LED Lighting | Epica

The following is extracted from a case study for Willoughby City Council’s ClimateClever Apartments program. The original case study can be viewed here.

About Epica

Epica is one of the leading sustainable apartment buildings in Chatswood, thanks to its original design and ongoing work by the owners corporation to further enhance its efficiency.  
 
Epica’s sustainability features include:  

• Bike racks installed in car park;
• Solar gas-boosted hot water; 
• Rainwater harvested from building rooftop with a large tank installed in car park for garden irrigation and car wash (tank has never been empty);
• 1kW solar power panels on roof; 
• CBUS controlled lighting with occupant sensors, allowing for a more efficient control of lighting. For example, the lighting in the Epica car park is set to turn off after six minutes of inactivity and corridor lighting after three minutes of inactivity; 
• Common area air conditioning timers. For example, most common area air conditioning shuts down for eight hours overnight during winter (this is not possible during summer);
• Retrofitting of variable speed drives in cooling towers reducing power consumption and maintenance costs;  
• Lobby 50W halogen lights replaced with 20W; and
• Loading Dock 250W lights replaced with 50W.

ClimateClever Assessment Service Recommendations

The owners corporation of Epica, keen to continue improving the sustainability of the building, joined the ClimateClever Apartments program and received a ClimateClever Apartments Common Area Energy and Water assessment in June 2010.   The key recommendations were:   

• Retrofitting of common area lighting, involving the replacement of florescent tubes with either T5 or LED replacements;    
• Installation of a sub meter on the air conditioning boiler to enable monitoring and optimisation of its energy consummation; and 
• Investigate grid-independent energy source such as co-generation plant or gas powered fuel cells.

ClimateClever Co-Funded Sustainability Performance Improvements

Following the assessment, the owners corporation of Epica applied to Willoughby City Council for co-funding to undertake the retrofitting of lighting recommended in their ClimateClever Apartments assessment.  Based on the assessment criteria, which included the cost effectiveness of the proposed project and the demonstrated commitment of the owners corporation, Council awarded Epica co-funding to undertake:   

• Replacement of 156 T8 fluorescent tubes with LED tubes in fire stairs; and 
• Replacement of 351 T8 fluorescent tubes with LED tubes in the car park

This project is expected to achieve the following savings and will mean that the upfront capital costs (without factoring in the grant) are expected to be paid off in around two years:  

With the retrofit project now completed, the Building’s Facility Manager and owners corporation will monitor the performance of the project over the coming months.