Museum Draiflessen Collection - LED conversion architectural & museum lighting

Case Study Conversion to sustainable LED lighting

Category: Arts & Culture, Specials

LED Light in Museums - The Art of Lighting Art
The collaboration between the KOBER Lichtplaner and the Museum Draiflessen Collection began about 10 years ago. Due to the EU lamp ban, the replacement lamps required for the 400 halogen spotlights used to illuminate the temporary exhibitions are no longer available. In addition, the high energy consumption and high maintenance costs due to the short life cycles of the analogue lamps were key factors in a project to convert the architecture and exhibition areas to sustainable LED lighting.

Exhibition lighting
The Draiflessen Collection had a large inventory of high quality spotlights for exhibition lighting. The lights were about 10 years old and thus came from a time when LED technology - unlike today - did not yet meet the requirements of high-quality museum lighting. The spotlights used used 50-100W halogen lamps, which have a very good color rendering spectrum, but from today's perspective also have some serious disadvantages compared to the most modern LED museum spotlights: very high energy consumption, high heat input with corresponding additional costs for air conditioning (ratio 1:2 of connected load light necessary air conditioning energy), high UV and IR damage factor, high maintenance costs, strong shift in color temperature when dimming, scattered light due to the use of reflectors, lamps can no longer be obtained due to the EU lamp ban.

Based on the design and lighting possibilities of the latest LED technology, extensive comparative samples and calculations were carried out with spotlights from leading manufacturers. By switching from reflector technology to projection technology with high-performance polymer lenses, stray light could be completely avoided for more dramatic accentuation, and the energy consumption of the exhibition lighting was reduced by 83% compared to the previous lighting. Special light distributions such as contour spotlights for sharp-edged illumination of images were used, as were variable zoom spotlights with flexible oval or rotationally symmetrical light distributions. A high-power LED chip with 3,500 degrees Kelvin and CRI92 L90B10 was selected in various test lighting. This means that the new exhibition lighting is significantly cooler and therefore "fresher" illuminated than was previously possible with conventional lamps. For many visitors, the light now appears more "objective" and "neutral" for art. Mock-ups were also carried out with tunable white spotlights, among other things, or the latest Casambi Bluetooth light controls were tested or special accessories for optimal exhibition lighting were developed with lighting manufacturers.

Architectural lighting foyer
Until now, the spacious foyer area has mainly been illuminated by light coves with fluorescent lamps. In addition to saving electricity (56%) through more efficient LED light lines in the coves, the topic here was improving the quality of light. Fluorescent lamps change their spectrum and light color as they age - sometimes differently from lamp to lamp. As a result, homogeneous and uniform lighting can only be achieved with a very high level of maintenance. The new LED technology can be installed in the existing coves with little structural effort after preliminary design planning by KOBER light planners.

Project planning, TCO calculation, funding programs
In addition to the design and lighting tasks, the engineers at KOBER also supported the lighting planners in the project planning when calculating the energy savings and amortization of the LED refurbishment as part of a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) analysis. The commercial preparation of the award talks was just as much a part of the scope of services as the analysis of alternative financing models such as the rental of luminaires or light leasing. In addition, suitable funding programs for energy-related renovations were researched and the corresponding applications were successfully submitted. Finally, the installation was accompanied and the new system illuminated.

Emil Nolde – a critical approach by Mischa Kuball
The new exhibition lighting was used for the first time as part of the exhibition "Emil Nolde - a critical approach by Mischa Kuball" 2020. More information can be found in the project report.

Further case studies or services for LED conversion in the museum can be found here:
Folkwang Museum Essen
Museum Münster
LED Museum Workshop