Lighting Applications Abound for LED Options

Managers have a host of lighting applications for which to consider LEDs:

Can lighting. Can lights with 70- or 100-watt (W) metal halide lamps offer huge savings in energy and maintenance. Managers can go from a lamp that uses 85W or 130W and lasts 10,000 hours to an LED lamp that use 8W or 12W and lasts 50,000 hours. It does not matter whether the application is inside or outside a facility, nor does it matter if it is 120-, 240-, or 277-volts (V). There are screw-in flood lamps or par lamps for all of these voltages and their fixtures.

Bollards. Bollards commonly are lit with 70W metal halide or 70W high-pressure sodium lamps, and sometimes even 175W metal halide lamps. They can be energy hogs and maintenance headaches. It is an easy transition to go to from these lamps to an 8W or 10W LED replacement. Some managers might believe that is too little light, but how much light is needed walking on a sidewalk? The light from the full moon is all of 0.01 foot-candle. So think again how much light is needed to navigate a sidewalk.

Parking-lot lighting. This is an area in which energy savings alone do not cost-justify new heads. What pushes it over the top is the maintenance savings. Consider the cost of a bucket truck and an electrician changing lamps every year. Managers can install new LED heads in parking lots, and workers will not have to touch them for 10 years. Compare this to an estimated $150 per head every two years. Walmart has made the switch to LED parking-lot lighting for its new stores, and the maintenance savings were a large factor in the decision.

Many companies will offer to retrofit existing pole light heads, but that is not recommended for several reasons:

• LEDs need to have their heat controlled and pulled away, or it can dramatically shorten its performance life. Retrofitting an existing head does not guarantee heat removal as does a head specifically designed for an LED.
• The lighting control with a new head is excellent. A new LED head can put the light where desired. It will distribute the light very evenly in the parking lot, making the area appear even brighter. It is not necessarily the amount of light, but rather the evenness of the light, that will make it appear brighter, even though light levels might be lower.

Wallpacks. Typically, wallpacks use metal halide or high-pressure sodium lamps. They are energy hogs and maintenance headaches, and they are probably the one light that draws the most complaints from the neighbors. Instead, managers also should change these to LEDs. The changes are easy to make, they are cost-effective in terms of energy and maintenance, and managers can control the where the light goes.

Utility rooms and janitorial closets. I recently saw an LED replacement lamp with a built-in occupancy sensor. Installers just screw in the lamp, and it turns itself on with motion and shuts itself off after three minutes, all for under $20.

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