Carbon8Lighting’s Discus and Discus ZERO luminaires have enabled a projected 180,000kW reduction in energy consumption in a lighting upgrade for Harvest Fine Foods. Harvest was looking for a lighting system to go into a large freezer room and chiller room, each of approximately 8,000sq ft. One important feature was to find a fitting that emits very little heat. For this Carbon8Lighting was recommended to Harvest by nearby ice cream manufacturer, New Forrest Ice Cream, who had recently installed the company’s lighting to great effect. Another of the key criteria for the lighting upgrade was low maintenance as the facility operates 24 hours a day, 364 days a year without down time.
Harvest Fine Foods is one of Southern England’s premier wholesale food distributors, providing a first class service to catering establishments and delivering an exciting range of quality fresh produce, fine foods and larder items. The company has excellent environmental credentials and a strong commitment to the environment.
Paul Lockyer, Harvest’s Operations Manager, was impressed by the proposal put forward by Carbon8 to use Discus ZERO 120W luminaires. This would have a positive impact on the running costs of keeping the refrigeration system at the correct temperatures, whilst providing the required lighting levels. He commented “We were looking for a very good spread of light throughout the warehouse without giving shadowed areas in between racking. This was well planned out byCarbon8Lighting with very specific graphs and lighting positions”. Another consideration which had an impact on the decision to go with Carbon8’s scheme was to be able to integrate the fittings with motion detection – thus providing even more impressive savings in operating costs for the company and a major reduction in its carbon footprint.
As part of the Discus LED range, Discus ZERO is specifically designed for use in large freezer and refrigeration areas, operating in temperatures as low as -40°C. The driver is mounted remotely outside the freezer room, reducing the amount of heat generated in the freezer by the fitting, lowering the amount of energy consumed by the freezer. Maintenance is simplified with Discus ZERO, having the driver located on the outside of the roof of the freezer room, thus eliminating the need to have to work in the freezer and disturb operations in the unlikely event of a failure. Installation is simple with the use of a twist-in bracket. Also the slim profile of the luminaire offers less interruption of flow from the blast chillers.
The installation was such a success that Harvest Fine Foods decided to roll out Discus throughout all of the ambient areas of the facility. Discus 70W and 90W LED High Bays were chosen for the remainder of the project for their excellent light quality, performance and colour rendition. The Discus range utilises a high performance LED chip that has been specifically designed with high bay application in mind. Even in wide ranging temperatures the phenomenal stability of this chip ensures that light levels will not decrease significantly during the life of the fitting. Temperature, voltage and current protection guarantee an unbeatable combination of performance and reliability.
Robust polycarbonate, IP65 rated, 50W and 60W Carbon8Lighting Vapour Proof fittings were also installed in more hostile areas, chosen for their performance and durability.
As well as the obvious benefit of energy saving, very low maintenance was a major attraction for Harvest. Paul Lockyer explains “Ongoing maintenance of the lighting system has always presented a problem as the lights are in constant use 24/7 and access to them is not easy, so the ease of maintenance is a real bonus. We are really pleased with the lighting system and would recommend it to any other similar warehouse operator – in fact, the warehouse lighting is the best we have ever seen”.
Richard Strongman MD at Harvest Foods added “As a green company with excellent environmental credentials, a low energy lighting solution was the preferred option. Ideally we were looking for a solution that would reduce energy usage and running costs with low heat emission, simple servicing and high ambient lighting levels. Carbon8 has exceeded all of our requirements and provides good illumination for reading and packing and picking orders in the aisles.”
The Discus range is offered as standard with Carbon8Lighting’s unique 5 Year Premier Care warranty package. Should a fitting require exchanging at any point during the warranty period, Carbon8Lighting will send an advance replacement fitting to site. Once exchanged the faulty fitting will then be collected by Carbon8Lighting, minimising down time. In addition to this Carbon8Lighting will pay up to £250+VAT towards the exchange of the faulty fitting.
