Isambard Brunel Car Park

Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Isambard Brunel multi-story car park is situated in the centre of Portsmouth and is maintained by Portsmouth City Council. The car park is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has 468 spaces.

Applications Covered:

Car Park

The Challenge

The main aims of the new lighting scheme were to improve the lighting levels and minimise energy usage, through the use of Smart controls, while maintaining a safe and inviting environment for the public.

The Solution

Thorlux proposed the use of high-efficiency Thoroproof LED SmartScan luminaires combined with stand-alone SmartScan emergency luminaires. Projects utilising the Thorlux SmartScan System can frequently benefit from energy savings of over 70% through daylight dimming and maintained illuminance. Flexible time delays and security levels allow presence detection to be used safely within the car park environment while minimising energy usage during times of low occupancy.

43 %

Energy saving

Significant reduction in installation and maintenance costs

The multi-storey car park is rarely used between midnight and 6 am; therefore, we required a system to dim the lights when the car park was not in use to give the best energy saving without impacting safety. The SmartScan system gave us three advantages: reduced installation costs, automatic status and energy monitoring of the lighting, and automatic testing of the emergency lighting system.

Although the luminaires had a higher capital cost, the overall project cost was reduced due to the significantly lower installation complexity. There were no standalone sensors or data control cables, as the Smartscan sensors are within the luminaire. This also reduces the risk of damage or vandalism. Changing the system parameters and commissioning the system is simple and can be modified should the car park requirement change.

The operational running costs have been reduced as the system is remotely monitored. Early indications show that electricity usage has dropped by 43%, and we expect the savings to increase as we enter spring/summer and the daylight control has an impact. We are also making significant savings on maintenance as the old luminaires were frequently failing; regular walkarounds were required to identify failures.

George Butler

Electrical Design Engineer, Portsmouth City Council