Cathedral - Let There be Light
Let there be light – 21st century style – in St. Edmundsbury Cathedral
LED Technology Pro has helped St Edmundsbury Cathedral step out into the light, 21st century style.
The company has completely re-lit the beautiful gothic Cathedral in the heart of Bury St Edmunds using latest technology lighting, overcoming the challenge of keeping the light feel warm and welcoming, in such a massive old building. And it has helped the Cathedral cut costs and reduce its carbon footprint too.
Despite its grandeur and all the good works which continue within its thick stone walls, the Cathedral needs to keep-in-mind the challenges and solutions of the 21st century. In the past lighting such a vast building has been a major undertaking, not least because of the amount of electricity used.
Maintaining and changing the bulbs can be a real problem because many are so high and inaccessible. And it’s vital to safeguard the warm lighting and aesthetics - after all people who use the Cathedral want to ‘feel’ a warm and beautiful environment.
So at the beginning of the year Head Verger, Rachel Clover, set-about mission lighting. Energy Consultant Julian Colman from Savings in Business Energy was brought-in to advise on possible energy-savings solutions and Jonathan Whitbread of LED Technology Pro.com was brought-in to advise on lighting and lamps. Both are local businesses.
Julian and Jonathan were given the challenge of tackling 856 individual lamps in the Chancel. Their mission was to achieve a large reduction in electricity consumption, CO2 emissions and maintenance but at the same time lighting the large area to the same levels, with the same warm light yet achieving lower costs.
Julian Colman and LED Technology Pro.com were up to the challenge. They carried-out many hours of product testing in order to achieve the same ambiance and very importantly, to achieve lamp reliability which is essential in a Cathedral whose lamps hang high above you.
The result using an Historic Buildings Lamps Collection LED lamp from LED Technology Pro was an 84% saving in electricity consumption and a reduction of over 11 tonnes of CO2 emissions on top of which there was a dramatic reduction in maintenance and disruption as these new LED lamps simply last longer.Head Verger, Rachel Clover said: “We are delighted with the outcome. This has done a great deal to achieve our desired reductions and the process was so straight forward. With the on-going back-up we know we can rest-assured that should we ever have a question, then Julian and Jonathan will be there. We look forward to our next project with them”.
St. Edmundsbury has stood in the heart of the beautiful market town of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk as a monument to faith and man’s ability to build-big, since the 16th century. Towering over the wonderful Abbey Gardens one side and Angel Hill the other with its English Gothic architecture, the Cathedral has had to keep pace with many changes over the centuries.
Jonathan from LED Technology Pro.com said: “Lighting a very special building like St Edmundsbury Cathedral is a massive undertaking but one that we had the experience to tackle.
Julian from Savings in Business Energy added “Right from the start the challenge was to maintain the aesthetics on a very large scale within such a beautiful setting and I have to say we are thrilled with how the cathedral now looks.”
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