Specialty and Architectural Lighting — LED

A 2018 study by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensallear Polytechnic provides detailed guidelines for comparing LED and HID light sources for use in commercial greenhouse and other horticulture facilities. The report is also a cautionary advisory on transitioning to LED based only on the criteria of improved energy efficiency and longer lamp life compared to HID. Scope of LRC Study Commercial environmentally-controlled greenhouses in the U.S. account for nearly 900 million square feet...

Should you buy that cheap UVC LED bulb on Amazon or eBay? It's a 500W equivalent and screws into your table lamp. Great deal, right? Unfortunately, it's starting to come out that these bulbs are fake. Instead of outputting UVC light, many are likely UVA blacklights, and manufacturers are exploiting coronavirus fears to sell fakes to consumers and medical professionals.

One of the most common light fixtures found in both commercial and residential applications is the ceiling recessed downlight. The clean, smooth ceiling look of recessed downlights makes them popular in office entryways, lobbies, hallways and conference rooms. In homes, recessed downlights are common in kitchens and are often found in rooms throughout the house. Realizing the significant potential for both energy and maintenance cost savings, manufacturers have developed a large range of LED retrofit...

High bay fixtures that use metal halide lamps are common in warehouses, shops, sports facilities and big box retail stores. Wattages for metal halide lamps in these applications typically range from 175 watts to 400 watts. Manufacturers are, in 2020, many generations into their lines of LED lamps designed to replace high wattage metal halide. The wattage for equivalent illumination from LED lamps designed for high bay is generally in the range of 50 watts...

Many manufacturers offer both glass and plastic tube construction for LED replacement lamps. So which is best, glass or plastic? The answer depends on the application. Here’s a brief guide. Application LED Tube Material Damage Protection Comments Office & General Lighting Glass Minimal Protection Least expensive for large scale retrofits Grocery & General Retail Glass PET Coated Shatter Protection NSF Rated Mid-range expense Food Processing & Industrial Plastic Best Protection NSF Rated Most expensive Lamp...

When new LED lamps are used to replace traditional light sources or LED fixtures are part of a retrofit project, an important but often overlooked issue that must to addressed is the compatibility of existing controls. Lighting is a system. The light source is one component. Ballasts, transformers, dimmers, occupancy and photo sensors must be compatible or the new LED light source upgrade will not function properly. It’s not uncommon, after LED lighting has been...

By a considerable margin the most common lighting job in North America is general space lighting for commercial and institutional occupancies provided by fluorescent tubes mounted in troffers, direct / indirect pendants and strip lights. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) estimated there were over 300 million fluorescent troffers installed in the country. The installed base of fluorescent lamps (primarily T8) is measured in the billions. Five years ago another USDOE study reported...

If you are a business or institution and are not yet using LED light fixtures and bulbs in your operation, you should be. At the very least you should be installing sample product to evaluate it. In 2020 we are at generation 5 and 6 of LED product and the technology is well on it's way to being the dominant light source for buildings. Lower LED Prices Eight years ago, the primary reasons that make...

When determining whether or not an LED lamp or LED fixture will provide the equivalent lighting that is provided by traditional light sources such as halogen, fluorescent or metal halide, lumens is one of the numbers you need for your evaluation. Spec sheets for most light bulbs and light fixtures include a value for lumen output or, simply, lumens. If the LED lumens are close to the fluorescent lumens, for example, you know that the...

When LED fixtures (or lamps) are installed in a building, thinking about replacement is likely the last thing on the minds of staff. With LED rated life ranging from 25,000 hours (for lamps) to over 50,000 hours (for fixtures) the typical time to replacement is measured in years. However, facility managers should be aware at the outset of LED installations of the different requirements for maintaining and monitoring LED lighting compared to fluorescent, halogen or...