Blog
Sustainability in Lighting
Futurebuild 2023, an exhibition focusing on building a sustainable future, is on the horizon. At MARL, we specialise in highly sustainable, energy-efficient LED lighting. As we look forward to Futurebuild, we’d like to share some insights on how we’ll play our part in creating a brighter future.
LED technology is not new but actually very well-established – MARL has been creating LED products for almost 50 years! Over the years we've led the way as its range of applications evolved from just a great indication solution, adding vibrant decorative illumination as it became brighter and gained the full colour range, towards the everyday LED lighting we all know and love today which is capable of efficiently lighting entire stadiums.
Efficiency and reliability have always been at its foundations, scaling gracefully up with higher light output as it evolved and making it apparent that LEDs would become the technology of choice for sustainable lighting that it is now and will continue to be.
We believe that sustainability doesn’t have to come with compromises. In the present day, LED lighting is not only as bright as older technologies such as incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lighting for a fraction of the energy consumption and running costs; it’s also gained advantages over them such as instant-on at full brightness, the ability to produce any colour (including variable colour temperatures of white) at a single source, reduced heat, accurate rendering of colours and even speciality applications such as horticulture.
With the massive rise in energy costs, efficiency is more important to everyone than ever before. LED luminaires are on average around 7x more efficient than their halogen equivalents, which combined with a typical 20k-30k hour lifetime make them an essential upgrade for any current household or business still using old technology.
The Retrofit Revolution
Image: NormLite T8 LED Tube Replacement
Sustainability still requires some thought to be put into it: just tearing down existing fittings to replace them with new LED versions means manufacturing new housings and their associated carbon cost, so it's not always the most carbon-friendly method of re-lighting a project. At MARL we have stocked products, together with design and manufacturing capabilities, to simply retrofit a light source in the original luminaire. This not only gives the luminaire all the beneficial properties of up-to-date LED lighting technology but also negates throwing away old luminaires, many of which end up in landfill.
In many projects, making a building’s lighting as effective and efficient as possible also requires some automation. LED lighting is electronically controlled and integrates very well into control systems, easily allowing controls such as presence detection, ambient light sensing and timed automation. Being able to intelligently dim or switch off lighting when it’s not required can massively improve energy consumption and the longevity of the luminaire.
Overall, we can conclude that LED lighting is a “no-brainer”: it provides additional benefits over older technologies whilst being the most efficient and sustainable lighting source available. The MARL Team is devoted to our shared mission of building a sustainable future and is at hand to assist with your lighting projects. Contact the MARL Team today to discuss your requirements.
