British LED lighting manufacturer Acrospire has worked with the London Borough of Waltham Forest to complete a borough-wide LED street lighting retrofit programme, upgrading around 500 lanterns across residential streets.
The project used bespoke retrofit kits to upgrade existing luminaires with LED technology while retaining the original lantern housings.
According to the council, the approach was selected to preserve the established appearance of residential streets while improving lighting efficiency and reducing maintenance requirements.
Many of the borough’s existing lanterns feature curved architectural designs that differ from standard street lighting fittings.
Leo Cole, Street Lighting & Responsive Maintenance Manager at the London Borough of Waltham Forest, says, “We were looking to move to LED to improve efficiency, but struggled to find a modern luminaire that matched the look and feel of what we already had.
“We didn’t want to replace these lanterns with standard fittings. They’ve become part of the character of the area.”
LED retrofit reduces energy use
The programme was supported through funding from the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF).
Contractor JB Riney managed planning and installation works, with the retrofit process involving the replacement of the existing optical system and control gear while retaining the external luminaire body.
A trial phase was carried out before wider deployment to assess lighting levels, uniformity, and potential light spill into nearby properties, and Acrospire also developed a back shield to reduce light intrusion into residential windows.
According to the project partners, the retrofit programme is expected to reduce circuit wattage by approximately 45% compared to the previous installation.
The lanterns were specified at 3000K to provide warmer lighting suited to residential areas, and installation work was carried out in situ, with each retrofit taking around five minutes per lantern.
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