LED lighting eliminates maintenance headaches

Forth Ports is one of the United Kingdom’s largest ports groups, operating a series of facilities at the Leith docks in Edinburgh, Scotland. By replacing sodium bulbs with LED lighting in workshops and bulk storage facilities, the company won several green accolades while significantly cutting costs.

Even in daylight, in one of the company’s bulk storage facilities, the 400W sodium high bays were struggling to provide adequate illumination. The heat they generated was burning dust onto the polycarbonate lenses and greatly impairing their performance. Lamp replacement required the sheds to be empty, meaning a wait of a just a few days or as much as a year. To make it worse, the inefficient sodium bulbs were actually drawing around 440W each.
In the nearby engineering workshop, the sodium bulbs were causing work delays by taking up to 30 minutes to re-strike after switching off. They also had to be replaced regularly, requiring the floor to be cleared so a scissor lift could be used to access the lights.

The lights were replaced with a series of 172- and 150-watt LED bulbs (Dialight, dialight.com), resulting in a more than 75% energy savings in the bulk storage facility and more than 60% in the other areas. Additionally, the burden of maintenance has effectively been eliminated, as each LED bulb carries a five-year performance warranty. Their instant-on ability removes the re-strike delays, allowing them to be switched off when not required, rather than being left on “just in case.”

The quality of the light has also improved worker comfort, product quality monitoring, and tasks such as identifying different color wires.
“Together these benefits have improved efficiency and delivered operational benefits while minimizing our impact on the environment,” says Derek McGlashan, environment and energy manager for Forth Ports Limited. “We are now actively examining other areas of the business which could benefit from this technology.”