Somar Eluma: Reducing Your Energy Consumption

The Somar Eluma lighting system works in the following ways to dramatically reduce your energy costs:

Lower connected load

Where Somar Eluma is used in place of 400W (or 1000W) metal halide or SON lights, the 450W connected load of the metal halide or son is replaced by an energy-efficient Eluma which has a full connected load of 220W - an instant saving of 50%.

Less luminaires required

Because of the advanced photometric efficiency of the Somar Eluma lighting system, where it is used in place of standard fluorescent lighting (T12 / T8 / T5) a lower density of lights are required - in most cases 2 or 3 of the standard lights are replaced with just 1 energy-efficient Eluma light fitting - once again this will provide an saving of 50% or over when the lights are on full brightness.

Intelligent control

As with all Somar energy-saving technologies, the Eluma luminaire is programmed to react intelligently to it's surroundings. The intelligent sensor system on each luminaire will if appropriate "harvest daylight": using high quality ballast systems, the luminaire will dim to compensate for higher levels of natural light. This maintains operational light levels for a lower luminaire output - increasing the effective energy efficiency and adding to the 50% savings already achieved. In addition to this, the Passive Infra-Red sensor on the unit will detect when there is activity in proximity of the light and will switch off lights that are surplus to requirements (or dim back as appropriate) - ideal for low-occupancy environments such as warehouse lighting. The combination of these energy saving features will often deliver energy savings in excess of 80% over conventional lighting - clear delivery on both the financial and environmental sides of the business.

Instant strike

Somar Eluma energy-efficient lighting enjoys an "instant strike" (unlike metal halide and SON lamps which have a significant ramp up period before they come to full brightness) - this means that the lights can be switched on and off at will.

Somar Eluma: Reducing Your Maintenance Costs

Changing lamps is usually an expensive process - not only do you have the cost of the replacement lamp (which if it is a metal halide or SON can be considerable), but also the cost of the labour, the means to reach the lamps (if suspended over 3 metres a cherry picker or scissor lift is usually required), production downtime and the disposal of the old lamps. Typically a SON or metal halide lamp needs replacing after 10,000 hours because the light output significantly decays over this period, the lamps in the Somar Eluma luminaire will give near-constant light output for over 30,000 hours.

In addition to this, when you come to replace the lamps in the Eluma, they are a fraction of the cost of a metal halide or SON lamp. Clear delivery on the financial and operational sides of the business and also less waste on the environmental side.

Somar Eluma: Improving Your Working Conditions

The multiple technologies behind the Somar Eluma lighting system combine to improve your operational environment in the following ways:

High efficiency reflector design

The reflectors and lamps in the Eluma luminaire have been carefully designed to optimise light output. The reflector is made from material that holds excellent photometric properties, and it's shape coupled with careful positioning of the lamps ensures a high-quality cool light source that is much more effective than the "yellow" SON source or a standard fluorescent which has very low projection properties. Delivers on the operational side of the business, creating a better working environment.

Little or no light degradation

Traditional SON and metal halide lights degrade swiftly after installation - typically the light will lose 10% of it's output over the first 100 hours, and between 35-40% over 6000-8000 hours. The lamps recommended for use in the Somar Eluma have minimal degradation (10% over 3 years), hence light levels stay at an acceptable level.

Improved colour rendering

The lamps used in the Somar Eluma lighting system emit a cool white light that is excellent for colour recognition as opposed to the yellow rendering emitted by metal halide and SON lighting

Linear light source

The linear light configuration of the Somar Eluma does much to improve light quality over an above the point source of a traditional SON or Metal Halide. Firstly the Eluma eliminates shadowing and "scalloping" so frequently seen with traditional lighting and with LED lighting solutions. Secondly in situations where either operatives or customers are looking up towards the lights (for example a Fork lift driver looking up into racking, or a badminton player in a sports hall), they are not dazzled by the point source glare of the metal halide or SON. Delivers on the operational side of the business creating a better working environment, and better Health and Safety.

Lower heat output

The Somar Eluma lighting system runs at ambient temperature as opposed to metal halides and SONs that waste much energy by running very hot. Lamps running hot have two major disadvantages - firstly they cause the HVAC in the building to run more frequently, and from a technical point of view they affect the Power Factor in the building, making it worse. Once again there are clear operational benefits here.