Victoria Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI) has installed highly energy-efficient street lighting installations across seventeen key points within Edinburgh’s Victoria Park conservation area.  The lighting solution had to be aesthetically pleasing, able to withstand the rigours of a modern day urban environment, and have the ability to be monitored remotely, as well as be installed around the park’s mature trees.

Philips’ CitySpirit Street, together with the Star Sense 2 controls, provided the perfect solution to address these challenges. The CitySpirit Street, Philips’ “Green Flagship” product, not only uses environmentally friendly technologies, but also delivers exceptional lighting, while its unobtrusive design makes it aesthetically pleasing. One of the main challenges of this project was to position the lighting installations around the park’s various mature trees.

Safety, security and orientation in public spaces are paramount, but councils are looking for innovative ways to cut costs. With an energy savings potential of up to 50%, the CitySpirit Street offers a cost effective solution, as well as reducing energy consumption costs and reducing maintenance fees. Mindful of the beauty of the park, Philips strategically placed each lighting installation 25 metres from the next, which reduced the visual impact of the installation, allowing the natural surroundings to take pride of place. While the CitySpirit Street’s design is unobtrusive, the inner components, pole mounts and covers are made of aluminium to ensure they are sufficiently robust. Furthermore, the luminaire itself was produced locally at Philips’ UK manufacturing site in Hamilton, Scotland.

Although the emphasis of this project was to light up key paths within the park, the serenity of this important conservation area needed to be preserved.  With the CitySpirit Street, upward light is limited and instead directed to exactly where it is needed. Not only does this help to preserve the quietness of the night, but it also adds to the environmental efficiency of this solution.

Steve Francey at The City of Edinburgh Council commented: “We wanted to reduce our energy expenditure and carbon emissions by updating the lighting system in the park, but without jeopardising the natural environment, or sacrificing light quality which would impact public safety.  Philips took these needs and concerns into account, presenting us with a lighting solution that met all of our requirements.”

To be able to monitor the lighting installations, Philips used the Star Sense 2 lighting controls. Star Sense 2 is a cost-effective telemanagement system used to monitor, control and diagnose outdoor lighting. For this particular project, only the monitoring capabilities of the system were used. This systems allows the street lighting department to monitor the age and condition of each lamp with any failures being reported by exact location. These capabilities offer the opportunity to significantly reduce maintenance costs through accurate planning of service.