Australian LED lighting manufacturer AQUALUMA, is no stranger in moving quickly to meet the market and seize opportunities. This privately owned business, based on the Gold Coast has its heritage in the glamorous marine world of designing and manufacturing the world’s most efficient underwater lighting for luxury motor yachts and cruisers.
Whilst being a very desirable product, underwater lighting in 2007/8 became very much a luxury rather than a necessity for owners of motor yachts and the market contracted globally at a remarkable pace as the GFC hit hard.
Dusting themselves off very quickly and taking their expertise and relationships with LED chip and optics manufacturers the owners recognised an opportunity in the less volatile market of commercial lighting. Commercial highbay lighting products in the market at that time were of questionable quality, very inefficient and completely environmentally unfriendly.
The AQUALUMA team spent a considerable time in the R&D lab, designing and testing to develop a world-leading LED highbay light. The result was a new LED high-bay luminaire that achieved energy efficiency levels unheard of in the market at that time and providing a warranty of seven years overcame any scepticism the market held for the new technology. They were unique in being environmentally friendly; being both recyclable and upgradable as technology improved.
The current AQUALUMA range of premium LED High-bay lights ranges from 90w to 250w and includes a number of variants and optical options, ideally suited to manufacturers, engineering companies, logistics centres, freight companies, warehouses, storage faculties, vehicle showrooms, big-box retail stores and outdoor use. There is a pipeline of new products due to come out of the R&D centre later this year.
The company is proudly Australian and prides itself on manufacturing the entire range from its purpose-built facility on the Gold Coast using local labour and sourcing 90% of its components from local suppliers. The heritage in the marine sector show through in the quality of the AQUALUMA product, aluminium marine-grade heat sink and body is cast in Victoria and plastics from a local supplier in Queensland.
The AQUALUMA range is a premium product with world-leading energy efficiency, optical capability and the ability to be controlled by some very sophisticated software. Typically, current clients are Blue Chip companies with an eye on whole of life costing, payback and minimal maintenance costs.
The market for LED commercial lighting has been flooded over the past few years with imported product, inevitably driving quality down. Again, being nimble to rapidly changing market conditions and to access new clients AQUALUMA has responded to this imported challenge by launching a new product the ‘Lite-bay’, which is complimentary to its existing premium quality LED Highbay lights.
The Lite-bay aims to compete with imported LED High-bay lights, with competitive pricing and superior performance. The new Lite-bay is still an AQUALUMA premium quality product, standing head and shoulders over the competition with 130w output, IP66 water ingress rating, marine grade epoxy powder-coated aluminium housing and heat sink, but available at a market leading price with an Aqualuma warranty and is Australian made.
The Light-bay is a straightforward luminaire, designed for the business that needs a simple lighting solution to either replace existing metal halide lighting or to fit out a new premise without complex controls or optics. It uses many components and marine grade casting from the existing range of High-bay luminaires, ensuring that the unit is still of the highest quality and will outlast any of the competition, particularly in harsh or coastal environments.
Owing to its superior energy efficiency and reliability the AQUALUMA range is ideally suited to the demanding requirements of manufacturing, engineering and storage and warehouse facilities, where minimising running costs and maintenance are key.
The Lite-bay is 130w and generally replaces an existing 400w metal halide commercial light. Its efficiency is a class leading 127 lumens/watt and it is water ingress rated to IP66, meaning that it can be used externally and hosed off for washing if required. Typically, energy savings of over 75% will be realised, making for a very quick payback. Across NSW, Vic and SA there are energy rebates available making the changeover even more affordable and in some cases, making it cash flow positive from day one when coupled to one of AQUALUMA’s range of financing options.
Based on the Gold Coast, AQUALUMA is a privately owned business, it carries out all its R&D, testing and manufacturing from its new purpose built facility at Helensvale. The owners are still actively involved in the business and it is usual to see them involved on site working on clients’ projects.
AQUALUMA has remained the world leader in underwater marine lighting and has continued to innovate over the past ten years to stay ahead of the competition and increase options for clients, they also have a TV camera that can video the fish that the lights attract and display it on one of the on-board display screens.
The AQUALUMA range for both Marine and Industrial/Commercial is available across all states having a team of national distributors and direct sales, experienced in working with some of the country’s leading logistics, transport, wholesale and big-box retail stores and marine manufacturers and boat builders. The company exports all its products across the globe, key markets include UK, US, Canada, New Zealand Hong Kong and Asia. AQUALUMA has won too many awards to mention for innovation and marketing. For the second time it proudly won the Premier’s Export Award in 2016.
For more information on the Lite-bay or any other model from the range of AQUALUMA High-bay luminaires from 90w to 250w, please call 1300 145 555, email info@aqualuma.com or visit www.aqualuma.com
