Important Considerations Before an LED Retrofit
For building and facility owners and property managers looking to increase the value of their commercial properties, it’s important to consider different options that will hold value over time, decrease costs associated with maintenance, and conserve energy. One way to accomplish these goals is with an LED retrofit. With the number of LED options available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when making decisions about updating your building lighting. With the advancement of technology, the decision making process has become much more complicated. Here are the three most important things to keep in mind when considering an LED lighting retrofit.
• What matters most to your business?
Understandably, the primary factor in most decision making processes is money, and the same is true in the LED retrofits. Beyond just the desire to save money, however, are several specific factors to consider as you plan out your project. These factors are energy, maintenance, and performance. Which matters most to your business?
Energy
Don’t expect utility companies to cut the cost of energy any time soon. Considering that, and the fact that energy comprises about 80% of your total lighting costs, the financial benefits of an LED retrofit become very apparent. Switching from fluorescent to LED in your building’s high burn hour areas alone, for example, could take your energy spend down 60-90%.
Maintenance
It’s easy to look at the amount of time spent maintaining and fixing lights at your facility as a necessary evil, but it is important to understand the amount of money and time being lost with these tasks that could be avoided because of an LED lighting conversion. In a recent LED retrofit project, a commercial property company reduced their annual maintenance costs by $1,100 by replacing just 25 fixtures. Additionally, knowing what to expect from each lighting application and which is most important is critical. For instance, is it most practical to update your warehouse to LED high bay lighting first, or should we focus on exterior LED wall packs instead?
Performance
Beyond the financial benefits of LED lighting, there are the significant upgrades in light performance. The advancements in color quality and innovative features like progressive dimming are just a few of the great options that LED provides. Things like correlated color temperature, which measures the color of a light with a numerical value, are crucial if the atmosphere of your office, restaurant, or commercial space is important.
• What are your specific circumstances?
Whether your building is a new construction or a remodel, an outdoor space or indoor, each project will have its own set of variables and goals. Understanding what these are and how best to achieve them is a big step towards a successful LED retrofit.
For starters, it is important to know what rebates, offers, and financing options are available to you. These are rapidly changing and can be tedious to understand and utilize, but if done correctly, a rebate program can have significant advantages for your project. Use tools to help determine your projected ROI so you have a clear idea of the value of your investment from the get-go. This includes knowing your current lighting utility costs and energy usage, what lamp wattages you have, and other factors like installation, project timeline, and funding considerations. Additionally, knowing how much money is being spent on maintaining your existing lighting is pivotal in determining your budget and expected ROI. This includes everything from costs of new bulbs and materials to facility downtime because of an outage – all of these factor into your overall costs.
• Finding a company you can trust
Finding a company that understands the quick changing and nuanced industry, including the varying technology factors as well as the different quality in manufacturers is crucial to ensuring you have a successful retrofit.
Are LED or HID Lights the Right Choice for My Business?
HID lights are a type of high-density discharge lighting that is a tried-and-tested solution for many indoor and outdoor installations. The bright light offered by this type of lighting technology makes them an effective option for large spaces such as stadiums, parking lots, and warehouses. However, HID now faces strong competition from LED technology, which has experienced huge technological advancements over the last few years.
If you’re looking for a lighting solution to light a large space, which option should you choose: the traditional choice of HID lighting or the newer technology of LED? To help you understand what type of lighting will provide the best solution for your business, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each option.
LED vs. HID Lights – What’s the Difference?
HID and LED lighting work in very different ways. HID stands for “high-intensity discharge.” HID lamps work by passing a current through a small capsule of gas, which causes a reaction that creates a small amount of light. HID lights will take a few seconds to warm up before they reach their full light output. These types of lights require ballasts to regulate the current that passes through the gas.
Light-emitting diode lighting, which is commonly referred to as LED lighting, produces light through electroluminescence. When the diodes in a LED lamp are connected to a circuit, it causes photons to be produced, which are then focused into a light source by the lamp. LED lamps are controlled by a chip within the lamp and produce light instantly.
So, why is it important to understand the two types of technology? The technology plays a large role in determining the pros and cons of each solution. Read on to learn more.
Lifespan
Lifespan is one area where the technology powering the lighting solution plays a large role. The tech behind LEDs gives them a significantly longer lifespan than many other types of lighting, including HID options. In fact, LEDs can easily last for 50,000 hours with some having a life expectancy of up to 100,000 hours. HIDs, on the other hand, are only expected to be functional for a maximum of 25,000 hours. In many situations, replacing a lamp is an easy task; however, in situations where HIDs are often used, this may not be so simple. Warehouses, street lighting, parking lots, and gas stations all have lights that are mounted at a height that makes replacing a bulb or entire lamp a time-consuming project, so choosing a lighting solution that only requires replacement every 100,000 hours, such as LEDs, instead of every 25,000 hours like HIDs offers significant time-saving advantages.
Verdict: LED wins hands-down over HID when it comes to lifespan!
Light Output
Both LED and HID offer the benefit of being able to produce large amounts of light, which is one of the reasons both of these options are popular solutions for lighting vast spaces like parking lots.
There is one other key thing to consider when it comes to light output, and that’s how long each type of lamp will provide the required amount of light for. Although this topic sounds like it should fall under the lifespan category, we feel that it’s important enough to warrant its own section. Although products are rated with an expected lifespan, you’ll also need to pay attention to the expected lumen output throughout the product’s lifespan. For example, HID lights generally lose 50% of their output ability during the first half of their expected lifespan. This means that the lamp will produce less than half of the initial output over the second half of its life. If your business needs strong lighting, the lamp will need to be replaced early. The LED lighting also suffers from a loss of output over time; however, it is significantly less than HID lamps. When you see the lifespan rating for an LED lamp, you will see the number of hours plus a number rating such as L70, meaning the bulb will maintain at least 70% of its output for the stated number of hours. This is only a thirty percent loss that will have a limited impact on your business.
Verdict: With LEDs having the ability to maintain output levels for longer, they beat HID options easily in this category.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is one of the most important factors to consider, especially when you’re looking to replace lighting that covers a large area, as the costs of operating powerful lights can quickly add up! Although HIDs do effectively turn energy into light, they have one major issue that affects their efficiency—they produce 360-degree light. When light is produced that isn’t directional, it needs to be reflected in the required direction. This process can result in the loss of a significant amount of light that isn’t correctly reflected.
Why does this matter? Simply put, it matters because you’re paying to produce more light than you actually need in order to compensate for the light that’s lost. On the other hand, LEDs are fully directional, and light-emitting diodes are currently one of the most energy-efficient types of lighting technology on the market. Switching to LEDs will offer significant savings in energy costs over the duration of their lifespan. The LED lighting provides high output per watt for the full duration of its use, which means that your lighting will only use low amounts of electricity to produce the necessary lighting.
As we mentioned above, HID lighting loses a significant amount of its lighting ability in the first 6 months of use; however, even though it’s producing less light, it will still be using the same amount of electricity, meaning the longer the lamp is in use, the less energy efficient it becomes.
Verdict: LEDs offer the best long-term energy efficiency.
Cost
To really understand the cost differences between these two types of products, we’ll need to split this category into two sections: initial cost and long-term cost.
Initial Cost
This is one area where HIDs come out on top of LEDs. As LED is a newer technology, the cost of LED products is still somewhat higher than the HID equivalent. So, the initial installation cost for installing HIDs to cover large spaces will be less than if you were to install LED alternatives. The cost difference will depend on the type and number of lighting products you need to adequately light the area. That being said, there are a number of rebates available for LED lighting—check with your local energy supplier to see if they offer rebates for switching to LED.
Long-Term Cost
Although HIDs win on initial cost outlay, they don’t fair as well in regards to long-term costs. HID lights have a much shorter lifespan than LED lights. This means they’ll need to be replaced up to four times more often than LED options, which leads to more long-term costs for part replacement and labor. They’ll also use significantly more energy over a long-term period than the LED equivalent, creating higher long-term energy costs.
Although his win on initial cost outlay, they don’t fair as well in regards to long-term costs. HID lights have a much shorter lifespan than LED lights. This means they’ll need to be replaced up to four times more often than LED options, which leads to more long-term costs for part replacement and labor. They’ll also use significantly more energy over a long-term period than the LED equivalent, creating higher long-term energy costs.rom lighting that maintains its output for longer, needs replacing less often and uses significantly less energy. The long-term benefits will reduce the amount you need to spend to keep your lighting bright and effective for many years to come. Whether you’re looking to revamp your warehouse lighting, replace energy-sucking stadium lights, keep your parking lot safe, or attract customers to your gas station, LED is a smart and cost-effective lighting choice.
Which Lighting Solution Is Right for your Business: LED or HID?
Although his win on initial cost outlay, they don’t fair as well in regards to long-term costs. HID lights have a much shorter lifespan than LED lights. This means they’ll need to be replaced up to four times more often than LED options, which leads to more long-term costs for part replacement and labor. They’ll also use significantly more energy over a long-term period than the LED equivalent, creating higher long-term energy costs.rom lighting that maintains its output for longer, needs replacing less often, and uses significantly less energy. The long-term benefits will reduce the amount you need to spend to keep your lighting bright and effective for many years to come. Whether you’re looking to revamp your warehouse lighting, replace energy-sucking stadium lights, keep your parking lot safe, or attract customers to your gas station, LED is a smart and cost-effective lighting choice.
8 Questions to Ask Before Buying LEDs
On the surface, most LED products look like a wise investment. Their packaging may tout great lumens per watt, solid life ratings, good color and a reasonable cost, however these numbers don’t recount to the full story. LED fixtures can fail due to lumen degradation, driver failures, material issues, color shifts and more, and many undergo very constrained testing that doesn’t consider every one of these issues.
So how would you choose? Before making any decision, ask there questions first to see if you’re making the right investment. This will help protect you from the regrets down the road.
- Whats wrong with the fluorescent or HID system that I have now?
In the event that you haven’t upgraded to LED fixtures, you’re squandering cash. Not only your energy cost is higher, yet you are investing time and cash on expanded maintenance and replacements also. And if you keep waiting, it will just get more costly: Certain components of your systems may be out of date.
- Why should I look to LEDs?
Each light in your facility will eventually become an LED. As the most efficient and longe lasting light source, LEDs are outpacing all other lighting technologies. You have to upgrade now or later.
- Is LED innovation developed and stable enough to justify an update?
While LEDs will keep on improving, they are completely adequate today to warrant an update. The advantages you would you would get from any minor improvements to LEDs later on are far outranked by the cash you’re squandering on energy now by continuing to use obsolete systems.
- Whose LEDs should I buy?
You need a trustworthy company with a history filled with unwavering reliability testing, impressive performance and outstanding customer service. Newcomers to the LED scene may offer low costs, yet will they be around to homor warranties in the event that anything turns out badly? Have they completely tried their products?
- 5. How do I determine which new product is right to replace my existing fixtures?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach for selecting replacement fixtures. A lighting expert is your best option for responding to this complex questions, as they can help guide you toward quality solutions that will diminish energy usage and help you build for the future. Some key questions to ask are: how many lumens was my previous fixture creating, and how many does the new fixture does create? And how long will it take to install the recommended solution?
- How will saving energy affect light levels and light distribution?
Be careful with solutions that gloat about enormous energy savings but drop your light levels. In the event that your space gets darker and you can’t see appropriately in a space, any savings are pointless. Ensure you’re asking about the footcandles before and after a switch and the difference in light levels. If possible, request for a mock up area so you can see precisely what the space will look like after the upgrade.
- How can I ensure that the fixture is going to perform as claimed?
You should approach the manufacturer for specifics about LED performance. Here are some technical inquiries that should come up in conversation:
Is this fixture listed on the Design Lights Consortium (DLC) website?
Do you have LM79 photometry report from a certified lab attesting to initial lumens, color point and wattage?
Do you have LM80 and TM21 calculations based on temperature measurements to justify life ratings?
At what ambient temperature are you warrantying the fixture?
What can you say about the expected life of your driver?
Don’t simply trust in their promise for it, however. Ask: who has used this fixtures in the past and if there are client testimonials. You should also reiterate the request for a mock-up area or ask to see a real site.
- How can I believe life ratings?
How much actual life testing has been done?
Have you done stress tests or thermal cycling?
Has a certified lab tested the lumen output and color?
What reliability testing do you do on your driver components? Who makes the drivers?
What is the longest this fixture has been burning at a site?
Historically, what is the failure or return rate on these fixtures?
Who has used these fixtures before? Are there customer testimonials about them?
With regards to warranties, make sure to ask business-related questions, including how long they have been in operation and what guarantee there is that they will still be operating when you ask for a warranty claim.
You will ask numerous questions on your way to buying LEDs. But if you start by using these eight basic questions to give a good framework for examining your options and assessing manufacturers, you’ll settle on a quality product that will work for your business.