Osram Creates Intelligent Light Solution for VW Parking Garage

One of the largest and most modern logistics centers in Europe is located at Baunatal near Kassel in Germany – the original parts center for Volkswagen. More than 450,000 VW original components are dispatched from the location.
 
As part of the “Think Blue. Factory.” campaign, Volkswagen also aimed to set standards in terms of energy saving, and decided to sustainably upgrade the company’s employee car park with 500 parking lots. Energy savings of 65% are now achieved with the new lighting installation from Osram based on innovative LED luminaires and intelligent light control. The investment is also paid back within three years.
 
The obsolete system was equipped with 350 1×58 W damp-proof luminaires with low-loss ballasts and a yearly consumption of approximately 140,000 kWh, corresponding to greenhouse gas emissions of 93 tons. As a first step, technicians from VW and Osram/Siteco carried out a detailed analysis together concerning future needs. Frequentation in the existing car park was measured by a data logger, and the measuring results were then input into the cost-efficiency calculation.
 
Based on these calculations, Osram Lighting Solutions then developed a comprehensive lighting solution for the VW parking garage. The car park is now equipped with Siteco Monsun 2 LED damp-proof luminaires.
 
The luminaires were combined with state-of-the-art sensor and control technology. Osram offers the PC 1 infrared sensor specifically for car park applications, featuring a detection characteristic matched for car park applications to precisely detect the motion of people and vehicles.
 
“It achieves a very high tangential detection range of 40 metres in diameter, meaning less sensors are needed for such relatively large areas, and these areas are also reliably detected,” explained Christian Remmelberger-König, application engineer at Osram Lighting Solutions.
 
The intelligent Basic Industry control precisely matches the illuminance level to momentary lighting needs in the parking areas, and luminaires are controlled according to the specific parking level via DALI depending on levels of daylight and motion.
 
If nobody is present in the sensor detection range, the system runs in reduced mode that in this case is set to 20% of regular illuminance. If motion is detected in the detection range, the corresponding luminaires are immediately raised to 100% illuminance.
 
Energy reduction with the new system is a verifiable 65% and the return on investment (ROI) is three years. The 350 new luminaires together with high-resolution sensors and professional control technology annually save approximately 90,000 kWh and 60,000 tons of CO2 emissions.