To LED, or Not to LED
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I started my education into modern lighting in 2008 when our existing legacy metal halide canopy lighting was dictated to be upgraded by new requirements resulting from reimaging. The incremental improvement was to move to more efficient metal halide high intensity discharge (HID) lighting. However, LED canopy lighting had just become available from LSI and Beta. I embarked on reviewing both options and ultimately decided on LSI’s option. With the industry evolving at a rapid speed, product generations are only lasting a year, or sometimes less. Not to mention the fact that prices are dropping so quick that with our second purchase from LSI two years later, we realized it was significantly less for an improved product.
The industry started with focusing on canopy and perimeter lighting, but has moved into beverage cooler and most recently, interior lighting. Interior lighting has a lot more players than exterior, but it’s very critical that you do your research.
Here are some terminologies that are good to know when shopping for all lighting, not just LED:
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Kelvin – The temperature or "color" of the light. 2700K-3500K is warmer, yellowish light. 5000K-6500K is cooler, bluish light. 4000K falls in between with neutral, white light. It is very important to consider the mood you want to set in the environment.
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Lumens – This is the amount of light that is outputted. It’s important to compare lumens of existing lighting to any LED options. LED manufacturers are also trying to get the most lumens per watt for energy savings. Cheaper options often have reduced lumens or less lumens per watt.
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Color Rendering Index (CRI) – A rating of 100 is perfect color rendering. That means, all your products, fixtures, wall colors will look as they are supposed to. 90+ CRI is very good, most fluorescent falls in to 80-90 CRI. LED can range widely. Often, the lowest cost LED options have lower CRI ratings.
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Rated Hours – The median life of the product. LED canopy lights have a very high rating---usually 60,000 to 100,000 hours which is equivalent to 13-22 years of operation at 12 hours/day average. Interior lighting seems to be in the 35,000 to 50,000 hours, but operates most often 16-24 hours/day.
Now that you are a lighting expert, I must mention that fluorescent lighting still has a place in the lighting world. It is often about half to a third the price of premium LED options, and with modern T5 bulbs, you can get near LED life. I suggest that for hard/challenging areas to reach for maintenance, LED is a great option. That extra cost up front will pay off in the long run. That is why LED was first rolled out to canopy and perimeter lighting, in addition to the vast energy savings.
I can go on for pages and pages about lighting, so if you want additional information, I am happy to speak with CIOMA members, POC attendees and any interested parties about this topic. With every situation being unique, there is not always one best solution. I’m sure by the time this article is released, there will be yet another LED innovation being launched...
Article Provided By:
Chris Bambury
CIOMA & POC Board Member
