Date Announced: 09 Nov 2006 In order to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen's 80th birthday, Philips has been invited by the Royal household to create a new permanent lighting installation to illuminate the façade of Buckingham Palace. Working in Co-operation with English Heritage and Westminster City Council, Philips was keen to encompass both aesthetic, environmental and energy efficient consideration within the final design scheme.This careful balance of architectural enhancement and ecological responsibility has been achieved by using the latest 21st century LED technology from Philips Lighting. The development of LEDs has meant that lighting installations can achieve impressive energy savings per annum when compared with conventional solutions available a decade ago. Not only that, but this energy efficient, compact new light has a lifetime of 50,000 hours, which is approximately 25 years making it a truly "fit and forget" installation! This reduces the need for frequent call outs by service engineers since the system is virtually maintenance-free whereas traditional lighting technologies would have to be replaced approximately every 4-5 years.In addition, the lighting design scheme had to avoid any light pollution into the night sky since the Palace is set between the royal parks. Local gas street lighting provides the main source of illumination, therefore, the surrounding area is relatively dark. A further point was that any possible spill light had to be reduced to prevent intrusion into the living quarters of those inside the Palace.Philips LEDline2 was the ideal choice since its offers precise directional controlled washes of light just where it is needed. In all 45 LEDline2 modules with warm white Luxeon LEDs were installed along the upper and lower levels of the façade, its slim profile blending into the surroundings with negligible disturbance. This warm wash effect complimented the additional Pompeii and Decoflood luminaires which were placed close to the building's exterior achieving good modelling with no light spillage entering the windows. These additional MASTER Colour CDM -T 70 W and 150 W lamps worked particularly well bringing out the natural colour of the stone work.Buckingham Palace has long been a tourist draw. Now, its full grandeur captures the imagination of night-time tourists. This monument to the UK's national heritage is now a key part of the cityscape at any time of day - or night. Above all, it is an excellent example of environmentally friendly lighting - and that has to be a good thing.
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Phlips Lighting
Web Site:http://www.philips.com
