Future Lighting Solutions is pleased to announce a successful collaboration with d-led Illumination Technologies in upgrading the lighting for the famous Stalactite Cave in Israel.
The extraordinary Stalactite Cave in the center of Israel was found by accident in 1968 and was declared a nature reserve in March 1975. The cave area is 4,800 square meters and its volume is 25,000 cubic meters. The temperature is around 22°C and the humidity ranges from 92%-100%. When the Israel Nature and Parks Authority decided to replace the lighting in the cave, they insisted on using new LED technology to ensure the cave would be maintenance-free over the next few years.
The biggest challenge faced by Future Lighting Solutions and d-led was the strict requirements enforced by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority. The use of white LEDs was prohibited, and required the fixtures to be dimmable and linearly controlled, while also meeting the IP67 outdoor rating requirement due to the humidity levels.
Future Lighting Solutions provided guidance through its technical expertise enabling correct BIN selection to meet the project’s strict guidelines and? unbeatable inventory turnaround and d-led Illumination Technologies supported the many various lighting experiments required, testing all the different capabilities and color combinations in order to achieve the correct selection of LEDs for the geologists’ final approval.
Lighting designer Micha Margalit began by first visiting the cave multiple times, to become familiar with it. Margalit explains, “I wanted to see the potential as well as to understand the needs of the cave.” Margalit continued, “I proceeded to investigate the cave’s sensitivities and the consequences of various lights in the cave. I learned about two key problems caused by having standard halogen lighting in the cave over the last few years: heat distributed by halogen or incandescent light, and the light color temperature of the bulbs [2700K having wavelengths between 400-700nm] damaging the stalactites.”
Ultimately, d-led’s new HIVE fixture was selected to light the caves, since it takes into account all of the challenges faced inside the cave and will last for many years. The stalactites are now illuminated by 180 HIVE-12 units with 20° lenses and BGA LUXEON? LEDs (Blue/Green/Amber) and 140 HIVE-6 units with 8.3° lenses and Amber LEDs, connected to 20 MegaAce ER-SD controllers, while the walking path along the cave is illuminated by 170 Amber LUXEON Rebel Star LEDs installed inside the handrail.
“The stunning results have proven to be a huge success, and exemplify true teamwork among all parties involved” said Shay Beyski, Regional Sales Manager for Future Lighting Solutions.
