The retail sector has not yet taken up LED lighting in any significant amount, according to the latest research from BRE.
BRE undertook a survey of retail lighting in the Watford area in 2011. It looked at shopping centres and retail parks, supermarkets and high street shops. The results showed that fluorescent T8 and T5 dominate the sector, particularly in retail parks and on the high street.
It recently revisited the shops to find out how the landscape had changed. It found that very few shops had changed their lighting scheme to LED. Although LEDs were used in display cabinets, there wasn't a big change from halogen.
Gareth Howlett, researcher at BRE, presented the findings. He said: "In the last week or so we revisited the area. We found a few shops had changed lighting, we could see one that had a retrofit installed. The results suggest about 10 per cent of shops in the UK use LEDs in some form."
The BRE team found 1 per cent of shops were fully LED. Although the survey is a snapshot of a small town, BRE extrapolated that less than 5 per cent of UK current retail lamp stock is LED. This is an estimated increase of 3.5 per cent from 2011, when the survey suggested 1.5 per cent of stock was LED.
The 2011 results made an estimate that 40.7 per cent of UK stock in retail lighting was fluorescent T8. The second biggest share went to fluorescent T5s, with 22.4 per cent. Next was halogen with 11.9 per cent, followed closely by CFL with 11 per cent.
The results were revealed at the BRE conference on 'Achieving effective and energy efficient retail lighting' this week, where BRE launched its new Retail Lighting Guide.
