Why LED Lights Could Bring Back The ‘On-All-Night’ Mentality For Car Park Owners

Ever since the introduction of the mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme in 2010, over five thousand companies throughout the UK have had to seriously consider their approach towards energy consumption. The scheme’s aim is to lower C02 emissions by a whopping 80% by the year 2050 and its terms call upon so-called ‘high energy-intensive’ companies to manage their energy usage more responsibly.

LED Car Park Lighting - www.gemmalighting.com

It’s clearly a great initiative that’s transformed the carbon footprint of many businesses up and down the country, but how has its policies affected the habits of those who admitted to a safe yet costly ‘on-all-night’ approach to car park lighting?

For many years, businesses actively encouraged their staff to leave their car park lights on overnight, certain that doing so would deter criminals from entering the site out of hours and provide their customers with a heightened sense of security. As a result, car park owners are now renowned as some of the biggest offenders when it comes to ‘wasting’ energy, with many preferring to stick to their old ways regardless of their new legal obligations simply because it ‘makes sense’.

Despite the prevalence of this out-dated mentality, the more environmentally responsible car park owners currently operating in the UK have had to explore other ways of safeguarding their property in order to avoid substantial fines. From installing night-vision CCTV cameras to employing dedicated security staff during the early hours of the morning, companies have tried everything in their power to set the minds of their customers at ease and have been living under the assumption that leaving lights on after dark is simply too expensive and risky as they continue to operate under the watchful eye of the CRC programme.



"Reduce energy consumption by upto 90%
www.gemmalighting.com
 

However, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. Using LED lighting allows businesses to lower their emissions in line with CRC requirements, yet leave their commercial car park lights on well into the evening.

LED Car park lighting can reduce energy consumption by upto 90% and in addition to their eco-friendliness, a well manufactured LED fixture can last up to ten times longer than traditional fixtures.

The LED lighting industry is continuing to launch new innovations that can transform highly populated commercial areas, such as car parks, into safe havens for staff and customers alike, and best of all, these new products are becoming more affordable year on year as manufacturers benefit from economies of scale.  

In light of all this information there’s simply no reason why car park operators shouldn’t consider investing in LED car park lighting. Who knows, perhaps city streets and car park lots will again be illuminated 24/7 thanks to the vast improvements being made to this technology. Mark our words - LED car park lighting will be considered the ‘norm’ in no time at all and will pave the way for a more lucrative business model for car park operators that’s not set back by the rising costs of energy.

Gemma Lighting record astonishing growth of 132%

Portsmouth News - Sep 2011 

As manufacturing declines in the UK, it’s comforting to hear a success story and from a manufacturing Company on our doorstep. Gemma Lighting have bucked the trend of a UK wide 2% drop in manufacturing to record an astonishing growth of 132%. Manufacturers of LED lighting for offices, factories, warehouses and street lighting, Gemma are pushing ahead with exports leading the way.

  

UK Made - LED Lighting

 
“We are keen to grow domestically” says Managing Director, Craig Manuel, “but I do get frustrated when I go to Abu Dhabi and see our street lights widely used, but we only have one street in Portsmouth”.

Local MP Penny Mordaunt who is championing environmental issues and local
manufacturing recently visited Gemma Lighting to understand the savings to be gained by local Government. “Our sums suggest that in Portsmouth alone, we can help the council save over £4 million per year on electricity, and that is with highly conservative estimate” said Sales Director, Mark Major.

The team at Gemma believe the future is good for further sales expansion, and expect to grow sales significantly creating local employment opportunities.

Gemma have pride in being able to design products specifically for the application, as well as volume standard designs.

NEW: Green Lease - LED Lighting

Gemma Lighting’s ‘Green Lease’ for LED Lighting

With lighting accounting for up to 80% of a facility's energy consumption, the switch to LED lighting can result in energy savings of 60-90%... Not to mention the resulting 70-90% savings in maintenance costs during the life of the lights!

LED Lighting 'Green Lease'

However, we understand that quality LED lighting is more expensive than traditional fluorescent and metal halide options, forcing many companies to delay the change to LED until they have the ability to pay for it.

Until now…

Gemma Lighting is proud to announce the launch of their ‘Green Lease’ for LED lighting.

A ‘Green Lease’ from Gemma Lighting allows your business to switch to our ultra efficient LED lighting without utilising the capital expenditure budget or tying up valuable cash flow.

Gemma Lighting can offer a truly independent, tailored solution which is based on the merits of each individual client that we work with. Utilising our network of lenders we will find the best solution to meet your needs whilst highlighting the significant tax benefits that come with leasing.

We can supply our LED lighting to you and the repayments are made from the energy saving and maintenance reductions generated. In fact we can even structure the ‘Green Lease’ so that the monthly payments are LESS than the energy and maintenance savings. YES, we can put money back into your business every month!



LED Ceiling Tile





Furthermore Gemma Lighting is the UK manufacturer. We are confident in the high quality of our products and will offer a factory warranty for the length of the lease*

With viable commercial leasing now readily available, now is the time to go green!

For further information on our ‘Green Lease’ please contact our sales department on 0844 8565 201.

*Subject to a maximum of 4 years.

Greenpower Gathering of Goblins - Goodwood



Above: Team Captain Shannon (Year 6)



As part of Gemma Lighting's commitment to inspire young people to become engineers, the Portsmouth based manufacturer sponsored Wickham Primary School (WPS) as they took to the racing track at Goodwood for the 2011 Greenpower Gathering of Goblins.

The year 6 students from Wickham Primary spent the previous three months designing and building their energy efficient go kart ready for race day.



Despite the horrible weather conditions, spirits were high and the students got stuck into’ a great day’s racing.

Above: Helper Bradley (Year 1)

All the children had the opportunity to compete in at least one race from a range of events including a slalom course and a complete lap of the Goodwood motor circuit. It was a fun-filled but long day and the enthusiasm and sportsmanship displayed from all of the children was incredible.

The team built on their earlier successes at Portsmouth’s Mountbatten Sports Centre, to end the racing year with awards for Best body work, Greenest Body work and overall Winner.

Team Captain Shannon Manuel said ‘Thank you to everybody at Gemma Lighting who made this possible, we all had a great time and can’t wait for next year’

"Claim 100% first-year capital allowance on your LED Lighting"

How does the ECA scheme work?


 

The Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme enables businesses to claim 100% first-year capital allowance on investments in LED Lighting, against the taxable profits of the period of investment.



 LED Lighting ECA Scheme



All businesses that incur qualifying spending can claim ECAs. ECAs bring forward the time that capital allowances are available for spending on LED Lighting thereby providing a cash flow advantage.





A higher standard of energy-saving:

Capital allowances enable businesses to write off the capital cost of purchasing LED Lighting against their taxable profits. They take the place of depreciation charged in commercial accounts.

The general rate of capital allowances is 20% a year on a reducing balance basis. For example, if a business spent £1,000 on LED Lighting, it could claim capital allowances of £200 (20% of £1,000) against the taxable profits of the period of investment. Assuming the company pays corporation tax at 28%, the effect of the capital allowance for spending on LED Lighting in the period of investment would be to reduce the business’s tax bill by £56 (£200 @ 28%).

The unrelieved balance of £800 (£1,000 less £200) is carried forward for relief against profits of later years. In this way the spending is written off over a number of years.

If, however, the business invested the same amount in LED Lighting it could claim an 100% first-year capital allowance of £1,000 against the taxable profits of the year of investment. Again assuming the company pays corporation tax at 28% the effect of the first-year allowance would be to reduce the business’s tax bill by £280 (£1,000 @ 28%). Thus, the first-year allowance can confer a cash flow advantage.

The 100% first-year capital allowance relieves all the qualifying spending. Therefore there is no unrelieved spending to carry forward against profits of later years.

Please contact Gemma Lighting LTD on 0844 8565 201 to discuss which products meet the current ECA criteria.

LED luminaires market to double in 4 years news on the Electrical news magazine

(http://www.electricalportal.co.uk/electrical_article11545.html)


An Interesting article found on Electrical News Magaize which discusses how the LED market will expand rapidly in the next 4 years:

Strategies Unlimited's LED Luminaires, Market Analysis & Forecast includes nine LED lighting application segments and analysis for the period from 2008 to 2014. According to this forecast, the global market for LED luminaires is expected to grow from $3.8 Billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion by 2014.

UK Made LED Lighting

Rapid improvements in performance and price of commercially available high brightness LED packages, heightened awareness about energy efficiency, phasing out of incandescent bulbs, and fiscal stimulus undertaken by countries around the world, created conditions for adoption of white light application of LED technology, which otherwise would have faced the low-volume-high-cost conundrum.

Quality issues that affected the market penetration of previous energy efficient lighting technologies continue to affect this market but the resolve to reduce energy consumption is likely to propel this technology to be widely commercialized and adopted by the market.

Being the most efficient light source technology for applications requiring a directional beam of light and batteries, consumer portable applications were the largest segment of the LED luminaire market in 2010. The quality of LEDs has improved to a point that performance is no longer an issue. The issue now is the price of designing LEDs into luminaires.

Color and color-changing application in architectural and entertainment applications together had revenues more than $1 billion in 2010. Residential lighting — the fastest growing segment of the market — starting from a small base, is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 44% through 2014. Global revenues for LED luminaires in commercial/industrial applications are expected to be more than $1 billion in 2011. The outdoor area lighting applications, which benefitted from fiscal stimulus and the need for energy conservation, are expected to grow at a CAGR of 38% through 2014.

More.......

LED colour quality, CRI and binning

An interesting article explaining exactly what CRI and Color Temperature is. It also explains why you get less lumens per watt from warm white LED chip’s.

It's a little bit technical but contains some good knowledge for those new to LED Lighting design.


What is White Light?

http://littlegreenblog.com/green-technology/energy-saving/led-colour-quality-cri-and-binning/