Road lighting is a very broad category, consisting of at least several different application areas, e.g., motorways and expressways, which require the highest lighting classes and are illuminated by luminaires with high luminous flux and power. The next category are national and provincial roads, where “medium-grade” luminaires are used.
This is where “smart” luminaires, incorporated into dedicated systems and managed remotely, are most often used. Such solutions enable easy administration and control and can help generate savings. For instance, luminaires connected to the Interact system are more than just ordinary light sources because they also improve user comfort and safety. They collect information about traffic volume, air quality and weather and can call for help in case of an accident. In the future, they will also provide Internet access during travel.
The biggest part of the market are county, communal and local roads, which use luminaires with relatively low luminous flux and power. This subcategory also includes applications where road luminaires are used to illuminate car parks, residential estates or industrial areas.
What are the characteristic features of this subcategory?
Firstly, it is, by and large, a market for luminaire retrofit and replacement. It is estimated that approx. 75% of existing infrastructure in Poland uses conventional luminaires. In actual practice, they mostly include sodium luminaires, which replaced mercury luminaires 15–25 years ago. This means that, in many cases, the service life of these systems is drawing to an end, and the luminaires have to be replaced.Also, in a few years’ time, sodium luminaires will likely be withdrawn from sale in the European Union, preventing further use of existing conventional systems.
Secondly, the purchase and replacement of the luminaires are very often performed as part of maintenance activities instead of one-off group refurbishment projects. When the luminaires are replaced as part of regular maintenance activities, affordable price and immediate availability are the most important criteria. Also, the customers expect a good fit with the existing system, a manufacturer’s warranty or stability of the offering, understood as the availability of the product in the market for at least a few years, including a list of spare parts.
This is precisely the application area addressed by Signify with the PHILIPS CoreLine Malaga LED product.
Even in the times of conventional products, the PHILIPS MALAGA series of sodium luminaires was highly appreciated by customers. The product successfully addressed the needs of the market in many countries in the world, including Poland. This approach continues in the LED era with the CoreLine Malaga LED luminaires, which we will refer to as simply MALAGA in further parts of the text because its sodium predecessor has not been available for sale for over one year.
First off, MALAGA is a product originating from the Polish factory of Signify located in Kętrzyn.It has 2 available body sizes – the bigger one, BRP102, with a length of approx. 50 cm, and the smaller one, BRP101, with a length of approx. 30 cm. The bodies are made of high-pressure aluminium casting, which, unlike pressed aluminium, is much better at dissipating the heat generated by the power supply units of the LED modules. It is a commonly known fact that critical point temperatures reached by LED luminaires affect the service life of the product and have a direct impact on its luminous efficacy. Therefore, the temperature in the MALAGA luminaire is under full control, and there is no need for additional cooling fins in the body, which is the reason the top of the luminaire is flat. This prevents the accumulation of impurities, which have a negative impact on the thermal performance of the luminaire and its appearance. The aluminium casting is powder-coated.
On the bottom, MALAGA is enclosed with a flat diffuser made of tempered glass with IK08 impact strength. The flat diffuser reduces the emission of undesirable light into the upper half-space and limits glare. It is made of glass, which ensures the stability of light transmittance throughout the service life of the product because the glass is insensitive to solar UV radiation and, unlike plastic, does not age. The glass diffuser of the MALAGA luminaire is screwed to the body with 4 screws using specially profiled components pressing on the glass in the corners to achieve the IP65 protection rating.
Inside the body, on the other side of the glass, the luminaire contains the power supply unit and the LED module. MALAGA luminaires use professional PHILIPS power supply units dedicated to exterior lighting, which means, in particular, that they offer enhanced durability and surge resistance. The power supply unit can be replaced if it is faulty, and it is an officially available spare part. This is very uncommon in this application area, distinguishing PHILIPS from its competitors, which generally use low-class power supply units or units integrated with LED boards, preventing their repair or replacement. The LED module in the MALAGA luminaire is equipped with medium-powered LEDs, and the photometric shape of the luminaire has been formed using dedicated lenses.
Thus, to facilitate maintenance, the diffuser in the MALAGA luminaire is easy to dismantle to enable easy access to the inside of the product, but the luminaire does not have to be opened during the first installation. Also, unlike most luminaires in the market, the luminaire is not supplied with a factory-fitted cable. As we all know, a prefabricated cable with a length of 30–50 cm is a problem for the installer because it has to be connected mechanically to the power cable passing from the luminaire through the arm and/or post. The MALAGA luminaire has a “quick-connect termination” system in the spigot, which means that no additional components are needed to connect the luminaire to the existing system.
The spigot is suitable for arm diameters from 42 to 60 mm.
The current basic MALAGA portfolio includes 4 types of luminaires designed as 1:1 equivalents of 50, 70, 100 and 150 W sodium luminaires:
- the equivalent of the 50 W sodium luminaire has a wattage of 30 W and is offered in the small BRP101 body,
- the equivalent of three higher-powered sodium luminaires are offered in the BRP102 body, and their power consumption is 39, 56 and 83 W, respectively.
If you want to calculate your savings, remember to add 10% to 15% of the power of the lamp to the total wattage of the sodium luminaire due to ballast losses. Thus, it is easy to determine that if you use MALAGA luminaires as direct equivalents of sodium luminaires, you will reduce the installed power by 50% without reducing the illumination of the working area.
The basic portfolio includes luminaires conforming to appliance class II,which is also a unique feature of the PHILIPS brand. Appliance class II guarantees that the product can be correctly installed also in many older systems, where there is no access to a three-conductor system with a separate protective conductor (PE). This is a great advantage over products conforming to class I for this application area.
The street luminaires in the basic portfolio have a colour temperature of 740. The entire basic portfolio is available immediately from the warehouse of the manufacturer or partner.
In addition to the basic portfolio, Signify offers many other versions normally manufactured at the factory in Kętrzyn. These include the following:
- colour temperature of 730, conforming to the European trend to reduce blue light,
- appliance class I,
- wide distribution of luminous flux,
- constant lumen output (CLO) and integrated dynadimmer (DDF),
- additional surge protection,
- body painted to any colour,
- additional anti-corrosive coating (MSP), e.g., for coastal systems,
- additional internal fuse,
- photocell,
- prefabricated power cable.
The MALAGA street luminaire series has a service life of 100,000 h and is one of the few products in its class with all the parameters declared by the manufacturer confirmed with ENEC and ENEC PLUS certificates.