Finlandia Hall

Finlandia Hall, located on the shore of Helsinki’s Töölönlahti Bay, is a work of art designed by Alvar Aalto. It has various light fittings designed by the maestro himself, and his original vision was that only incandescent light bulbs should be used as the hall’s source of artificial light. The indoor light sources were replaced with LEDs and compact fluorescent lights. On the roof of Finlandia Hall six 290 W LED floodlights have been installed, replacing the previous twelve 1000 W metal-halide lights. In the hall’s social spaces, staff canteen, cleaning facilities and various HVAC rooms lights were replaced and movement sensors fitted. This solution enables significant savings to be made compared with the previous situation. And personnel no longer have to worry about turning the lights on and off. In addition, the light is clearly friendlier on the eye, even at full power. Benefits Indoors the upgrade to LED and compact fluorescent sources has led to significant savings. The lower energy consumption and reduced cost of air conditioning increased savings even more. Ilkka Rautakivi, Technical Manager Finlandia Hall, has this to say: “We managed to reduce energy consumption in the conference rooms by a third without the conference guests noticing any difference in the amount of light. Moreover, annual savings of 1837 euros are now being achieved with the ColorReach lights. When the annual savings in lamp purchase costs and replacement work charges are taken into account, total annual savings amount to approximately 3500 euros.” According to Sakari Wikholm, Finlandia Hall’s Lighting Manager, the best thing about the new ColorReach LED floodlights are the colours they offer. “The solution allows the lighting managers to control the lighting from indoors instead of having to endure the freezing cold wind up on the roof. They are able to create their art using their own computers, in real time. Even so, the lighting colour and level are still usually changed according to programmed routines. Now we are able to create a separate colour scheme for each event to suit the individual organizer’s requirements. Our major customers see this as a significant improvement.”