Aecom and Philips design LED solution for Natural History Museum

The multidisciplinary engineering firm specified Philips' ColorReach Powercore technology to replace the floodlight system.

Natural History Museum

Martin Valentine, Head of Aecom’s Lighting Group, said: “The Waterhouse Building is one of the most iconic and beautiful buildings in Britain, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to create a lighting design that will make it even more visually stunning.”

Ultilising the existing fixing positions meant that just 32 ColorReach projectors were needed to light up the broad sweep of the arched entrance and flanking walls. This is half the number of the former metal halide floodlights.

Glynnan Barham, energy manager for the Natural History Museum, said: “We were quickly won over by ColorReach’s projection capability and flexibility. More than this however, the Natural History Museum is focused on minimising its emissions through all activities and one of the key areas that we can achieve this is through our lighting. What impressed us was the dramatic impact we could make to our energy and maintenance costs compared with the traditional light sources we had been using. “

Philips has claimed that the total electrical load has been reduced by 75% in normal operation and that the Museum will not need to replace the LED modules for at least 30 years under normal usage conditions. This compares with an average of 3 years for conventional metal halide lamps. The firm has calculated that the install cost of the solution will have a payback of 4 years with accumulative savings year on year thereafter.