LED Lighting - Getting It Right.

Modus, alongside Philips Color Kinetics have been a part of the installation of efficient, low maintenance, environmentally intelligent digital illumination systems throughout Aotearoa.   

LED lighting systems create huge possibilities - but we find that there are often still allot of questions around the technology, and most importantly around how to best apply it to individual projects.

Philips Color Kinetics currently have over 34,000 installations in more than 100 countries around the world.  Some of these installations have been running continuously  for almost a decade - with this sort of experience comes an unmatched wealth of knowledge.  

Importantly to us this knowledge can offer architects and designers important insights into how LED lighting can be integrated into architecture to create sophisticated environments that utilize the best available energy efficient digital lighting technologies. 

Philips Color Kinetics have put together a great outline of the pros and cons of LED technology that dispels some of the myths around the technology in a publication called - LED Lighting: Getting It Right.  It's a great resource if you are looking at LED systems for any project - Interior or Exterior.   

If you have any more in-depth queries or would like some assistance with an LED lighting system please give us a call here at Modus and we'd be happy to walk you through a range solutions for your project.

Auckland Council Orewa Road Lighting Technology Trial

Modus Lighting supplies Auckland Council the LED lighting and controls that deliver major energy and environmental savings.

Chris Byrne & Damon Birchfield Onsite at the Orewa Trial

There has been much activity in recent times with various New Zealand local councils exploring new road lighting efficiency concepts to identify energy, environmental and financial savings opportunities.

The Electricity Commission “RightLight” Efficient Road Lighting Programme that rolled out last year promoted processes and guidelines to encourage the undertaking of council road lighting technology trials and assessments.

Damon Birchfield, Energy Efficiency and Environment Officer at the (then) Rodney District Council was a participant in the EC training workshops and wished to progress the opportunity within the Rodney District with a well researched and rigorous road lighting efficiency study.

This has resulted in the Auckland Council Road Lighting Technology trial at West Hoe Road, just off State Highway 17 Orewa, north of Auckland. This trial deploys best practice LED road lighting fittings with advanced electronic control and dimming systems.

Philips SpeedStar Luminaire as Installed in Orewa Trial

Modus Lighting Ltd was the equipment supplier, IT designer and systems integrator for the project.

BEFORE - Traditional HPS Lighting at 100% light level

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting at 100% light level

As well as LED appraisal, a significant part of this trial was to evaluate the practicalities of adaptive lighting for NZ roading conditions, as a means of achieving operational savings. Adaptive lighting is the selective adjustment (up or down) of lighting levels during different stages of the nightly period in accordance with the exact needs of the prevailing traffic and pedestrian activity levels.

The new lighting equipment on trial delivers full light output at high activity periods, is dimmed by 50% at shoulder periods and is dimmed by 75% at low activity periods.

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting dimmed by 50% to 50% light level.

AFTER - MODUS LED Lighting dimmed by 75% to 25% light level

The trial employs Philips SpeedStar LED light fittings combined with Philips advanced electronic light level dimming and control to adjust the light output to deliver the exact amount of light required for the conditions, minimising waste light and waste energy.

The results of the whole-of-life assessment over a 30 year period are -

a) Energy saving (kWh) vs currently installed orange light (HPS) technology = 54% saving

b) Energy saving (kWh) vs traditional white light (MH) technology = 73% saving

All of the improvements are attainable at a lower whole-of-life financial cost than that of traditional High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide technologies of an equivalent quality level.

Further details of the trial are available from Modus lighting Ltd General Manager, Chris Byrne at chrisbyrne@moduslighting.co.nz

Modus Lighting is now ready and able to supply NZ councils with energy and money saving technologies that far outperform outdated traditional options.

hot off the factory floor...

In the heart of Auckland city our team design, engineer and manufacture unique lighting solutions for New Zealand architecture. Our range of products is diverse and is constantly evolving to meet specific customer requirements that cannot be met with an off the shelf product.

  

The Dish Pendant by Modus is inspired by traditional lamp shades and light sources and offers a modern take on these traditional forms utilising state of the art LED lamp technology from Phillips. 

Offering both slick styling and green credentials the Dish Pendant combines the new Phillips Master Glow LED lamp with a strong angular aesthetic.

Available in classic black or crisp white textured powder coat finish – or in custom colours upon request.

Modus are also capable of undertaking many types of customisation, from custom commodity type products to one off unique pendants. Give us a call or pop in and see us if you would like to talk about custom options for your next project.

What a nice Friday afternoon surprise.... 


We've just received a sample of the new Color Burst from Philips Color Kinetics via courier direct from PCK HQ in Boston.  New developments from Philips Color Kinetics generally cause some commotion in the Modus office, and this was especially true this afternoon as several of us have been waiting to get our hands on this little spotlight!!!  

glowing on the catwalk

With a design aesthetic described by some as cyber-goth Paris based UK designer Garath Pugh creates avant-garde clothing using materials as diverse as mink, synthetic hair and electrically charged plastic. His latest collection at Paris Fashion Week 2011 on March 2nd included models wearing LED mouthpieces that gave a certain otherworldly air to their appearance... see the image above from the Guardian.


An interesting use of lighting technology - allthough possibly not a look everyone could pull off.  Check out some more images here. 

The Key Issue...

Oooh!  New inspiration for lighting residential spaces from Modular... check out some fantastic international architecture in their latest publication The Key Issue.  Download it now or contact us for a paper version.....

Merry Christmas - this years greeting.

Victoria bridge light show.

On the blog lately there have been a number of posts about our involvement in the lighting for the 100th anniversary of the Victoria bridge which spans the Waikato river in Hamilton.

LED handrail - ledpod, simple handrail lighting.

Handrail lighting has traditionally been hard to specify, difficult to install, costly to purchase and costly to maintain. Easily damaged linear fluorescent systems have been the most popular, often requiring a secondary rail to be installed below as the lighting rail does not meet the relevant standard.

The video above shows a new patent pending system by our supplier Klik.

LED Feature wall concept test.

Previously on this blog I posted a photo of some of the panels running on the floor being checked before they were sent to site.

The above is a quick 13 second video of Brian, Tom and I fitting two of these panels to the wall to firstly check that the concept was sound, and to allow a photo instruction to be made for the onsite installers.

New agency - Brick In The Wall

Modus has had the recent pleasure of becoming the new agent for another unique brand out of Europe.

Specifically from Belgium, Brick in the wall manufacture a range of light fittings which are totally borderless. Designed for that minimalist look, all of these fittings can be recessed into either concrete or normal gib walls then painted the same colour as the rest of the wall.

Bringing Colour to Dunedin!

Last week, our South Island Team, from Mark Herring Lighting put on a great colour lighting demonstration  at the Historic Dunedin Railway Station. We can't say that this treatment would be 'advantageous' for this amazing historic building, but as a canvas for providing education and illustration of what can be achieved with coloured light- it was fantastic! This turned out to be great night- thanks to all that attended! (and Trevor even got his picture in the paper!)

Color Kinetics in Christchurch!

Mark Herring Lighting (The Modus Agent for the lower South Island) hosted a fantastic customer event last night. Introduced by the Mayor, Bob Parker and based around a product seminar and lots of hands on equipment in and around the Christchurch Town Hall, the evening was well attended by the local specifier and design community.

The temporary displays really highlighted what a bit of colour can bring to this iconic building and it's surrounds.Watch this space for some more colour in the deep south!

"Change is the essential process of all existence" Spock - Star Trek

Modular Lighting Instruments have just unveiled Spock........  until recently interior LED lighting has generally not been able to meet the illumination requirements of architects, designers and end users, retro-fit and "patchwork" LED solutions have been predominant in interior LED luminaires.

But changing technologies can now offer more advanced solutions.........

Spock is something completely different – a fitting designed as an LED luminaire with a unique aesthetic driven by technology with an unrivaled performance.

sem·a·phore (sěm'ə-fôr', -fōr') an apparatus for conveying information by means of visual signals, as a light whose position may be changed

Splore is an outdoor festival devoted to art, culture and community in the stunning Tepapakanga Regional Park just outside of Auckland City.  Alongside an impressive musical line up the bi-annual festival includes live performances, a variety of workshops and an art trail including site specific works throughout the site.

Christmas Lights

A couple of weeks ago Jasmax Ltd got in contact with us to float the idea of working together with Lightworks to put together something a little special in an empty cottage on Franklin Rd. 

Christmas in the City

As you can see from the pictures that Chris posted yesterday, the weather was stunning whilst we were installing the temporary lighting on the top of KZ1. The boat on the edges of the Auckland Viaduct Harbour has been lit for the team at Heart of the City as a part of Christmas in the City. All of us who were involved felt spoilt to have such an amazing "office" for the morning looking over the Waitamata Harbour on such a (surprisingly) sunny day.

Wintec winner

Last night Tania and I ran a lighting trial in Hamilton using Philips Color Kinetics LED & We-ef HID fixtures on the exterior of the (under) renovated Wintec building in Anglesea St. This old building is under going a major face lift, being gutted and rebuilt as the entry point to the Wintec campus.

A new dress for the 'Grand Old Lady'

My last post described the sort of difficulties we have to overcome as part and parcel of our job.... but last night was the reason why we do it...

Chris Huff, Maryanka van Schaik and myself spent a good part of the night helping commission parts of the Museum's new Philips Color Kinetic LED exterior lighting. The effects we gain from PCK LED products are stunning. Combined with the expertise of a leading international lighting design team, lightemotion, the result is stunning.... and that is just in the default 100% RGB mode. Once we add colours to the lighting scheme, it will be sensational. We would love to add some photos and show you some of the results, but perhaps it is better to wait for the unveiling....

Still some work to do, some more late nights to be done but we relish the opportunity to work with great companies like Allendale Electrical and learn new lighting techniques from experts like lightemotion.

Makes all the difficult days (and nights) worth it!

Sebel Trinity - Tauranga

The Sebel was the first of our ColorKinetics product launches in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato. It was a excellent chance to show our clients what the product can do. Night trials have to be the best way to show potential clients what can be achieved. Call us Lighting Geeks but its something we at Modus love to do!