Mons city centre

Yoa creates a safe and harmonious nocturnal atmosphere while reducing the city’s energy consumption

Famous for its history, rich folklore and cultural life, Mons is a lively city due to the numerous events held year-long and the large number of students who live there. The most renowned event is the Doudou festival, listed as UNESCO World Heritage, which takes place each year on Trinity Sunday and attracts thousands of visitors. This folklore festival celebrates the city’s victory over the many enemies that the residents had to fight of during centuries and is a real source of pride for residents, who actively participate. 

For several years, the local authorities have been redeveloping the city’s historic centre to improve the quality of life for citizens and create a safe and inviting pedestrianised city centre where people want to spend time. 

City life also depends on the quality of its nocturnal reputation. Conscious of the importance of public lighting, the city drew up a Master Lighting Plan in 1995 in collaboration with the lighting designer, Jean-Pierre Majot. The purpose of this plan was to set the lighting guidelines for the city and create a sense of place by ensuring consistency throughout the cityscape over time.


Lighting the city for people

City centre
Mons
Belgium

Customer

City of Mons

Partner(s)

Energy supplier: ORES
Finance: Programmation Wallonie 2020 - European Regional Development Fund - City of Mons

Good lighting in a city, is lighting that makes you want to discover its streets and especially stay there.

City of Mons

In 2018, after receiving funding from the Walloon Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the city decided to replace the lighting in the pedestrian shopping streets, in line with the master lighting plan, to meet several objectives

  • highlight the architectural heritage;
  • increase the feeling of security;
  • guide people throughout the heart of the city, especially to its main square, Grand-Place;
  • reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint;
  • integrate the environment discreetly.

The local authorities, in collaboration with ORES and its design office, chose the Yoa luminaire with a dimming system as it satisfied all of the criteria.
 

Safety and comfort for urban life at night

The luminaires deliver a soft white light to guide people from one street to another. To emphasise the warm ambiance, the luminaires are equipped with LEDs with a colour temperature of 3000K while the façades of the stone buildings are lit with 4000K LEDs to highlight the architecture

An illuminance of 35 lux with a global uniformity of 40% and excellent perception of colours, reinforce the sense of safety so that the locals can wander around the streets, perusing the shops in complete confidence

The quality of the lighting is an asset for the city, especially during the Doudou festival which sees the city welcome tens of thousands of visitors, as it guarantees a secure environment. The lack of light pollution from the Yoa guarantees perfect images for the CCTV cameras, to enable the security services to keep an eye on the festivities and easily locate possible incidents.

In addition, to combat climate change, the city of Mons is committed to reducing its energy costs and each department has adopted an environmentally responsible approach. Street lighting represents a significant percentage of a city's energy bill. The switch to LED street lighting has enabled the city to reduce its annual energy consumption by 45%, despite 25 additional light points.
 

Energy and resource efficiency

As part of the city’s goals for an efficient public lighting, that on one hand improves the quality of life for its citizens and on the other hand reduces energy costs and the environmental footprint, the luminaires are programmed with 5 dimming levels: 

  • switch on - 10pm: 100%
  • 10pm - midnight: 50%
  • midnight - 4 am: 25%
  • 4am - 6am: 50%
  • 6am - switch off: 80%.

As part of its environmentally responsible approach, the city chose the lighting to meet the following criteria, in addition to energy savings:

  • easy maintenance;
  • OSP (Public Service Obligation) approved;
  • high-quality materials;
  • performance over time.

The Yoa luminaire, made of recyclable materials (aluminum and glass) met all the criteria. Its second generation LensoFlex®2 photometric engine guarantees high photometric performance with reduced energy consumption and maintenance costs.

Its’ simple and elegant design discreetly integrates all the different facades in the pedestrian streets. Due to the various configurations, the city opted to install the Yoa luminaire on the Lyre console. The ensemble ensures a harmonious coherence.

This energy-efficient lighting is very popular with the locals who are delighted by the new nocturnal atmosphere which enables them to take full advantage of the amenities in the city centre all year long.