Church lighting refurb proves you can have it all

A LIGHTING refurbishment project in the north of England has proved that by reusing the original luminaires, you can provide cost savings, quality improvements and environmental gains as well as better margins for the supplier.
The track-and-spot lighting at the imposing Grade II listed Jesmond United Reform Church in Newcastle was originally installed in 2014 and was approaching the end of its life.
But church leaders, increasingly looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint, wanted to consider ways to reduce the environmental impact of the internal refurbishment.
Instead of replace the lights, Gamma Illumination offered to recondition the Lingo LED track spot lights.
It took the luminaires back to its factory in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, where it disassembled and inspected them and removed the LED modules and drivers for recycling.
It then cleaned and polished the remaining components and installed the latest LED modules and electronics. This was followed by testing and certification. The lights were back on site in four days.
Some 90 per cent of the components were salvaged and reused, resulting in the reuse of 120 kilogrammes of aluminium rather than scrapping or recycling.
Even though the upgraded LED modules deliver a 12 per cent increase in lumen output, the church benefits from a 30 per cent saving in energy thanks to their increased efficiency.

There’s also been an increase in light quality: colour rendering has increased from Ra80 to Ra90. Additionally, there’s been a 10 per cent cost saving to the church compared to buying new luminaires
And best of all, Gamma says it made a better margin on selling the refurbed luminaires directly than it would have by selling new product via a wholesaler.
‘This is a wonderful example of the circular economy in action,’ says Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight. ‘Everyone has benefited from the this project, not least the planet. And it puts the lie to the argument that reuse can’t be commercially viable.’