34 SECTOR OVERVIEW HOSPITALITY LIGHTING
This Costa Coffee in Essex is saving thousands with LED lamps from LEDtec
from using LEDs.’ Robert Chelsom, managing director of Chelsom, adds: ‘LEDs are really at the forefront of the latest developments in the hospitality industry. Realistically, clients are about halfway down the road of using LEDs. Because LED is the buzzword in the industry at the moment, everyon thinks they can do it all, but they aren’t necessari the answer to every lighting requirement and the cost is still on the high side.’ Although LEDs are a tempting alternative to
HOW FAR ARE HOSPITALITY CLIENTS DOWN THE ROAD OF EMBRACING CONTROLS? Robert Chelsom: ‘How well clients use controls really does depend whether or not they take on a lighting designer for their scheme. If it’s down to the interior designer or end user, then they’re generally not very far down that road because it’s all very technical and requires specialist knowledge – but if they do employ a lighting designer then it will be pretty advanced.’ Neil Knowles: ‘In the hotel sector, most of the big chains have required lighting control for scenesetting for the past 20 years. All public areas are routinely scene-set. What we are seeing now is the extension of controls into guest bedrooms, mainly as the price comes down.’ Mike Thompson: ‘In the pub trade the most sophisticated lighting control is often a dimmer switch, used as the evening gets later. One of the ironies is that with the substantial reduction in energy use from the adoption of LED lighting, the payback for control systems becomes more difficult to justify, particularly where rewiring is required to install the control system. Wireless control systems can play a part here in retrofit and we are interested to see if these will gain a substantial foothold. We have not seen it yet.’ O See page 69 for more on controls in hospitality
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notoriously inefficient traditional sources such as squirrel cage lamps, Chelsom keen to focus on the application of LEDs for decorative rather than simply energy-saving purposes,. ‘More sophisticated dimming and mood-setting systems e being used to enhance the ambience,’ he says. Not all sectors are at the same stage. The pub de, for example, is split between brewers who still maintain an estate, such as Greene King, Marston’s and St Austell, and pure pub companies such as Spirit and Punch Taverns, which are essentially property and restaurant businesses. Weblight provides managed lighting services to clients like these, and is currently working on a big LED rollout for Spirit. Founder Mike Thompson says that the retrofit market is moving more slowly. ‘I have been a little surprised by the reticence on retrofit, but it appears that pretty well all new build is now LED, at least in the public areas,’ he says. ‘There is still plenty of scope for further penetration for retrofit and I think there are several reasons for this relatively slow adoption of the technology, despite the massive cost savings that it offers through energy and maintenance savings.’ He points to the difference between managed estates and tenanted estates. For managed estates, it’s far easier for companies to introduce blanket policies. ‘The majority of the lighting in pubs is often via domestic type halogen and tungsten fittings that are generally at a low level and easy to access,’ he says. ‘It is quite straightforward for a pub manager to replace any failed lamps and each individual lamp is