Leeds City Council is reducing energy costs on festive lighting by replacing conventional incandescent lamps with Megaman 4W coloured 'golf ball' compact fluorescent lamps. Thanks to the protective silicone sleeve shrouding the lamps, breakages have also been greatly reduced.Leeds Lights is the department of Leeds City Council responsible for festive lighting throughout the year in Leeds city centre and surrounding areas. At any one time, there are at least 40,000 lamps in use for a variety of religious and other festivals.
"We initially tried a batch of 5000 Megaman lamps last year and were very pleased with the results," said Helen Sibson of Leeds Lights. "The light output is brilliant and we are using around 70% less energy compared to incandescent lamps. We have now begun a roll-out replacement of more of our festive lamps, where the use of Energy Saving Lamps is appropriate" she added.
Megaman's coloured 'golf ball' lamps provide a direct retrofit for the existing lamps and are sheathed in a range of coloured silicone sleeves. This sleeve also provides extra protection against accidental and deliberate damage, as well as containing any glass fragments in the event of breakage. The lamps are IP55 rated for exterior use when used with a suitable IP rated lampholder. "We used to experience 30-40% breakage of lamps and this has now been reduced to less than 5% where we are using the Megaman lamps," Helen Sibson added.
Each lamp is expected to last around five years, so the council will also benefit from extended re-lamping cycles, thus reducing maintenance costs. Health and safety is also improved because of the protective silicone sleeve.
