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anil

Why LED Is Ideal for Gym Lighting

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Lighting has a significant impact on our lives from our mood to our productivity at work. Many factors need to be taken into consideration when determining the ideal gym lighting. Here are some tips for lighting gyms and why LED lighting is the best option.

Why LED Is Ideal for Gym Lighting

Finding the appropriate lighting for any room can be tricky, but lighting a gym can be especially difficult. There are many kinds of gymnasiums from commercial to home gyms. LED lights can provide the ideal lighting solution for any type of gym.

Ceiling your fate

Gyms are traditionally large rooms with high ceilings. As such, the first step to commercial gym lighting is a ceiling that’s at least 20 feet above the floor. However, high ceilings result in high risk and more difficult maintenance when cleaning or changing a light bulb.

When lighting a gym, it is ideal to change them the least often possible. Due to the high ceilings, maintenance can be costly and time-consuming. LED lights can reduce maintenance costs, because of their durability and long lifespan.

Athletes need room to exercise at the gym since many workouts consist of lifting weights in the air. Gym-goers should be preoccupied with the weight they are lifting over their heads and not accidentally hitting a light fixture.

In terms of fitness center lighting, high ceilings are even more prominent. Fitness centers typically include indoor team sports such as basketball and soccer. Both of these sports can result in a ball flying high and hitting a light.

While a game of indoor basketball probably won’t take place in your home, the ceiling still needs to be considered for home gym lighting.

Athletes look at the ceiling at the gym, a lot. A large number of exercises require laying on your back and staring at the ceiling. The type of light shouldn’t be distracting when staring at the ceiling during a workout.

Types of fitness center lighting systems

When taking on a gym lighting project, the ideal lighting should create a comfortable environment for all athletes.

The most common gym lighting systems, metal halide and high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights, are not ideal for lighting gyms. Both of these systems contain the toxic element, mercury, and need to be disposed of properly.

LED lights do not contain mercury and have been known to benefit your health. This important to health-conscious gym-goers.

Athletes need to stay focused and do not want to be distracted by unnecessary buzzing or flickering coming from lights. Metal halide lights are known to be noisy and can buzz after extended periods of use. In contrast, LED lights don’t flicker or buzz.

Remember, gym-goers will spend a lot of time staring at the ceiling. Commercial gym lights that use metal halide or HPS lights have been known to flicker.

While this issue is not as prevalent when lighting a home gym, one of the biggest issues home gym projects face is using lights that are too bright. Fluorescent lights should be avoided at home since they emit harsh, bright light.

Ultimately, metal halide lights need to warm up before reaching optimal lighting. This is inconvenient for gym-goers that work out early in the morning, as well as for gym managers that need to go out of their way to warm-up the metal halide lights early in the morning. LED lights help avoid this inconvenience, since they are ready to go at the flick of the “On” switch.

An Ab-solutely Better Workout with LED Light & Power

LED Lights are the best choice when designing any gym lighting project. Whether it’s a commercial gym or an at-home gym, gym owners and gym-goers can reap from the benefits of LED gym lights.

LED Lighting
anil

Why LED Consumes Less Power

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A light emitting diode (LED) contains a semiconductor. The semiconductor acts as a junction through which electrical energy is filtered, releasing light as a by product.

Light is therefore emitted directly from the source input, without first powering a separate light emitting load (e.g. filament).

In this way, LED consumes less power than rival technologies. In comparison, other light emitting technologies (e.g. incandescent bulbs, neon lights, halogen lamps) present an energy drain where materials such as metals or gases must first be heated in order for light to be produced.

See the following list for a better idea of energy consumption across common lighting options. Power needed for equal light output (luminosity):

• 40 Watts – Incandescent Bulb
• 29 Watts – Halogen
• 10 Watts – CFL
• 5 Watts – LED

Some of the more well-known statistics relating to the benefits of LED bulbs include “80% overall savings” and “25x longer lifespan”. We’ll take a closer look at some of the lesser known energy saving facts about LED bulbs further into the article.

LEDs Consume Less Power – The Science

The semiconductor is located in the centre of an LED bulb. It’s the piece of technology responsible for lower energy bills. But how does it work? How a semiconductor (transistor) works…

The semiconductor forms a small break in the circuit. This break is known as a junction. The junction is made up of one negatively charged plate and one positively charged plate. The plates are fixed in place facing one another, but not touching.

When connected to a circuit, electricity is compelled to cross the junction due to the negative/positive attraction. However, the plate that receives the energy does not have the capacity to allow all of the energy to continue along the circuit.

Energy must be released, given off as light. This means that light is actually the by product of a simple electrical circuit – in other words, the electricity is put to full use, instead of powering something else to make light, it simply makes its own. This is why LED consumes less power than other conventional methods of lighting.

Benefits of LED

Switching to LED bulbs for all home and industrial lighting solutions can and will save money and energy over time.

With the average bulb lifespan exceeding twenty years, many people are choosing to invest in LED bulbs for the added bonus of reduced maintenance. What other facts make LED the smart choice? LED facts:

• Reduced Heat LED bulbs are designed with heat dissipation in mind. Design features include heat sinks, meaning that what little heat is generated is not allowed to build up. Unlike traditional bulbs, LED lights are not typically hot to the touch.

• Environmentally Friendly LED bulbs do not contain any hazardous chemicals or materials. Unlike incandescent bulbs or CFL bulbs, for example, LEDs are not harmful to the environment. This means that LED bulbs may be recycled as part of normal household waste.

• The Ongoing LED Revolution LEDs can now be found everywhere. From TVs, smartphones, and traffic lights, to torches, headlamps, streetlights, and exterior home lighting. The savings involved have been driving increased demand and global production for more than a decade.

Vancouver Energy Retrofit
anil

8 Silly Reasons Why People Don’t Switch To LEDs

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Switching from halogen light bulbs to LEDs will significantly reduce your energy usage and lower your bills but people still refuse to. Here are the some silly reasons why people don’t switch to LED;

Expensive

LED Bulbs pay for themselves within months and continue to save money after.

Won’t fit in my existing fittings

LEDs use all the same standard fitting you have in your home.

Wait until payday

Every day you’re using Halogens you’re wasting money. Waiting until payday is actually costing you more.

It’s Spring/summer

Even though you use your lighting less in the summer, you’re still wasting money on non-economical halogen bulbs.

LEDs are new so use more energy

Halogens use 90% more energy to power them than LED bulbs.

Using ladders to change bulbs isn’t safe

Changing and throwing away bulbs isn’t Eco friendly

Carrying on using halogens will use significantly more energy that using LEDs. The more energy you use the worse it is for the environment.

LEDs don’t come in normal bulbs for my lamps

LED bulbs come in all shapes and sizes so they’ll be a replacement perfect for you.

anil

Why Choose LED for Exterior Commercial Lighting Fixtures

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LED’s are rapidly becoming the standard choice for exterior commercial lighting fixtures, in part due to their superior durability and versatility, making them ideal for exterior commercial settings.

Loading docks, storage yards, and other outdoor commercial environments can operate around the clock with heavy loading machinery and activities that expose commercial lighting to shocks and impacts that can easily damage traditional high-pressure sodium or halogen fixtures.

Exterior LED lights include solid state components that are less susceptible to damage from shocks and vibrations. If an LED fixture does experience some damage, the modular nature of many LED lighting systems facilitates easy replacement of a single unit without affecting other fixtures in an exterior commercial lighting array.

Also unlike traditional exterior lighting fixtures, LED fixtures come to full illumination almost immediately after they are powered on. This allows a commercial facility to cycle lights on and off in order to save on consumption of electricity, and therefore to reduce utility costs.

LED exterior commercial lighting also better lends itself to planned maintenance schedules. Traditional lighting fixtures will be more likely to fail suddenly, and the downtime required to replace or repair those traditional fixtures can impair operations in a commercial facility.

In contrast, LED’s are far less likely to experience sudden failure, but will instead begin to dim when they approach the end of their operating abilities. A maintenance technician can detect the early signs of this dimming and then schedule maintenance of an LED fixture at times that will not interfere with a commercial facility’s regular operations.

Proper illumination is also critical for safety in an exterior commercial facility. Exterior LED lighting is available with diffusers and in multiple different beam spread patterns that can be combined to light all areas of a commercial facility to eliminate dark areas and shadows that create safety risks.

Moreover, LED lights are better able to replicate natural lighting. This feature provides workers in an exterior commercial facility a better opportunity to see contrasts and fine detail in their surroundings, which further improves the overall safety of those environments.

From a design perspective, LED exterior commercial lighting is also frequently smaller and lower-profile than traditional exterior lighting fixtures. LED wall pack lights can be installed along exterior walls and can be incorporated into other parts of an exterior commercial facility with no additional needs for light poles or other dedicated elements.

Commercial facilities that are considering retrofitting an existing lighting system to LED’s will generally discover that new LED fixtures can be readily installed into the existing system with few, if any, technology compatibility problems.

Apart from these additional benefits of LED exterior commercial lighting, LED’s common advantages are still a significant factor. LEDs produce the same or better illumination as standard exterior commercial lighting with often less than half of the electrical power consumption.

A commercial facility can recover its upfront LED installation costs solely from lower operating expenses, usually within 1-5 years.

anil

Are LED Lights Safe? Myth-busting Health Risks

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Today’s LED lights are safe, effective, and so energy-efficient that there’s no comparison with traditional lighting methods. But why do some people have concerns about health? We’ve addressed some common complaints about LEDs below.

Myth 1: LED lights are bad for your eyes

Today’s LED lights are just as safe as any other modern light source for your eyes, and, in fact, LED lights are used in skin and other health therapies because LEDs do not contain ultraviolet rays like other types of light therapies (think fake tanning!). LEDs contain blue light, which is naturally occurring in sunlight. Too much of anything can be bad for you, so, of course, you can limit the amount of time you spend looking at screens (the main blue light culprit), but this is good for your health for reasons other than the light exposure.

Myth 2: LEDs contain toxic materials

LEDs from reputable manufacturers do not contain toxic substances that can harm you. In fact, one of the advantages of LEDs over fluorescent lights, like CFLs, is that they can be recycled easily with regular electronics.

This means, if you’re a facilities manager, no more worrying about extra recycling, which can cost money. Fluorescent lights do contain harmful mercury and have to be recycled at special facilities (this is in addition to the flickering of fluorescent lights, especially fluorescent tubes, which is actually bad for your eyes, but that’s a whole separate issue).

As long as you’re buying your LEDs from a manufacturer who adheres to product criteria surrounding industry testing, this is not a concern.

Myth 3: LEDs are bad for sleep (circadian rhythms)

Any bright light at night will not help you sleep, but modern lights have been a part of our households and businesses for more than 100 years.

And, we don’t know about you, but we’re not going back to candlelight now! Instead of casting out LEDs, it’s important to practice sleep hygiene by staying away from electronic devices, like your phone, too close to bedtime. This is good for all of us for many reasons!

On the other hand, exposure to LEDs during the day may actually be beneficial! The blue light, which, as mentioned, is naturally occurring in sunlight, can be good for mood. If your office complex or factory floor uses LEDs, expect your workers to be able to focus more easily because of the high quality of the lighting.

Additionally, LEDs are now available in a wide variety of color temperatures and on dimmers, so you can set your light level appropriately. This is true for residential and commercial LED lighting applications.

Even municipalities, for example, can choose different color temperatures of LEDs to limit blue light exposure and light pollution, so your city doesn’t have to keep you up all night! Color temperatures can even change on streetlights (and all LEDs) depending on the time of day!

So, imagine that your office complex has higher levels of blue light in the morning to keep employees awake but lower levels in the afternoons to slowly transition to evening. The possibilities with LEDs are endless.

Myth 4: All LEDs shine way too bright white

It’s true that the very first LED bulbs were very white-looking, but that’s simply no longer the case, and hasn’t been for years. LEDs are now available in many color temperatures from cool blue to warm, glowing yellow.

Just look how far LED Christmas lights have come! You can limit your exposure to this bright white, caused by high levels of blue light, easily. Besides, bright light means safer spaces (think college campus or city street), which is an often overlooked benefit of LEDs.

And, as discussed above, your LEDs can adjust depending on the time of day. So, say you’re responsible for lighting a college campus, perhaps the LEDs dim slightly around 10:00 p.m. when most students are heading to bed- just an example!

Myth 4: All LEDs shine way too bright white

It’s true that the very first LED bulbs were very white-looking, but that’s simply no longer the case, and hasn’t been for years. LEDs are now available in many color temperatures from cool blue to warm, glowing yellow.

Just look how far LED Christmas lights have come! You can limit your exposure to this bright white, caused by high levels of blue light, easily. Besides, bright light means safer spaces (think college campus or city street), which is an often overlooked benefit of LEDs.

And, as discussed above, your LEDs can adjust depending on the time of day. So, say you’re responsible for lighting a college campus, perhaps the LEDs dim slightly around 10:00 p.m. when most students are heading to bed- just an example!

A Very Important Conclusion

As we know, all modern technology comes with risks, and it’s important that we continue to research and revise these technologies to keep up with concerns. LEDs are always improving, and the LEDs of today are not the same as the first generation of LEDs, which are often, and perhaps rightfully, criticized.

The health risks you hear about in conjunction with LED lighting are so often referring to these older models, or to low-quality products.

That’s why it’s absolutely vital that you work with an LED lighting specialist so you get LEDs that are healthy for you and your customers/community, with the correct correlated color temperature, physical color temperature, kelvins, etc. to control blue light and implement only high-quality, industry-tested LEDs. Otherwise, you could end up with a harmful LED.

As we always say, LEDs are NOT a commodity and they’re not all created equal.