Are you unsure if an LED lighting project is for you? There are many signs that you can look for which are clear signals that your facility is ready for a lighting upgrade. Most buildings today still use outdated lighting options that require high amounts of energy to run while producing poor quality light. In this week’s blog, we will discuss the top 3 signs that it’s time to upgrade your lighting from an outdated option like fluorescent lighting to LED lighting.
Excessive Energy Consumption
The most common sign that you need to upgrade your lighting system is expensive energy cost and maintenance. For example, fluorescent lamps are up to 70% less efficient than LED lights. This means that depending on the lamp installed, you could be using up to 70% more energy than you need to light your facility. Furthermore, fluorescent lamps are associated with high maintenance costs because they have short lifetimes relative to LED lighting. During the lifetime of one LED lamp, you would have to replace your fluorescent lamps up to 5 times! The cost of purchasing new lamps and completing the work can quickly add up creating expenses that can be easily avoided by upgrading your lighting.
Degrading Fixtures and Lamps
Let’s face it, fluorescent fixtures are ugly. We have all seen those light fixtures that have dirty lenses with a few dead flies resting inside. Surprisingly, this sight is still very common in facilities which can create a massive eyesore. Under those lenses are fluorescent lamps, these lamps degrade quickly and burn out inconsistently. As you can see in the graph on the right, fluorescent lamps instantly start degrading. After only 20,000 hours, fluorescent lamps will only be producing 70% of the advertised lumen output compared to LEDs which will be producing 95% of their advertised lumen output.
Due to this, we commonly see fixtures with lamps that vary in light output because they are all at different points in their life cycle. This creates inconsistent and dim lighting in your facility that can make the space look dirty and dark. At Integra LED, we replace fluorescent lamps with efficient LED lights. As you can see on the right, they offer smooth consistent lighting through a crisp and sealed white lens. LEDs make any space instantly look cleaner while offering a more consistent light source that does not quickly degrade like fluorescent lights.
Poor Lighting Quality
As we briefly mentioned before, fluorescent tubes degrade extremely quickly creating inconsistent and dim lighting in a facility. A great way to recognize if your lamps have degraded is by assessing the light output of the lamps. Typically, a degraded fluorescent lamp will start to become increasingly dim during its lifetime until it either burns out or produces such little light that it needs to be replaced. Many facilities leave these degraded lamps until their last limb causing many areas to be poorly lit with inconsistent light.
Have you seen those dirty troffer lenses in your facility? Or how about that absorbently high electrical bill you get every month? These signs or issues are easily solved by upgrading your facility’s lighting to LED. Integra LED offers turnkey lighting upgrades including securing incentive funds and selecting the product to ensure you get the best return on your investment and see the most savings possible with quality products!
