Since it was founded in 1967, the Contipark Group has been planning, developing and operating public parking facilities. It is part of the Interparking Group, one of the largest car park operators in Europe, and has a leading role in the market, operating almost 500 parking facilities in more than 180 cities in Germany and Austria.

Apart from setting tariffs, the company's activities focus on managing, revitalizing, converting, marketing, renovating and maintaining the facilities. All renovation and building concepts are always developed based on all prescribed structural requirements and the Energy Savings Law (EnEG). This means that Contipark also always uses the latest and most efficient lighting technologies and options, including LED tubes and LED luminaires. OSRAM supports the company as a lighting consultant and supplier, and GreenTech Solutions is in charge of installations and upgrades to the car parks, making both companies Contipark's partners. Two joint projects in 2015, the Contipark underground car park at Kurhausplatz in Wiesbaden and the Contipark Libori Galerie car park in Paderborn, clearly demonstrate the significant potential for energy and cost savings by simply upgrading traditional fluorescent tubes to innovative OSRAM SubstiTUBE LED tubes.

Right from the start, Contipark placed the following mandatory requirements on the products to be used for Wiesbaden and Paderborn: branded articles, a luminous flux of at least 3,200 or 3,000 lm, a cold white light color of 6,500 K, and a 5-year guarantee.

The “Kurhaus” underground car park, which was opened in 2006 and is laid out over two levels, was the only building out of 50 to be rated “very good” by ADAC, the German Automobile Association. Motion detectors have been installed near the entrance and exit, the stairs, and the ramps, only switching the luminaires for the relevant sections. The car park is open 24 hours a day, which means it is continuously lit – minus 20% for lighting control, making 7,008 hours a year. Dual-lamp damp-proof troughs with a length of 1,500 mm and each equipped with two T8 fluorescent lamps (58 W) had been installed throughout the car park. These needed to be replaced with LED tubes, for which OSRAM SubstiTUBE Advanced Gen. 4 were chosen.

More than 700 T8 fluorescent lamps (58 W) were replaced with OSRAM SubstiTUBE Advanced Gen. 4 LED tubes with 30 W. The actual consumption before the upgrade was more than 300,000 kWh/a, and afterwards only 150,000 kWh/a, reducing energy consumption by half. With an annual operating time of 7,008 hours, savings in energy costs of about 25,000€ and CO₂ savings of about 90,000kg can be achieved per year. The payback period is as low as 2.2 years.

The car park in Paderborn which was opened in 1995 has four parking levels, three of which have a roof. It is lit for 20 hours a day, approximately 7,300 hours a year. OSRAM SubstiTUBE products were also chosen in this case.

In Paderborn, around 900 T8 fluorescent lamps (58 W) were replaced with OSRAM SubstiTUBE Advanced Gen. 4 LED tubes, 300 of which with 28 W, 600 with 22 W, and all of them with a light color of 865 – so a high color rendering index of Ra=80. Each year, they provide cost savings of about 35,000€, power savings of about 55% (previously 300,000 kWh/a, now 140,000 kWh/a), and CO₂ savings of about 90,000kg.

As a result of the two upgrades in Wiesbaden and Paderborn alone, Contipark is saving about 60,000€ of energy costs a year thanks to the switch from traditional fluorescent tubes to innovative SubstiTUBE LED tubes. With currently approximately 500 parking facilities in operation, it is easy to work out how large the short-term and long-term potential for energy and cost savings is for Contipark if it continues to collaborate with LEDVANCE.