Southampton Airport is once again leading the UK's airports with its innovative and sustainable approach to lighting.
Following two firsts in the last two years, work was recently completed on the replacement of the lights on all 14 of the airport's aircraft stands with LED lighting supplied by Eastleigh based Vision Accendo and installed by Southampton based Electrical Contractor Rigfone Electrics Ltd.
Having successfully used LED and solar lighting around the airport for other projects, when the lights illuminating the aircraft stands at night were reaching the end of their lives the airport's projects and engineering teams were keen to explore the same technology. Justin Wright commented, "Despite no other airports that we know of using LED lighting we were confident that with the right set-up we could make it work and reap the rewards of high performance and significant energy savings."
Following interest in the project from a number of international lighting manufacturers, it was Eastleigh based Vision Accendo which offered the most promising solution. A trial took place in 2010 where the easily suppliable off-the-shelf lighting was installed and assessed, and with a few minor tweaks the decision was reached to roll the solution out to all stands.
Justin Wright continued, "We have seen a 75% reduction in the energy required to run the new lighting which is an outstanding saving for the airport. The lights have also made a big difference to security teams, ground crews and pilots, and will reduce on site maintenance. Being first isn't an easy path to take, and the success of this project has been down to the excellent working relationships between us, Vision Accendo and Rigfone Electrics."
