Decarbonising in a non-fluorescent lamp world

The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) investigates the best way to replace old lights.

To say that life for government and local authorities is challenging right now is something of an understatement – in terms of their building portfolio they need to decarbonise, address significant energy price inflation, ensure purchase decisions on new energy-saving technologies actually deliver the claimed savings and all at the time of tight finances and often a skills shortage.

As with any challenge, governments and local authorities need frameworks to make decarbonisation and energy saving plans; some are standards based, some are not-for-profit schemes, others are profit making – they need varying levels of officer and management time to administer.

All the frameworks have several things in common: target setting, strategies and plans to achieve those targets and methods to plot progress against those targets.

Buildings account for 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and with 85-90 per cent of our current building stock very likely to be still in use by 2050, the problem becomes one not of new build, but of reengineering and reequipping the existing property portfolio for a net zero future. 

Net zero

Back in 2007, the global consultancy firm McKinsey teamed up with the Swedish energy giant Vattenfall to analyse pathways to net zero, essentially comparing which carbon saving technologies gave you the best ‘bang for your buck’. Updated in 2010, the data clearly showed that the move to LED was very much the low hanging fruit of decarbonisation.

Up until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy cost crisis, the payback on replacing fluorescent luminaires with LED was typically three years, with the return on investment (ROI) sometimes being made even easier through interest free loan schemes. Post the energy cost crisis, those ROIs have become even shorter.

But some are still sitting on the fence, millions of fluorescent lamps are still installed across the country. The problem is that soon you will not be able to buy any more replacement lamps – the time has come for us all to move on from fluorescent. Under the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations from the Department of the Environment and Rual Affairs (DEFRA), it became illegal to place compact fluorescent, linear fluorescent and most high pressure sodium deluxe lamps on the UK market.

The reason is that these lamps contain mercury and they become toxic waste on disposal. These lamps may still be available from your usual suppliers, but it is a case of buy now whilst stocks last – though it is definitely better to move on to LED alternatives.

To bend the Life of Brian ‘what did the Romans do for us’ sketch, why should I move to LED? Well, apart from the energy cost savings, the decarbonisation through energy efficiency, the ease of using lighting controls that save considerably more energy, the maintenance savings due to long service lives, the reduced heat load into over-heating buildings, the potential for human-centric lighting delivering wellbeing and the fact that you cannot buy the old technology soon – not much.

Benefits of switching

There are three solutions to a non-fluorescent world, LED lamps, new LED luminaires and new LED luminaires with all the benefit of digital control. 

LED lamps allow you to retain your old luminaire (light fitting), reduce your energy consumption compared with fluorescent and are a fast and easy way to upgrade an existing luminaire. The downsides are that you need to check that the installation does not require the luminaire’s wiring to be modified (if so, it will invalidate its existing CE/UKCA compliance) and typically the distribution of the light from the LED lamp and the converted luminaire is very different which can cause issues of glare. In conclusion, they have their place, but trial and check that the converted fitting performs as intended and seek a reputable supplier.

The better alternative is to move to a new, or with an eye on circular economy, professional reengineered LED luminaire. Dedicated LED luminaires bring benefits that their optics, electronics and thermal engineering are all purpose designed, the result is that you get the best energy efficiency, life and lit effect outcomes.

The best alternative is to go to full digitally controlled LED with either wired, wireless or Internet of Things (IoT) controls. Even the best LED luminaire is a waste of energy if nobody is occupying the space or there is sufficient daylight – lighting controls save the most energy and deliver you furthest down your road to net zero.

Controls can be simply effective, for example those that can be built into street lights to enable part night dimming (late at night the reduced numbers of cars on a given section of road reduce the risk of accident so lighting levels can be safely reduced, without the risk of turning fully off). Controls can also be enablers of things we simply could not do before.

Research is now showing the connection between light and health and light and sleep, simply put the reason why your smartphone screen turns warm after 9pm is based on this research and it applies to buildings as well. Residents of a care home can especially benefit from this technology, with little access to natural light they become daylight deprived, causing body clocks to drift and increasing the likelihood of disturbed sleep at night.

Circadian Lighting LED systems can deliver blue rich light in the mornings when they need it and warm light in the evenings, to hasten healthy sleep.

One proviso we would make is competence. Dame Judith Hackett in her report on the Grenfell Tower disaster used the word competence 157 times, also in a heavy hint to the benefits of product quality, she described value engineering as nothing to do with value and nothing to do with engineering. We at the Lighting Industry Association (LIA) would strongly suggest that you only procure products from an LIA member, as all members are rigorously checked to be compliant to product safety standards we have done the quality assurance work for you.

In conclusion, the end of fluorescent is very much an opportunity rather than a problem, it was already time to move on, regulations have simply caught up with the inevitable. Those who embrace the new technology, particularly with lighting controls, can have a healthy, low maintenance building stock that is right on strategy for a net zero future.