Skip to main content

London Merton Borough Council retrofits VLED SUPRAX 8488 modules

Venture Lighting Europe reports that the London Borough of Merton is the latest to use the company’s advanced VLED Westminster Retrofit Street Light engine Merton has around 3,000 of the Westminster light engines that use the latest technology, SUPRAX glass optic. The VLED module has been retrofitted to the council’s existing street lighting lanterns as part of a borough-wide upgrade to LED lighting from its previous SON lamps.
January 24, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Before and after in London’s Borough of Merton
RSSVenture Lighting Europe reports that the London Borough of Merton is the latest to use the company’s advanced VLED Westminster Retrofit Street Light engine

Merton has around 3,000 of the Westminster light engines that use the latest technology, SUPRAX glass optic. The VLED module has been retrofitted to the council’s existing street lighting lanterns as part of a borough-wide upgrade to LED lighting from its previous SON lamps.

Installed by Kier Street Lighting Services, this initiative was delivered as a part of an Invest-to-Save scheme to complement the council’s capital relighting programme to replace all borough lighting with LED. The Westminster modules were installed directly into the council’s existing street lighting columns using the plug-and-play feature eliminating the need for lengthy road closures or lighting downtime.

Steve Shew, interim infrastructure manager at Merton said the VLED module was presented to the council with a projected payback period of less than three years. “By using a retrofit solution we were able to use existing columns and lanterns, which saved considerable time and money.”

Venture says that once the module is installed it is virtually maintenance free with a life of 100,000 hours. The VLED module can be built with outputs between 12-105W while still producing high lumen packages beyond 11,000 lm and delivering an excellent efficacy of up to 133 lumens/circuit watt.

With such high performance and energy efficient output the VLEDs not only offer improved lighting compared to less efficient HPS lamps, but have considerably lower energy consumption. The module can be programmed with a part night dimming driver with the ability to extend this using full DALI controls to offer customers the opportunity to produce even greater energy savings.

Venture Lighting Europe partnered with its sister company, Auer Lighting in Germany, to produce the VLED Westminster SUPRAX 8488 borosilicate glass optic, which forms the centrepiece of the street lighting module. Venture says that this is both temperature and UV resistant, which allows the module to offer the stability and long service life demanded in the street lighting environment and eliminates the need for regular maintenance.

Related Content

  • High marks for road marking solutions
    December 3, 2013
    A novel solution based on a leading road marking manufacturer’s proven marking technology is keeping elderly residents safe in a French residential development. Guy Woodford reports on this and other major road marking products and their applications By 2050, it is estimated that 45% of European Union citizens will be over 60. Many authorities have been working to develop and implement safety standards that will ensure enhanced mobility for their local elderly population. As part of their implementation,
  • Safety measures aid workzone accident reduction
    February 20, 2012
    Everyone connected with the highway industry is involved in the efforts to cut down the number of work zone accidents. Patrick Smith reports. A few months ago, as road work resumed on America's highways and bridges, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on drivers to use extra caution in work zones. At the same time he commended the success in reducing overall roadway fatalities in each of the last seven years.
  • Lowering lighting costs
    February 7, 2012
    Local authorities in Canada are taking advantage of the latest technology to cut street lighting bills using optimisation systems. This helps reduce energy costs, extend the life of lighting and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Canadian firm Streetlight Intelligence says it is seeing increasing take up of its low energy lighting solution following its National Demonstration Programme for its Lumen IQ street light optimisation technology with cities and utility firms across Canada.
  • Vejdirektoratet finishes €18.75 million LED update
    May 5, 2025
    The Danish Road Directorate, Vejdirektoratet, said lower operating costs of LED highway lights mean the return on investment could be only six years.