopes, has launched its ZerO Energy Lighting solution, helping businesses to eliminate their lighting electricity bills.
Kingspan ZerO Energy Lighting combines the latest in polycarbonate rooflight products, LED lighting with smart dimming controls and photovoltaic (PV) technology to create a bespoke package offering optimal lighting all year round. It is the most cost-effective lighting solution available to businesses, taking into account capital and lifetime costs, while also improving the wellbeing, safety and productivity of building occupants.
“This solution is yet another example of Kingspan fulfilling its promise to bring cost optimal net-zero energy solutions to businesses,” said Liam McDaniel, Business Unit Director – Fabrications, Safety & Lighting Solutions, Kingspan Insulated Panels.
To coincide with the launch, Kingspan has released a report quantifying the potential electricity cost savings to businesses in the UK. Adopting improved lighting systems alone results in a potential annual electricity cost saving for businesses of £3.7bn. The average business lighting electricity cost would fall from £25,583 to just £3,837. The report examines the impact of improved lighting and controls only; it does not include the additional potential cost savings and benefits of the rooftop solar PV element of the package.
The ZerO Energy Lighting system blends several of Kingspan Insulated Panels’ proprietary technologies to achieve maximum efficiency:
- Kingspan Day-Lite polycarbonate rooflights allow natural sunlight into the building – up to twice as much as traditional rooflights;
- This natural light is then topped up by new Kingspan Smart-Lite LED luminaires, which replicate the colour temperature and vibrancy of the midday sun. Kingspan Smart-Lite luminaires achieve optimum internal lighting with far fewer units than traditional High Intensity Discharge (HID) fittings, and last far longer, reducing the costs of maintenance and expensive re-lamping;
- Smart dimming controls can be installed with the new LED lights, which allow for precise zoning. This typically reduces lighting energy consumption by 85 – 90%;
- The final part of the ZerO Energy Lighting solution involves the installation of Kingspan Energy Rooftop Solar PV. This system generates more than enough electricity to cover the residual lighting energy demand, with the surplus produced used to reduce other electricity costs for the building, or sold back to the National Grid.
“For every project we undertake, we aim to deliver an ROI of under three years based entirely on capital cost versus energy and maintenance cost,” explained Jonathan Dore, Commercial Director, Fabrications, Safety and Lighting Solutions, Kingspan Limited. “We have achieved this figure for every project we have worked on to date, and these numbers don’t even take into account the additional benefits of improved productivity, retail sales etc associated with better ambient lighting.
“We can also help future-proof building owners against upcoming changes to legislation. From 2018 it will be mandatory for all buildings with an F or G EPC rating to be upgraded to a minimum of E. The ZerO Energy Lighting solution alone will improve a typical G grade building to a D grade, with the same ROI of under three years. Using other Kingspan products, it’s easy to improve the rating further all the way up to an A grade, reducing energy bills, gaining BREEAM credits and increasing asset value.”
Recognising that some sectors stand to gain even more than others from the Kingspan ZerO Energy Lighting solution, the report finds that lighting makes up 43% of total electricity consumption in the Warehouse sector; compared with 22.6% for businesses as a whole. The Warehouse sector could save £430m in annual electricity lighting bills, while the Retail sector could save £1.21bn.
