If you’ve been considering a LED lighting retrofit at your facility, you’re in luck! Now is the perfect time to start the process of getting rid of your outdated, energy-zapping lighting system.
There are hundreds of LED lighting solutions available to you. LED lighting retrofits are one of the most popular energy efficiency upgrades for commercial businesses due to their quick ROI, available incentives and rebates from utility providers, substantial energy savings, and decrease in energy consumption, among other benefits.
What is LED lighting?
LED stands for light emitting diode. An LED is a semiconductor device. An electrical current passes through the semiconductor material, illuminating the light emitting diode and emitting visible light.
LEDs are small, making them perfect for use in all sorts of lighting applications. From indoor lighting, sports lighting, to outdoor lighting LED technology is used in all sorts of industries. Currently, LEDs are the most popular lighting product in the lighting industry.
LEDs are used in all types of industrial applications, like in manufacturing facilities and factories. Commercial lighting fixtures are the perfect way to decrease your energy usage, save on energy costs, and boost employee morale and productivity in commercial buildings.
What are the pros and cons of LED lighting?
The pros outweigh the cons of LED lighting. There are more pros than cons to switching to LEDs.
Pros:
- Instantly turn on with no delay
- Lights don’t flicker
- Life span is 70,000+ hours
- LEDs do not contain any harmful gases or materials
- LEDs are extremely durable
- Cool to the touch
- Require little to no maintenance
- Make a space brighter
- Increase employee productivity
- Decreases eye strain
- Makes an area safer for employees
Cons:
- Initial costs are more expensive than traditional lighting options
In the long run, LEDs are a definite better investment than traditional lighting options, like fluorescents or incandescents, due to their longer life span and energy efficiency. You will save money on your energy bill and on maintenance costs.
All the extra costs associated with traditional lighting is another reason why you save more overtime by switching to LED technology. You will have to consider costs such as extra air conditioning expenses due to the high heat transfer of conventional lighting and how often you will have to send out a maintenance technician or electrician to fix failing bulbs and the expenses that result from that.
Commercial LED Lighting Solutions
There are hundreds of LED lighting solutions in the market, but not all are made for commercial facilities and some are of extremely poor quality. When you are thinking about what kind of LED lighting products and light fixtures you want to install in your building, you have to consider what the space is used for.
Do you have a warehouse with tight aisles and tall shelves or is it a distribution center with an open floor plan and low shelves? In the first example, you would want your LED bulbs to be installed so the light is distributed in a skinny, long pattern. In the latter, you would opt for a LED lighting solution that has a wide distribution pattern with fixtures that provide illumination from all sides.
There are other questions to consider as well. What color temperature do you want to set your lights to? A cool white light is usually best for factories because it increases safety and productivity, while decreasing eye strain.
If the color temperature is too warm, your employees won’t be able to see products or labels as well as they should, which makes for an extremely dangerous environment for them to work in, especially if they are operating heavy machinery like forklifts.
How should each lighting fixture be positioned? You need to consider spacing here. Too close and you’ll experience glare. Too far apart and you will have dark spots.
Then, of course, there are hundreds of types of LED fixtures to choose from. The most common industrial lighting being recessed troffer lights, hanging troffer lights, high bays, task lights, and wall pack lights.
Recessed troffer lights are, as the name implies, recessed into the ceiling, which makes them hidden from view, but effective in emitting light in the areas where you need it. Hanging troffer lights provide a good amount of illumination, but are placed within view.
High bays are designed to illuminate large areas and are usually used in facilities with high ceilings.
Task lights enable employees to complete their work and provide light in a specific area where the task is being performed.
Wall pack lights are mounted on the exterior of a building – on outside facing walls – to illuminate doorways or parking areas.
Of course, there are many other types of fixtures to consider. As a lighting retrofit company backed by hundreds of satisfied customers, we can help you design and install the ideal lighting system for your facility. Reach out to us here.
Commercial LED Lighting Controls
While the fixtures themselves are important, there are other energy efficiency solutions to think about adding to your building. Lighting controls can save you even more money and energy by giving you the power to adjust your lighting based on energy consumption or to mimic daylight patterns in a concept known as color tuning.
On top of that, energy saving controls offer additional benefits and features, including daylight harvesting, dimming, and occupancy sensing – leading to more cuts in your electricity bill.
Daylight harvesting controls automatically adjust the brightness of your LED lights based on the amount of natural light coming into the space from windows and skylights. A daylight harvesting system uses photocell sensors to detect light levels in the environment.
Occupancy sensors detect when a room or area is vacant and will turn off your lights that have been left on unnecessarily. They will also detect when people move into the space and will turn on the lights accordingly.
Install the ideal LED lighting solutions for your facility
As mentioned earlier, the good news is if you’ve waited until now to do a LED lighting retrofit, you have no shortage of options for helping you cut energy costs and carbon emissions. The bad news is if you continue to wait to pull the trigger you will rack up more costs and add more days of dangerous, dark working conditions for your employees.
Choose a reputable lighting retrofit company like WattLogic to partner with so you receive the right lighting solution. We are committed to your success and have spent decades designing and installing custom energy efficient LED lighting solutions for our customers in industrial and commercial facilities. We will only retrofit your facility with the highest quality LED solution tailored to your lighting goals and your building’s special demands.
We also apply and fill out the necessary paperwork for available incentives and rebates from your utility provider (even more savings!).
This is our turnkey promise – you get the LED lighting system you need without having to spend the time attempting to get a system in place on your own. Get your audit today by submitting the form here.
