Lighting of the century

Venture Lighting’s energy saving 350W Metal Halide Pulse Start lamps and Ventronic control system is being used in Century Lighting’s new European distribution facility in Redditch, Worcestershire. The Venture system was shortlisted from two potential lighting solutions by Century and won hands down again the T5 lighting option.

Century’s new 828m2 premises utilise lowbay luminaires in the warehouse, packing and sorting areas. With high racking areas throughout the warehouse, Century modified the low bays with their own high rack reflectors. Manufactured from highly polished aluminium and multi sided to reflect the light, these reflectors ensure lighting is directed down onto the racking aisles instead of washing the light in a very wide pattern.

Following an initial lighting survey by Century, the results clearly showed that the Venture energy saving 350W solution proved to be a lower cost, with a higher light level and lower energy consumption when compared to T5. Following the installation Mark Rolph, managing director at Century commented: “The T5 system did not provide the necessary lux levels required to operate stock handing and could not match the energy savings that come hand in hand with Venture’s Ventronic package”.

Venture’s 350W Pulse Start lamps were chosen due to their higher lumen output, outstanding lumen maintenance and the extended overall life of the lamp compared to standard metal halide lamps, providing an average life of 20000+ hours compared to the standard 15000+ hours.

With periods of inactivity in some of the aisles, Venture’s Ventronic dimmable electronic ballasts were installed, with luminaires controlled by microwave presence detectors that detect objects entering the aisles and set the lights automatically into 100 per cent mode. When no activity is detected after a set time the lights will automatically dim by 50 per cent to save power.

Century’s warehouse is also controlled by a photocell unit so that when sufficient daylight is available the light units will remain off. When daylight fades the light will turn on and become fully automatic with the motion detectors. The whole lighting system also contains a manual override system so that staff at Century can take complete control of the system if they prefer.