Case study · Logistics & warehousing
Case study · Logistics & warehousing
Executive summary
Vector Logistics, part of the RCL Foods group, runs temperature-controlled distribution from its Cape Town branch. The lighting upgrade removed an estimated 187,416 kWh a year and released an estimated 33.2 kVA of maximum demand, roughly 193 tonnes of CO₂e avoided annually. The headline reduction of about 23% understates the result, and the reason is the part of the building that is refrigerated.
187416kWh
Energy saved per year
(estimated)
23.4%
Reduction in lighting
energy (estimated)
193tCO₂e
Carbon avoided per
year (estimated)
33.2kVA
Maximum demand
released (estimated)
Figures are estimates derived from project close-out data and standard operating assumptions. They will vary with tariff, run hours and site conditions, and are indicative of this project rather than a guarantee of results on another site.
The project
Cold chain distribution has a lighting problem that does not exist anywhere else. Every watt a fitting draws inside a chilled or frozen space ends up as heat in that space, and the refrigeration plant then has to remove it. The site pays for that watt once at the light fitting and again at the compressor.
The multiplier is not small. Removing a watt of lighting load from refrigerated space removes appreciably more than a watt of total site load once the cooling duty is counted, which means the economics of a cold-store lighting retrofit are structurally better than the lighting numbers alone suggest.
The operational constraint runs the other way. A distribution facility cannot warm up while work is carried out, and stock cannot be moved out to make room for a lighting contractor. Access is the binding constraint on every cold-chain project.
The site was surveyed against a confirmed tariff and confirmed operating hours rather than against assumed ones, with exterior lighting on day and night sensors running twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and the operational areas running around the clock.
The scope was deliberately partial. At an estimated 23% reduction, this is not a whole-site conversion and was not presented as one: it is the areas where the return justified the disruption of working in a live temperature-controlled facility.
The lighting figures published here are lighting figures only. The refrigeration load avoided by removing lighting heat from the cold space is real and is additional to them, but it was not separately metered on this project, so it is not claimed as a number.
Why it worked
Carried forward
Meter the refrigeration effect. On the next cold-chain project the cooling duty attributable to lighting should be captured before and after, because it is the strongest argument in the sector and we currently cannot evidence it.
Supporting references
Tell us the areas, the hours they run, the lux you need to hit and your capex envelope. We'll come back inside the week with a design, a fitting schedule and a payback model.
Related: Logistics & warehousing LED