LED Lighting
Average Savings 55%
Lighting is so important in human performance. Poor or low lighting levels will lead to eye strain, fatigue, stress, headaches, and then mistakes. On the other hand, LED fixtures below 23’ with a clear lens or even worse no lens leave exposed LED diodes that produce a lot of glare that over time will lead to fatigue, headaches, more mistakes, and more time off for employees.
Our approach to LED lighting retrofits:
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Design and layout a new lighting system to maximize energy waste reduction.
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Keep our clients dialed in on their goals throughout the project to avoid changes that could change the pricing.
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Present our Economic Estimator to our client’s decision-making team (Controller/CFO, President, VP of Operations, Plant Manager, Maintenance Manager) to ensure our future clients understand the details behind the project.
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Provide alternative financing opportunities to our clients, both on and off-balance. Generally speaking, these opportunities are no out-of-pocket cost upfront and a positive cash flow each month.
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Show our clients that LED lighting will significantly improve your work environment, employee performance, reduce operating costs, and improve your business’s bottom line.
Are All LED Fixtures Created Equally...
the simple answer? No.
What to look for in a LED fixture:
DRIVER: The driver is the first component in the LED fixture to fail. The driver is the engine or power source for the LED fixture. Far too many manufacturers want to price their fixtures as cheaply as possible and install cheap drivers, and this leads to early failure. A general rule of thumb is If you are buying an LED fixture online, there is a high probability that the LED driver is a cheap or lower quality driver.
Lumens Per Watt (LPW): This is always overlooked by companies, and this is where we find large amounts of energy waste. For example, a 150W fixture that is 140-LPW has a total lumen output of 21,000 lumens. Where Energy Design Engineers sells a 100W fixture that is 200-LPW or 20,000 lumens. This 50W difference adds up quickly when your facility has 200 - 400 fixtures, and at year-end, the additional cost to light a facility would be tens of thousands of dollars more with the 150W, 140-LPW fixture.
LED Diodes: Find out who is the manufacturer of the key components of the fixture, like the LED diodes. There are five good manufacturers and hundreds of discount or lower quality manufacturers. Pick your LED diodes wisely.
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Heatsink: How effective is the fixture at dissipating heat away from the LEDs and the drivers. The fixture’s design and heat sink are very important to the longevity and performance of the fixture. A Heatsink is a lot like your car's radiator.
Temperature Rating: What is the highest temperature rating of the ceiling fixture you are considering buying? Unfortunately, this question is ignored far too often by purchasing and management, because they just don’t know. Temperature ratings can range from 30C to 60C depending on the fixture manufacturer and fixture.
Just remember if the fixture you are purchasing is priced under $175.00 for a 100W LED fixture, most likely the components are low quality and will fail earlier. Also remember, that some LED manufactures don’t mind sending you 5 - 10 replacement fixtures for failure 2 - 3 years into your project. The real expensive part of replacing failed fixtures is the labor to install them and the amount of time that they are out prior to replacement.
20,000 Lumen Fixture
EDE
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Everyone Else
Watts
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100
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150
Total Lumens
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20,000
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19,500
Lumens per Watt
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200
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130
The 3-Big Mistakes Made when Purchasing Commercial LED Lighting
IGNORING Lumens Per Watt (LPW)
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Lumens per watt is the horsepower of the bulb or fixture. A LED light fixture that is a 150-watt fixture that is 140-LPW would have a total yield of 21,000 lumens. A 100W led light fixture that is 200-LPW would have a total yield of 20,000 lumens. This 100W fixture is saving 50W per fixture, and delivering almost the same amount of light. The 50W per fixture savings times 200-fixtures is saving more than 13-horsepower of energy each hour in this example.
PURCHASING LED Tubes
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LED tubes work in schools and office buildings, but really have no place in the manufacturing, distribution, and warehouse buildings or unconditioned space. An LED tube encloses the LED diodes in a sealed glass chamber, and hence no heat dissipation. LED tubes have a high failure rate in years 3 - 4 in the above-mentioned facilities.
IGNORING Energy Savings
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This is by far the most important factor in the decision-making process of choosing a new LED lighting system. How much more energy do I save with one lighting system over the others. REMEMBER THIS: The cost of energy (kWh) used to power the lighting system makes up 87% of the total cost of the lighting system over its useful life (20-years). The upfront cost to purchase and install the new lighting system makes up 7% of the total cost of the lighting system over its useful life and the balance is made up of maintenance expenses. Please educate your team and study the data carefully to ensure your company is purchasing the most energy-efficient lighting system possible.