First without "incandescent" light bulbs
15th October '08
The Accor Hotel Group Nederland, in partnership with Philips, have removed all "incandescent" lamps from their Eindhoven hotel as a start to a worldwide sustainability programme.
A typical 300 bed hotel uses approximately 4000 lamps and lighting plays a major role in creating the right atmosphere.
The challenge is to maintain this ambience in the right proportion and in selected areas such as restaurants and public areas whilst achieving significant energy savings.
The most efficient light sources such as compact fluorescent lamps, tend to create a flat lighting effect without contrast or sparkle and are not readily dimmable. Incandescent sources, and halogen sources in particular, although less efficient are good at creating accent and directional lighting to bring out texture and form and are dimmable. LED sources, a relatively new application in lighting terms are highly efficient and are rapidly becoming a viable alternative for both general and accent lighting applications.
The solution was to use a combination of sources such as the Philips "MASTER Classic" halogen lamps and "MASTERLED"s in parts of the hotel in which it was important to retain the quality of light and the atmosphere created. [Compact] fluorescent or LED sources were used elsewhere to maximise energy savings and minimise maintenance programmes.
Based on an annual electricity bill of 4 million euro, 25% of this being consumed by lighting, Accor Hotels Nederland anticipate an annual saving of 30%, simply by removing all conventional "incandescent" lamps.
