No more maintenance concerns

In 2012, the Hero factory at Alcantarilla celebrated its 90th anniversary.Back in 2008, it established an internal energy efficiency committeeto investigate opportunities for reducing its energy consumptionin accordance with the group’s social responsibility policy and,in particular, its commitment to the environment.

 

While the main objective for Francisco Aleo, Head of the TechnicalDepartment at the Hero factory in Alcantarilla, was to improve energyefficiency and consequently reduce CO2emissions as far as possible,Peter Beuth, the Electronic Maintenance Manager for the areahad an even more ambitious objective: “The fluorescent lamps withelectromagnetic ballasts that we had, required almost continuousrepair, and due to the machinery below, it was often difficult to access with elevation systems. So a minimum requirement for us is easy access lighting systems.”

 

During the initial phase of changing to LED lighting, the 2xTL-D 58 W waterproof luminaires with electromagnetic ballasts were replacedwith 44 Pacific LED waterproof luminaires.“An altogether positive experience. Required lighting levels for the area have been reached, visual comfort is good and the envisaged savings, primarily in the theoretical work that we carried out, have been met to the letter. We recorded consumption before and afterand the new solution works perfectly,” reports Francisco Aleo.

 

As a result of using Philips LED technology, Hero has achieved energy consumption savings of 50% or 2.6kW in the installation,and has consequently reduced its CO2 emissions by 55% – all withoutcompromising on the lighting levels and quality. Although this meetsthe energy efficiency objective, Peter Beuth believes that the efficiencyalso includes maintenance in the bigger picture: “We are talking about6,000 burning hours a year; so we are really depending on not havingto touch the lights for a minimum of five years.” Both Francisco Aleoand Peter Beuth agree that working with Philips has major benefits.According to the head of electrical maintenance at the plant: “It’s clearto us that LEDs are the future as there are countless products availableemploying this technology; the majority however, appear dubious interms of reliability. This is what prompted us to work with Philips,a large company with a development department that guaranteesthat what they put in the catalogue actually works.