February 2013

Responding to requests from its customers, Halytech has improved its Illuminator sportsfield lighting management system to monitors energy use and, where appropriate, enable councils to charge for it.

With the cost of electricity continuing to climb, Local Government Authorities everywhere are looking for ways to monitor their energy consumption and, where appropriate, adopt a user pays approach to the use of their facilities. At up to 2kW per lamp in a typical floodlight, the cost of running the lights on a typical sportsfield can be expensive, about $7 per hour for a field with four towers having four lamps each. For a local council with 10 sportsfields running for four hours a night, five nights a week, the cost can be about $1400 a week. Many councils have a lot more than ten fields!

Illuminator, which enables users to control sportsfield lighting using their mobile phone, ensures that floodlights are only used when required which, in itself, helps to minimise energy use. That it can now read an electricity meter (if fitted) at the start and finish times of a session and send the meter readings to council, will further assist councils in their efforts to reduce energy use. For those customers who already have Illuminator installed, their units can be upgraded to take advantage of this new feature.