Dubai’s new LED lamp to soon become mandatory for all new buildings

All new buildings in Dubai will soon have to mandatorily fix specific LED lights, the Dubai Municipality has revealed.

The municipality has signed a five-year contract with Philips Lighting to create and develop the ‘Dubai Lamp’ – claimed to be the world’s first commercially available 200 lumen per Watt LED lamp.

Expected to be made available in the Dubai market by the end of this year, the lamp will be available in different shapes and colours, official news agency WAM reported.

With an average lifespan up to 15 times longer than conventional lamps – based upon typical usage of 1,000 hours per year – the lamp is considered environmentally friendly as it does not contain mercury or generate heat.

It will also offer savings in electricity use by up to 90 per cent.

The manufacturing and supply of lamps will start during March 2017, and they will be available in four models, both in cool daylight and warm white colours. That includes 1W candle lamps to replace the 25W incandescent lamp, 2W bulbs to replace 40W incandescent lamps, 3W bulbs to replace 60W incandescent lamps, and the 3W MR16 Spot to replace 50W halogen spots.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality, said: “We have plans to replace 80 per cent of the traditional lamps used in Dubai with the new Dubai Lamp. Dubai Municipality and Philips Lighting are preparing for the supply of two million Dubai Lamps for residential and professional use across the city in 2017. This could increase to 10 million lamps by 2021.

“To begin with, we will make it mandatory for new buildings under construction to use Dubai Lamp. It will be made the basic requirement for getting the Building Completion Certificate,” he said.

“This will be beneficial for both sides. The owner of the building will be able to save a lot of money on energy charges and we will able to protect the environment.”

The initiative will initially focus on new buildings and big complexes such as schools, hospitals and mosques, said Lootah.

A study will also be undertaken on the implementation mechanism for old buildings.

He said the Dubai Lamp initiative aims to raise public awareness about energy saving and the reduction of carbon emissions.

“It supports the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy which targets a 30 per cent reduction in energy consumption by 2030 and the Dubai Carbon Abatement Strategy aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 16 per cent by 2021,” said Lootah.

Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, assistant director general of Dubai Municipality for Environment, Health and Safety Control Sector, said the initiative also aims to develop sustainable energy policies.

“The initiative aims to meet the current and future challenges facing the energy sector and to formulate responsible policies for implementing and developing mechanisms and frameworks,” he said.

“It promotes to continue striving for responsible and rational use of fuel in the global economy with encouragement to expedite the process of safe and timely transition to renewable energy sources,” he added.