28/04/2020
You may feel hesitant in taking the plunge to upgrade your business’ old lighting from fluorescent to LED. You may feel like your current set up is fine and there is no need to make the change! However, upgrading your set up to LED lighting really is an obvious must to help your business grow.
Why move to LED?
Well, the simple answer is that it costs a lot less to run LED lighting. There is as big as a 60% saving to be made compared to the fluorescent counterpart, as well as savings on the maintenance costs too.
Upgrading to LED, will give the once complicated and rather expensive lighting project a new dimension with the vastly improved reliability of technology – meaning that dimming, design & control is readily available at a great pricing.
Other positives include:
- Efficiency - LEDs emit more lumens per watt than incandescent light bulbs. The efficiency of LED lighting fixtures is not affected by shape and size, unlike fluorescent light bulbs or tubes
- Colour - LEDs can emit light of an intended colour without using any colour filters as traditional lighting methods need. This is more efficient and can lower initial costs.
- Size - LEDs can be very small (smaller than 2 mm2) and are easily attached to printed circuit boards.
- On/Off time - LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red indicator LED will achieve full brightness in under a microsecond. LEDs used in communications devices can have even faster response times.
- Cycling - LEDs are ideal for uses subject to frequent on-off cycling, unlike incandescent and fluorescent lamps that fail faster when cycled often, or high-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) that require a long time before restarting.
- Dimming - LEDs can very easily be dimmed either by pulse-width modulation or lowering the forward current. This pulse-width modulation is why LED lights, particularly headlights on cars, when viewed on camera or by some people, appear to be flashing or flickering. This is a type of stroboscopic effect.
- Cool light - In contrast to most light sources, LEDs radiate very little heat in the form of IR that can cause damage to sensitive objects or fabrics. Wasted energy is dispersed as heat through the base of the LED.
- Slow failure - LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt failure of incandescent bulbs.
- Lifetime - LEDs can have a relatively long useful life. One report estimates 35,000 to 50,000 hours of useful life, though time to complete failure may be longer. Fluorescent tubes typically are rated at about 10,000 to 15,000 hours, depending partly on the conditions of use, and incandescent light bulbs at 1,000 to 2,000 hours. Several DOE demonstrations have shown that reduced maintenance costs from this extended lifetime, rather than energy savings, is the primary factor in determining the payback period for an LED product.
- Shock resistance - LEDs, being solid-state components, are difficult to damage with external shock, unlike fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, which are fragile.
- Focus - The solid package of the LED can be designed to focus its light. Incandescent and fluorescent sources often require an external reflector to collect light and direct it in a usable manner. For larger LED packages total internal reflection (TIR) lenses are often used to the same effect. However, when large quantities of light are needed many light sources are usually deployed, which are difficult to focus or collimate towards the same target.
Fluorescents are fast becoming a dying breed, reasons for this include:
- They emit Ultraviolet light
- Failure to switch on
- Ballasts can buzz causing failures
- Not efficient
- Non-directional
Ok, so what exactly is LED?
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a junction diode, which emits light when activated. When a suitable voltage is applied to the leads, electrons can recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence, and the colour of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photon) is determined by the energy band gap of the semiconductor.
Let us help you make the first steps..
Not sure where to start? The first thing to do in getting started with your upgrade is to go through your lighting options with your team. Discuss what is best for your business and your staff. As experienced lighting experts, we are here to help you work out exactly what that is. Whether it is that your employees need better task lighting or whether your shop displays need an improved illumination. We will ensure your business gets the best out of it’s upgrade.
To arrange a meeting or if you have any queries regarding upgrading your business to LED, please get in touch!
TEL: 01604 494123 | EMAIL: solutions@3sltd.co.uk