Everything You Need To Know About LED Lighting
LED lighting is fast becoming the best solution for a wide variety of outdoor lighting applications. The reasons are simple: LEDs are the most energy efficient light on the market by far, they have the longest lifespan (and associated product warranties) by 2-10 times over the nearest competing technology, and they produce a very high quality light with a wide range of characteristics. They are small, steady-state lights which means they don’t present the breaking or recycling issues common with legacy lighting technology. Perhaps the only downside is that they’re not the cheapest light on the market. That said, the price continues to come down and a smart investor will recognize right away that a lifespan that could be an order of magnitude (10 times) longer than a traditional bulb is easily worth the investment. You get what you pay for after all.
One of the most important facilities for high quality outdoor LED light are outdoor parking lots. Parking lots present three major obstacles for owners, real estate organizations and facility managers. First, your parking lot needs to be well illuminated to present a welcoming and safe atmosphere for tenants and customers. The type and specifications of the lighting used in your parking lot typically sets the tone regarding safety and professionalism for the building at large. We refer to this general characteristic as lighting quality. Second, your parking lot lights need to be as energy efficient as possible because they typically operate from dusk to dawn. Third, maximizing luminaire lifespan is important because hiring labor and/or keeping staff on board to routinely change bulbs can become very costly. Primarily for these three reasons it is important to install the best combination of high efficiency, long lifespan, and high quality when choosing a lighting solution. Indoor LED lamp is the 21st century answer to all three problems.
Lighting Quality:
The most noticeable difference between traditional parking lot lights like High Pressure Sodium and modern day LEDs is the color temperature. Notice the incredibly yellow tinge in the “Before” images to the left below. In the same yellow image take a look at the grass. The characteristic green color is almost indistinguishable. Compare that to the same parking lot when it is illuminated by LEDs. The first thing that stands out is all of the green. The trees and grass appear almost exactly like they do during the day. That is a much more welcoming and comforting experience for tenants, customers, and/or employees frequenting the lot.
Using LED Upgrades for Street Lights
Switching to LED lighting leads to significant cost reductions and carbon savings for cities and municipalities. When 12 major cities adopted LED street light, they saw energy savings of 50 to 70 percent.
In New York City, the city decided to replace 250,000 street lights with LED lights. Known as the largest project of this type in the United States, these new lights helped the city save $14 million in maintenance and energy costs between 2015 and 2017
By 2025, there are expected to be 350 million street lights around the world. Unlike other efficiency projects, LED lights are easy to implement. If the entire United States used LED bulbs for street lights, the country would save $6 billion.
The carbon savings would be similar to removing 8.5 million vehicles from American streets. In Los Angeles, the installation of 140,000 LED street lights in 2013 led to energy savings of 80 percent.
What are Flood Lights?
LED flood light is great lighting fixtures that emit a broad beam of light. As the name suggests, flood lights are used to flood an area with light. It is the best way to provide an enormous amount of non-natural light to an area.
LED floodlights are highly energy efficient and have a higher lumen per watt output than any other conventional lighting system. They are used for many purposes and also allow a range of lighting techniques.
Applications of Flood Lights
The broad beam of flood lights is used in a number of ways across many objects and areas.
Why solar lights could offer a solution to the world's poor
There is an ongoing debate among policy makers, international donors and researchers about how to provide energy access to poor rural areas. For many years, most funding was flowing into large-scale infrastructure projects to expand national electricity grids. However, grid extensions to remote and poor areas are expensive and difficult to maintain. At the same time, concerns about climate change combined with the decline in solar photovoltaic and battery prices have made solar-powered electricity an attractive investment.
Off-grid energy as key to fight poverty?
In particular, pico-solar products, such as small portable solar lights, have gained increased policy attention and international funding. Such products have low up-front costs, need little maintenance, and do not pose the management problems typically associated with national grids or even mini-grids. Solar photovoltaic charged products are hence seen as a possible solution to address both energy poverty and energy sustainability in the near future.Solar lanterns could replace kerosene lighting, which is still used by an estimated 500 million households. The emissions of kerosene lights contribute to global warming and to severe indoor air pollution. Moreover, kerosene lamps typically provide low-quality lighting, at around 10 lumens, while for example a standard LED bulb provides around 500 lumens. On the other hand, solar lanterns only provide minimal access to energy: they can’t power radios, TVs, fridges, or other appliances people may aspire to own as they become wealthier.
Whereas researchers agree that access to grid energy is important for economic growth, there is only scarce empirical evidence of the impact that off-grid energy access has on poverty. That’s why we conducted a policy field experiment in Kenya in collaboration with several policy partners. We analyzed the demand, use and effects of small portable solar lights, combining survey data with sensor data developed by the ETH spin-off Bonsai Systems.
Poor households spend a lot on little energy
At the start of our experiment, almost all 1,400 surveyed households used small kerosene (tin) lanterns with an open flame for lighting. A typical household spent 5–10% of its total cash expenditure on energy, mostly used for kerosene. In comparison, European households spend on average around 4% of their total expenditure on energy, but use more than five times more energy. We found a high demand for solar lanterns among poor rural households, but noticed that they responded very strongly to variations in cost. At the current market price of 9 US dollars, 29% households bought a light; if lights were sold at a subsidized price of 4 dollars, the demand more than doubled (69%).
A solar LED light typically replaces one of the households’ kerosene lanterns. As a result, households save around 2% of their overall monthly cash expenditure by spending less on kerosene. We found little evidence that access to better lighting improves children’s performance at school or increases adults’ working time. If only direct economic returns are considered, this would suggest that switching from kerosene to solar lighting might not always be cost-effective. However, this result might change if kerosene prices increase or photovoltaic prices further decrease.
Highly luminous LED panels from HOFTRONIC
Do you want to make your business premises more sustainable? Then the HOFTRONIC LED panels from INTOLED are the solution you are looking for. The HOFTRONIC panels are very economical with 36 Watt and 125lm/W. These are LED panels with an extremely high light output at low energy consumption. With these HOFTRONIC LED panels you can make any building more sustainable. No matter whether it is your office building, your hairdresser's shop or your shop.
HOFTRONIC LED panels are not like any other LED panel light. Thanks to the backlit technology, the LED panels are extra durable. You don't have to worry about dark spots, which do occur with panels without backlit technology. Discolouration of the diffuse panel with HOFTRONIC LED panels is also a thing of the past! With traditional panels you will notice after a while that they are yellowing, which will also change the light output.
The LED panels of HOFTRONIC are produced from high quality materials and have a better heat conduction than a traditional panel. The HOFTRONIC panels do not heat up quickly and therefore have a longer lifespan of no less than 50,000 burning hours.
Why choose LED high bay lights instead of metal halide, fluorescent, or other conventional high bay lights?
Historically, various lighting technologies were (and still are) used in warehouse and industrial settings when high bay lights were required. Some of the most common include metal halide (MH), high pressure sodium (HPS), and fluorescent. While each of these bulbs have their merits, industrial LED lighting outperforms its conventional counterparts in important ways. Let’s take a look at some of the various considerations when deciding whether an LED retrofit is appropriate for your warehouse or industrial space.
Industrial LED lighting vs metal halide high bay lights: If you’ve ever been to a ballgame, you've likely seen metal halide illuminating the field. MH lamps are common in sporting and warehouse/industrial uses (as well as any setting where large, high spaces need to be illuminated). Benefits of MH lights include decent color rendering and comparatively adequate foot-candle levels (as opposed to other types of conventional bulbs). Some of their major drawbacks are a long time to warm up (sometimes 15-30 minutes) and a high cost to maintain, and their failure characteristics include flickering on and off. This is in addition to the fact that much of the energy they produce is wasted as heat. Read more about LED versus Metal Halide Lights.
LED high bay lighting vs high pressure sodium (HPS) lights: HPS lights are often used in warehouse, industrial, business, and recreational facilities where high bay lighting is appropriate. Their benefits include cheap selling price, high energy efficiency (low operating costs), and a relatively long lifespan. HPS lighting technology retains these advantages over most conventional bulbs, but they lose on all three counts to LED high bay light. The downsides of HPS bulbs include the worst color rendering on the market and a warm up period. Read more about LED versus High Pressure and Low Pressure Sodium Lights.
Where Should I Put LED Downlights?
LED down light is a great option for large rooms and/or rooms with low ceilings. Recessed lights blend in with the ceiling, so they will not use as much space as traditional hanging light fixtures.
Lights can be spaced evenly throughout a room, and since they are recessed, they are discreet enough that you can install more fixtures than you otherwise would. This means that light can reach all corners of the room.
How Do I Install an LED Downlight?
LED downlights require you to insert holes in the ceiling to install a new light fixture, or you can retrofit a preexisting ceiling lighting fixture.
You will most likely require a new junction box if you do not already have one in the area you want to install the recessed lighting fixtures. A junction box is placed in the ceiling above the light fixture and contains electric wires and cables necessary to connect the light to the main power source of the building.
Architecture and building regulations vary, so you must check your downlight’s Insulation Contact (IC) rating to ensure that it is compatible with the type of insulation used in your home or business.