enLighten Australia, a Sydney based energy efficiency and lighting solutions company, has announced the launch of three new commercial products and the expansion of its operations into West Australia and Victoria amid growing private and public sector uptake of LED lighting.

The Artarmon based company has enjoyed considerable success in the last 12 months with demand for its Chamaeleon multi-function light, a specialty light for low occupancy spaces that has been proven to reduce energy consumption by as much as 93%.

In the 2011-2012 financial year, enLighten increased its sales by 450%, in the process expanding its commercial property client base to include the following, a number of whom are planning to roll out Chamaeleon installations across national portfolios :

Colonial First State Asset Management;
DEXUS;
General Property Trust;
AMP Capital; and,
Mirvac

In addition, high rise residential strata and community housing have been strong growth sectors, with enLighten successfully winning three rounds of commercial tenders for common area lighting upgrades in NSW Land and Housing Corporation properties.

Having launched its Victorian office in March this year enLighten has recently commenced operations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory through the appointment of a distributor and is already fielding enquiries from commercial and mining clients.

“With a clear financial benefit, LED lighting has come of age,” says enLighten chief executive and co-founder David Whitfield.

“Lighting accounts for more than 20% of energy cost in commercial and retail markets and with the introduction of the Carbon Tax and rising electricity prices this cost is likely to increase exponentially.”

enLighten, which is encouraging its clients to literally ‘Look-Up’ to reduce energy consumption, is committed to developing products that reduce energy and provide a quicker and more compelling return on investment. In the case of the Chamaeleon, which is typically used in fire stairs, car parks and back of house areas, many of enLighten’s private and public sector clients have reduced their energy consumption by up to 93% and achieved an ROI of between 0.8 and 2.5 years with the inclusion of Energy Savings Certificates.

“The energy saving merits of Chamaeleon are seen as highly compelling and will become even more so as energy costs, fueled by a carbon price, continue to escalate,” David says.

While demand for Chamaeleon continues to grow, enLighten has in recent months also focused on designing low energy lighting solutions for high occupancy areas such as commercial office tenancies, schools, hospitals, hotels and large retailers.

The home grown innovation has resulted in three new lighting solutions: the Velorum LED troffer, which is suitable for replacing T8 and T5 fluorescent lighting in grid ceiling applications, the Pixidis LED down light, which offers a high quality efficient alternative to halogen lighting and the Cetus LED high bay and low bay range, suitable for manufacturing, loading docks, retail & warehousing applications.

An ideal retrofit solution for CBD program tenancy lighting assessments, the Velorum delivers more lumens per watt than other LED products on the market and uses enLighten’s own power module self-test EPM technology. EPM guarantees long life whilst supporting a range of high-tech add-ons to maximise energy savings and improve the all-of-life cost.

The Velorum troffer has delivered up to 70% energy savings compared to traditional fluorescent lighting and offers enLighten’s patented Radio Frequency Occupancy Sensing (RFOS) technology, which senses movement and allows light to be delivered to the space in accordance with operational requirements.

The Pixidis down light also offers flexible light management capabilities and enables energy savings of up to 80% compared to halogen lighting.

The Cetus can be used in both high bay and low bay applications using a variety of company designed lense types to tailor the light output to the lighting need. Cetus offers 50-70% savings compared to traditional mercury vapour lighting

All solutions also drastically reduce building heat load caused by lighting by up to 80%, thus reducing the cost of air conditioning.

The company launched its first LED lighting product in November 2009 and carried out its first commercial installation in April 2010.

“A number of early project successes established our business credentials and drove us to pursue our vision for energy efficient lighting,” David says.

With its expanding product range and client base, enLighten is receiving recognition for its strong business growth potential. The company was shortlisted as one of 24 finalists from 5,000 entries in the 2012 Telstra Business Awards and is currently a semi-finalist in the Commonwealth Government’s Cleantech Open Awards. The clean technology awards, launched by Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change & Energy Efficiency, Mark Dreyfus, MP, QC, are designed to help local businesses develop to meets the growing needs of the green economy. The Australian clean technologies sector is currently valued at $26 billion and employs over 45,000 people nationally.

Mr. Whitfield, a passionate advocate for more Australian innovation, is calling for greater Government and industry collaboration to create an environment that fosters new ideas and encourages investment to once again make ‘Australia the Clever Country.’

“Better innovation, especially in the area of energy efficiency, will allow businesses to reduce their carbon footprint as well as create employment and value for the Australian economy for the long term,” David says.

The company is currently assessing distribution partnerships in VIC and QLD, which will broaden the existing geographic reach. With the assistance of Enterprise Connect Australia, the management team are also conducting targeted export market analyses with plans for a staged international market entry from 2013.