It is LED’s time to shine as unit costs come down, and energy savings trend up - by Brian Leborgne

One of the main barriers for the adoption of LED lighting is cost. That’s about to change. As unit costs come down and energy savings trend up, it’s time to look again at the LED.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have revolutionized the lighting market. LEDs have surpassed many conventional lighting technologies in terms of energy efficiency, lifetime, durability, and color quality, and due to their increasing cost competitiveness, LEDs are beginning to successfully compete in a variety of lighting applications.

LED: could this be your time to shine?

LED Advantages

The technology advantages of LED are well known. LED lamps and fixtures use less energy and last longer than every other lighting option on the market today. In test after test, LEDs deliver energy savings that average better than their closest competitors. For instance, LEDs are 80% more efficient than incandescent, 50% more efficient than fluorescent, and up to 80% more efficient than high-intensity discharge lamps (HID). Energy efficiency relates to real dollars and cents savings.

In addition to reducing energy consumption, there are real ownership incentives related to LED. With a longer lamp life LEDs contribute to lower maintenance costs and safer workplaces. Quite simply, if you have fewer instances of someone going up and down lifts and ladders to change out bulbs and ballasts, you reduce risk, reduce inventory, and can redeploy your people to manage other responsibilities.

LED versus High Bay HID

The reigning king of illumination in many warehouses and industrial spaces is the metal halide lamp fixture. Decades after it was introduced, the halide lamp remains the workhorse of industrial lighting. But that’s about to change. Sure, they deliver the intense light and illumination for arenas, warehouses, manufacturing centers and other large spaces. But they’ve never been all that efficient or effective.

For the energy consumed, a high bay metal halide lighting fixture is only 80% efficient in delivering illumination to the work surfaces below. They are also ineffective. Halides are slow to warm up, have spotty light distribution, and require regular re-lamping and ballast replacement. They also contain mercury and lead, making disposal an issue.

LED fixtures, on the other hand, are much more efficient when it comes to light distribution, so much so that an LED fixture with 2/3 of the lumen output of a comparable HID lamp provides the same or better light delivery. LEDs have longer life, result in lower maintenance costs and deliver significant energy savings. They are also smarter, or can be made so by adding sensors that can detect motion and thereby light up only when needed. That’s the kind of automation that can run down incandescent, fluorescent and HID lighting.

With prices for LED replacement fixtures dropping it is possible to realize payback for replacing high bay installations in the 2.5 to 3-year range – a point where it begins to really make sense to look closely at making the switch.

LED In Action

Parking lots are unique in the outdoor sector because lighting fixtures are exposed to the elements and mounting height is generally high. The estimate for the installed base of LED parking lot luminaries is about 200,000 LED parking lot installations. This number has more than doubled each year, reaching nearly 2.8 million by the end of 2014. In 2014, there were 28 million parking lot luminaries installed in the U.S., 2.8 million of which were LEDs. If all 28 million luminaries were switched overnight, it would equate to an annual energy cost savings of $2.5 billion. Why? LEDs provide excellent coverage, bright intense light and are well suited for use with control systems and have been shown to provide additional energy savings of 20% to 60% depending on the application and use-case.

Let’s take a look at one pay back scenario for an LED replacement of traditional HID fixtures in a parking lot.

This example is based on replacing 110 traditional 1085watt HID parking lot pole lights with the same number of 280 watt LED retrofit kits. Overall watt usage would drop from 119,350 to 30,800 with a projected annual energy savings of over $46,000. The total cost for changing out the system was estimated at $105,000. Take the next step and deduct Maine Prescriptive Rebates of approximately $16,500 and the total investment comes to roughly $87,500. The result equals a payback of less than two years, based on energy savings alone.  The actual payback may vary based on specific situations, but this example clearly shows that for this type of lighting upgrade the financial picture is more than acceptable. 

The professionals at Interstate can assist you in evaluating your lighting situation and provide a detailed payback analysis, as well as install and maintain the entire systems.

A Bright Future

Perhaps the most notable advance in LEDs is the light it delivers, which is no longer the ‘LED blue.’ It is now possible to purchase LED bulbs that can adjust both their color temperature and intensity, allowing output to be adjusted according to the desired environment.

All of this points to a bright future for LEDs. In fact, by 2030, LED lighting is expected to represent 84% of all lighting sales. LED, it’s your time to shine.

Brian Leborgne is service manager for Interstate Electrical Services Corp.,  N.H., VT and ME.