ABC King - LED saved a third compared to metal halide

Project

In March 2014 ABC King opened a new flagship store in a premium shopping centre downtown TaPllinn, with a sales area of 630 square meters.

Customer need

ABC King is a leading premium footwear store chain in Estonia and they put a lot of attention to details at their stores. Getting the right bright lighting and reduce the energy consumption was a big part in creating the excellent shopping environment. The owner of the real estate set a W/m2 limit so there were also a need to save energy and reduce costs – both short and long term.

The ABC King brand

The brand ABC King has been active on the footwear market since 1993 and has been a part of exchange listed Tallinna Kaubamaja Group since 2008. ABC King has nine stores and about a hundred employees in Estonia. King means shoe in Estonian and they target different styles; informal, formal and sports footwear.

At the new flagship store they worked hard to get the best merchandise, the best customer service and the best shopping environment of all ABC King stores. Every year they renew their brand portfolio with new and exciting brands from all over the world. ABC King was also open for new technological solutions in their everyday operations and in the store environment.

Solution

Creative process

Sustainability begins from concept creation. Where is light needed and where is it unnecessary? For example, the top of the shelves does not need lighting. Usually passages gets enough light from the reflection of the shelves. These and countless other aspects were taken into account to create a unique solution that at the same time became delightful, practical and sustainable.

Fagerhult worked in close cooperation with the client and interior architect to create a tailor made solution that complemented the store’s concept. Fagerhult worked creatively with light and shadows to highlight the merchandise.

Changing light source

Fagerhult have been providing lighting solutions for ABC King at several locations. Earlier solutions have been based on metal halide light sources. This time Fagerhult made two calculations, one with LED and one with metal halide. The solution was based on a majority of LED light sources that consume less energy and also has a longer life span.

Why is it sustainable?

The LED solution gave energy savings of one third compared to the metal halide solution and four to five times longer life span of the light sources.

Here is a comparison:

• LED => 14,53 W/m2
• MT => 21,86 W/m2

Taking into account the number of hours the light is switched on yearly, around 5000 h, (shop is opened 12 h–9.00-21.00) the energy saving is an astonishing 23 060 kW/h. The new solution produced less energy and less heat, which means less cooling during the warm period of the year and this lead to even bigger energy savings.

The next important aspect is the life span of light sources. In average metal halide light sources have a life span of 12 000–15 000 hours. That means you need to change all light sources in every 2–2,5 years. Fagerhult’s LED module have a minimal life span of 50 000 hours, that means 10 years with a yearly burning time of 5000 hours.

It makes a real economic difference if you change light sources every 10 years or every 2–2,5 years. The break-even point for this investment is 2,4 years.

Bullet points of sustainability factors

• Less energy spent on lighting.
• Less energy spent on cooling the room.
• Less light sources are used (changing less frequently).
• Concept needs less luminaires for the same light levels.