With electricity costs rising and increasing global emphasis on cutting energy consumption in support of a healthier environment, the Zambezi Sun has stepped-up its efforts to optimise energy efficiency. During the recent refurbishment of the conference centre, the resort made the switch from energy-guzzling lights to energy saving alternatives.
The lighting retrofit has resulted in a demand reduction of 39 35 kilowatts (KW), making the new lighting system 95% more efficient than the previous system. Based on this saving, it is anticipated that energy consumption for the Conference Centre will reduce by approximately 70 000 kilowatt hours (kWhs) annually.
“Saving electricity is a key focus area of Sun International’s environmental management programme. Not only does it make sense from a financial point of view, but by using less power, we can help ease the load on the electricity network, and make a contribution to a healthier environment.
“The electricity savings we have achieved are primarily due to the implementation of energy saving lighting. However, we are working very hard to instill an energy-consciousness amongst our staff in their everyday work and will be implementing other technologies in the future,” says George Muwela, Resort Engineer at the Zambezi Sun.
According to him, all incandescent lights have been replaced with energy saving LEDs; with 15 Watt LEDs replacing 300Watt bulbs, 5.3 Watt LEDs replacing the 50Watt lamps, and 1.8 Watt LEDs replacing the 40 Watt lamps.
The challenge in replacing the existing incandescent light sources with LEDs was to maintain the same aesthetic and warmth of this facility. The colour temperature of the LED light source output had to be matched as closely as possible to that of the incandescent lamps. For this reason, a warm white lamp temperature of 2500kelvin and CRI of above 80 was specified. As this lamp temperature is not common in the LED range and was not easily available, these LED light sources had to be manufactured specifically for this project.
Due to the installation of the new LED light sources, it was necessary to replace the redundant technology of the previous dimming system with a new technically-advanced system with dimming capabilities. The new dimming system is set-up for ease of use as well as to provide further energy savings by providing five pre-selected dimmed sceneswith the highest scene set at a level of 80% of the total lamp’s output. The dimming system has capabilities for the facility to operate the lighting asfour separate rooms independently through separate room control key pads or as single room through central control pad.
Muwela concludes: “We are very pleased with the results of the project. The Conference Centre at the Zambezi Sun is now one of the most energy efficient conference facilities within the Sun International group.
“We are continuously striving for further optimisation of how, when and why electricity is used in the complex. We hope to bring our energy consumption down further and reduce our environmental footprint.”
