Lightsave Fuller Read Lighting Project: River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames

Our sister company, Lightsave Fuller Read has helped the River & Rowing Museum reduce its energy costs and carbon emissions by replacing existing halogen light fittings with the latest LED light sources.

The LED switch-over is expected to reduce the River & Rowing Museum’s lighting energy expenditure by over £2000 per annum; the museum can also expect additional savings on their maintenance costs. It is expected the River & Rowing Museum will see a return on their initial investment in around three years (based solely on energy savings).

The River & Rowing Museum is located in the picturesque town of Henley-on-Thames and is one of the UK’s leading independent museums welcoming over 116,000 visitors a year. The museum is home to 20,000 items covering the international sport of rowing, the history of Henley-on-Thames, the story of the River Thames and the children’s book the Wind in the Willows. The vast collection includes objects, photographs, books, ephemera and archive material.

The focus of the lighting upgrade has been improving the energy performance in the museum’s three main galleries; the Schwarzenbach International Rowing Gallery, the Invesco Perpetual Henley Gallery and the River Gallery. In addition to this, the Lightsave Fuller Read team felt some of the smaller galleries would also benefit from being upgraded to LED lighting.

Andrew Brown the facilities manager said: “We are always looking for ways to improve our energy efficiency and the Trustees are very supportive of green initiatives. We had identified that upgrading to LED lamps would reduce lighting energy consumption; the team at Lightsave Fuller Read spent a lot of time with us testing a number of different lamps until we found the perfect solution. It was particularly important that the curators also had input to the selection process in order to ensure that factors such as colour balance and energy performance were considered.”

Philips Master LEDspot LV MR16

Alan Kilford, Managing Director of Lightsave Fuller Read added: “We helped the museum to set up trials of different lamps so they could evaluate the options available and select the best solutions based on a range of criteria. It was clear that Philips LED lamps would deliver on all of these requirements.”

The Schwarzenbach International Rowing Gallery, which is also used for hospitality events, was previously lit using 170 halogen downlights, with a mix of 20 watt and 35 watt lamps. These have now been replaced with Philips 4 watt Master LED MR16 lamps, allowing the original fixtures and light levels to be retained.

Philips Master LEDspot LV AR111

The other two main galleries have higher ceilings and so a higher light output is requires. They were originally lit using costly, 50 watt and 75 watt AR111 halogen lamps to achieve the required illuminance at floor level. At the recommendation of Lightsave Fuller Read, these lamps were replaced with around 100 Philips Master LED AR111, it is predicted this simple change will lead to huge savings in maintenance costs as Philips Master LEDs have a lamp life of 45,000 hours and therefore do not need to be replaced as often as their halogen counterparts meaning less time is spent fitting lamps at great height.

Andrew Brown concluded: “There has been a big improvement in light quality and the feedback from staff and visitors has been very positive. In addition to the energy savings, this project will reduce our CO² emissions by nearly 10,000 kg per annum.”

For more information on these or any other lighting products please visit our website http://theledspecialist.co.uk or call the office on 0118 939 3218 to speak to one of our informed sales advisors.