Energys delivers milestone Salix funded LED lighting upgrade to London’s Newham College – and projected £159K savings

Energys delivers milestone Salix funded LED lighting upgrade to London’s Newham College – and projected £159K savings

Iconic further education establishment Newham College, in situated in East London, has recently instigated a comprehensive lighting upgrade at both its East Ham and Stratford campuses. Not unusually, the college wished to move away decisively from traditional light fittings towards an LED-oriented infrastructure, with sensor-based controllers allowing energy consumption to be optimised with regard to occupancy and usage patterns.

With two primary campuses – East Ham and Stratford – Newham College also runs six local neighbourhood learning centres as well as the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. It has a strong record of academic excellence, and in 2018-19 registered an overall achievement rate of 90.9% – making it the best performing college in London.

The project was given the go-ahead when the college secured funding from the Salix Finance FE College Fund, which has in recent years helped realise numerous energy efficiency and carbon reduction projects in Further Education colleges. Making a total investment of £768,000 across the two sites, Newham College engaged Energys Group to supply and install a range of its latest LED light fittings, panels, sensors and controllers.

Dramatic reductions in energy costs

Installation and commissioning were completed earlier this year. As well as offering dramatic reductions in energy costs and carbon emissions, the new lighting has been praised by staff, pupils and visitors.

The revamped lighting infrastructure draws from many current products in the Energys range, including IntelliDim smart solutions. Using cutting edge sensors, IntelliDim products are designed to be used with a smartphone app that allows the commissioning of precise light levels to maximise energy saving, as well as setting parameters for occupancy time out and daylight harvest in a seamless dimming. It is common for IntelliDim to deliver a further 10 to 30% saving on top of that which is normally gained by upgrading from traditional lamps to LEDs.

Newham College has been equipped with significant numbers of both IntelliDim LED Panels and IntelliDim LED Linear Fittings. Meanwhile, a project that encompassed indoor and outdoor areas at both campuses made use of numerous other Energys products, including: LED Downlights, LED Decorative Suspended Lights, IP65 LED Hi-Bay Lights, Self-Test Emergency Tridonic LED lights, IP65 Outdoor LED Wall Lights, flood lights, security lights, LED SON replacement lamps, inground LED uplighters and spotlights.

Covid secure installation

The installation work was carried out to a schedule that ensured minimal impact on normal college activities, while there was full compliance with Covid-19 health and safety regulations.

The forecasts generated by Energys indicate that both campuses will enjoy significant benefits economically and environmentally in the coming years. At the East Ham campus, a spend of £478K has a likely Return on Investment (RoI) of 5 years. Projected per annum savings are £95K (energy costs), 77,497 kWh and 160.14 tonnes (CO2). Meanwhile, at the Stratford campus, a RoI of 4.5 years is expected on a spend of £290K, with projected per annum savings of £65K (energy), 389,184 kWh and 107.92 tonnes (CO2).

Advancing environmental goals

Miguel Tigsilema, Group Operations Estates and Facilities Manager at Newham College, comments: “We are delighted with the results of this collaboration with Energys, which is already making a significant difference to our expenditure on energy. It is also clear that the new lighting is going to advance our long-term environmental goals and the journey towards achieving net zero. The greatly improved quality of the lighting has also been much commented upon.”

Raj Gunasekaran, Account Director for Energys, adds: “It is always very rewarding to work on such a large-scale project where the impact of LED lighting is so transformative. The Newham College lighting revamp certainly fits into this category, and will make a major contribution to its long-term carbon reduction strategy. We are also pleased that the new lighting has had such a positive reaction from staff and students.”

The Energys Summer Horizon scan: selecting the top efficiency stories as the longest day nears

the-energys-summer-horizon-scan-selecting-the-top-efficiency-stories-as-the-longest-day-nears

Major commercial energy consultations days away

This month, we our attention is drawn to two significant consultations, designed to reduce energy consumption in and carbon emissions from commercial buildings in England and Wales. They close on 9 June 2021.

They cover a new performance-based policy framework in large commercial and industrial buildings; as well as more stringent minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) for non-domestic buildings in the private rented sector.

It is believed that regulation will follow to implement these proposals within the timescales envisaged in the consultations. Landlords of non-residential properties need to think about taking steps now, if they are to achieve the minimum Energy Performance Certificate bands targeted by the government.

The UK’s largest industrial and commercial buildings account for a third of total emissions from all buildings.  And so, the UK government believes such buildings pose a significant challenge to meeting the Net Zero carbon GHG emissions target by 2050. Many argue the evidence is that there is little correlation between the EPC for a building – which measures theoretical energy performance – and the building’s actual energy performance.

“A new rating system may well seek to address this and could really shake up the commercial and industrial buildings sector,” comments Kevin Cox, our Managing Director at Energys Group.

“Vast CO2 impacts stem from industrial and commercial buildings. At Energys, we are always interested in any ongoing consultation or legislative change that controls direction of sustainability travel in this space.”

Interested parties and companies can comment on the consultation here.

Shocking energy revelations

A special Guardian report finds the nations that make up the G7 have pumped billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than they have into clean energy since the Covid-19 pandemic, despite their promises of a green recovery.

New analysis reveals that G7 countries committed $189bn to support oil, coal and gas between January 2020 and March 2021. In comparison, the same countries – the UK, US, Canada, Italy, France, Germany and Japan – spent $147bn on clean forms of energy.

Only one in every 10 dollars committed to the Covid-19 response benefited the “cleanest” energies such as renewables and energy efficiency measures, says the Guardian.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, unprecedented amounts of public money were spent by nations; it is estimated that the 50 largest world economies committed at least $14.6tn for fiscal stimulus measures in 2020. It has been commonly stated that well-designed and targeted stimuli should be used as a springboard for launching low-carbon societies.

More report woes

Further concerning analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) claims the UK is committing just 6% of the amount of funding to the green recovery from Covid-19 pledged by the US, and just 13% of that promised by Italy, writes EDIE.

It appears that, more broadly, in the months since the pandemic began, analysts are beginning to get to work on the money spent, the green promises and where the cash is going.

TUC’s paper assesses how much “green” Covid-19 stimulus has been offered by each of the G7 governments, with energy efficiency classified as green.

On a total funding level, the UK comes bottom of the G7 countries, with £12.13bn pledged. The TUC has accounted for the £12bn Ten Point Plan and for a handful of other schemes, including the now-closed Green homes Grant and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. The top three nations in terms of total funding are the US (£971.75bn), Italy (£83.87bn) and Germany (£49.39bn).

A world without boilers?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that no new fossil fuel boilers should be sold from 2025 if the world is to achieve Net Zero emissions by the middle of this century.

Its special report, the third this month we’ve spotted, tackles the issue of how the world produces and consumes energy as our most critical endeavour.

A world without gas boilers would redefine UK homes, our public sector and indeed much of the energy efficiency work we do here at Energys.

And finally…

Don’t’ forget its World Environment Day on June 5th this month. A day to pause and reflect on our imprints and impacts. World Environment Day is a global platform for public outreach, with participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, the program has provided a theme and forum for businesses, NGOs, communities, governments and celebrities to advocate environmental causes. Here at Energys Group, we’d recommend you take a look at their website and see what it’s all about.