Focus on: Lighting
The Co-operative Group’s new 24-hour flagship in London belongs to a class of stores that, while still relatively small, is fast-growing: It is illuminated completely with LEDs.
The Co-operative’s energy-efficient LED products are expected to reduce the store’s energy consumption by 35% versus traditional lighting. The long life (up to 50,000 hours) of the solid-state lighting will mean less re-lamping and maintenance, generating additional cost savings. The reduced energy consumption is in keeping with the ambitious environmental agenda of The Co-operative, which is the U.K.’s fifth-largest food retailer, with more than 4,800 outlets. It has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions 35% by 2017, go carbon neutral by 2012 and generate the equivalent of 25% of its energy needs from renewables by 2017.
From the general lighting to the lamps in the refrigerated cases, all the LED light sources in The Co-operative’s London flagship were supplied by Philips Lighting. At the heart of the design is Philip’s PowerBalance direct/indirect LED luminaire, which directs light across the ceiling and downwards into the space. The LEDs provide 25% energy savings over the standard lamps (fluorescents) that would have traditionally been used for the required lighting levels in this type of environment.
To light the refrigerated multi-deck display cabinets, the store utilizes Affinium LED, which features a special optical design to ensure uniform light distribution down the cabinet. This helps eliminate the common problem in such cases where the lighting on the top shelf is too bright, creating dark patches lower down.
Philips’ Master LEDtube was used in the refrigerated champagne display cabinet, reducing energy consumption by 54%.
The combination of energy savings and reduced maintenance costs will provide the retailer with a return on investment of less than three years, with ongoing savings into the future.