52 | Switch Lighting Ltd CONTRACTING Russell Fredric LEDs have become the new normal Nelson-based company Switch Lighting has proven to be one of New Zealand’s true luminaries when it comes to pioneering LED lighting solutions. Short for light emitting diodes, LEDs have become the new normal for numerous industrial, commercial and residential applications in recent years. Key benefits include advantages in design options and significant energy savings, which equate to 10% of the power consumption of an incandescent light bulb, in addition to considerably longer life. Now a multiple award-winning company that has won large international marine contracts, Switch Lighting was formed in 2009 by Gerard Woods, previously a mechanical engineer and Jon Maunsell who comes from an electronics background. “When we first started, people didn’t know what LEDs were. I used to talk to electricians, architects and wholesalers, and their first question was ‘what’s an LED.” The two skill sets complimented each other well in the designing and manufacturing of LED products. Jon first investigated LEDs in the late 1990s, not long after Nichia Engineer Shuji Nakamura invented the first high-brightness white LED in 1993. Jon subsequently designed and built his first LED light in 2003 and since then it has been a steady progression of learning and developing lighting products. It took a year to design and manufacture a product that was viable to put to market, Gerard says. All LED chips are manufactured overseas, but it was the New Zealand-manufactured luminaries, or lighting units that the LEDs are in, that Jon and Gerard were pioneering. “It was an evolution of making a product that we could actually sell and then it just went from there really; an evolution with the product development, trying to make products here in New Zealand cost efficiently with a focus on quality.” Today Switch Lighting offers multiple categories of LED-based lighting products for a broad range of applications. While there is widespread recognition of their advantages and lower costs, especially with mass production, Gerard recalls how that was not the case just over a decade ago. “When we first started, people didn’t know what LEDs were. I used to talk to electricians, architects and wholesalers, and their first question was ‘what’s an LED’ and why would we buy that.” The initial market was “anyone that would listen to me” he says. The company’s first product was a 13-watt light downlight that was created as an ideal replacement for a 50-watt halogen unit. It had similar characteristics, but as well the lower energy consumption had the significant advantage of much lower heat output so was a lot safer. One point of call, we do it all | www.christchurchelectrical.co.nz Switch Lighting Specialists NewHousing • LED Lighting Upgrades • Feature Lighting Energy Saving Products • Landscape Lighting
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