Renovated Lighting Enhances Energy Efficiency and Brightness

Kreativ Teknik has recently completed a major installation and programming of lighting for Arctura in Östersund, Sweden.

When Jämtkraft built its new combined heat and power plant in Lugnvik 20 years ago, they needed a place to collect all the water. In 2003, Arctura was constructed, functioning essentially as a giant thermos. The tower is 65 meters high, 27 meters in diameter, and holds 26,000,000 liters (6,868,473 gallons) of water! The name Arctura takes inspiration from Jämtland’s provincial star, Arcturus.

In 2003, the tower was first lit using 198 Philips LED Line luminaires, whose light could shift colors through various programmed settings. At the time, the installation was one of Sweden’s very first large-scale LED installations. After 20 years of service, the tower and its façade lighting needed a renovation. Since the luminaires were no longer functioning properly, a decision was made to replace them with new ones. Following a procurement process, the contract was awarded to Kreativ Teknik with a solution from Signify (formerly Philips Lighting). The Philips-solution won the tender thanks to economic and environmental benefits, good warranties, and high reliability in their technical solutions.

Kreativ Teknik developed a technical solution, supplied the luminaires and control system, prepared them, focused the lighting, and created programming together with Jim Farula of Farula Lighting Design, based on the client's desired scenarios.

The lighting installation now consists of 150 Color Kinetics Blast Powercore gen5, IntelliHue luminiares, of which 10 illuminate the halo at the top of the building. Fifty luminaires are mounted on the upper ring, lighting the inner upper section of the façade. Another 50 are positioned on the lower part, lighting the inner lower section. Forty luminaires are placed outside at the base to illuminate an external mesh surrounding the façade. These 40 luminaires are also equipped with Rock Guards for protection against falling ice. Significant focus was placed on creating a reliable system that will last for many years. In addition to ice formation, factors such as lightning strikes and wind loads were also considered in the planning.

Each luminaire uses 47 W of power and features RGBMW LEDs. If all the luminaires were set to maximum the entire system would consume 7 kW. However, for warm white light, the consumption is only 3 kW, and during Christmas, when the lighting is red, it uses merely 1.64 kW! In dynamic modes where the light shifts across the façade, the consumption is even lower. Thanks to new technology, energy usage was significantly reduced while simultaneously enhancing the visual impact and brightness.

The system is controlled by a CueServer on-site, while the programming was done using ONYX from Obsidian Control Systems with 600 channels.

This large-scale project has been in our heads and hearts for a long time now and we are so happy and proud to see the finished result as we return Arctura to the people of Östersund with a wish that it will bring lots of joy and wonderment in the future!

“We are really proud to once again have our architectural lighting solutions from Color Kinetics installed at this Östersund landmark. Creating a stunning view while ensuring energy savings is a great feeling. And the option to change the lighting according to different occasions makes the solution very versatile. The project itself was a true team effort between Signify and our CSI (Certified System Integrators) partners: Kreativ Teknik and Farula Lighting Design. And of course, a special thanks to our customer Jämtkraft” Jonas Eriksson, KAM at Signify.