Top 3 Reasons to Upgrade Your Lighting

Business owners and building managers alike have been waging a war against lower-efficiency facility lighting for generations. Now, with LED lighting more accessible and affordable than ever, facility managers are faced with the question not only of replacing their out-of-date lighting systems, but the question of why they haven’t pulled the trigger on the energy-saving solution yet. With cost-saving effects, lower rates of failure and therefore lower maintenance costs, and better working conditions, business owners are going to want to strongly consider upgrading to energy-efficient LED lighting sooner rather than later.

Save Money on Utility Bills

It’s a well-known fact that LED light bulbs use considerably less energy than their fluorescent counterparts. These energy savings, when spread over an entire facility’s lighting system, could save thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Not only do these lamps save on the utility bill, but utility companies offer rebates simply for switching to LED systems. Business owners would be wise to consider these utility rebates in addition to energy bill savings.

Lower Rate of Failure

Not only do LED lights offer the obvious energy-efficient savings on utility bills, but they also offer energy efficient savings in terms of lower maintenance costs and labor requirements. LED lights last on average, years longer than traditional lighting and therefore present fewer needs for maintenance, replacement, and quality-control measures.

High Quality Lighting Equals Good Working Conditions

Lighting conditions and quality of work go hand-in-hand when it comes to commercial facilities. Business owners and building managers are wise to consider the best and most energy-efficient lighting solutions possible in order to provide safe and productive working conditions for their team. LED lights provide quiet, consistent lighting solutions, allowing employees to focus on the task at hand.

Overall, the energy-efficient benefits of LED have long outweighed their traditional lighting predecessors. So, as a business owner or building manager, the next question isn’t whether to make the switch but rather when is the best time? Contact us to make the switch today!

Choosing Quality LED Fixtures for Your Business

As with many business decisions, selecting the best LED fixtures for your business requires a careful weighing of cost against quality, value, and functionality. The wealth of choices and options available can seem overwhelming, and the decision hard to make without expertise in lighting. Here are some suggestions for examining your options.

How to Evaluate LED Fixtures

What should you look for when selecting LED fixtures? Keeping the lights on is, of course, essential, and is a significant cost of running your business, so you’ll want to know how to evaluate available options. Some aspects of LED fixtures to consider include:

  • Maintenance – LED fixtures have a dramatically longer lifespan than traditional incandescent or fluorescent lighting, at up to 250,000 hours. They also do not require ballasts, so you will see savings in the frequency of replacing bulbs as well as in not having to replace worn out ballasts. In addition, because LED lighting doesn’t “burn out” in the traditional sense, you won’t see sudden outages, but can schedule bulb replacement more flexibly.
  • Energy Consumption & Efficiency – It’s no secret that LED fixtures consume far less energy than traditional lighting. Understanding comparative energy consumption of traditional versus LED lighting can clarify potential savings.
  • Lighting Controls – Integrated lighting controls can be a key driver in lowering lighting expenses with features such as automated dimming and daylight and activity sensors. Lighting controls can provide substantial additional value in safety, ambience, and in employee and customer satisfaction.
  • Environmental Considerations – Do you have special environmental considerations for LED lighting? These could include high- or low-temperature spaces, indoor or outdoor settings, or moisture exposure. LED lighting, for example, is not cold-sensitive as fluorescent lighting can be.

What to Look for in Quality LED Fixtures

When you’re evaluating LED lighting solutions, here are some important specifications to note.

  • Lumens per Watt – Lumens measure how bright a bulb is, while watts show the power consumption of a bulb.  The measure of lumens per watt, indicates how efficient a bulb is.    Lumens per watt will vary depending on how a bulb makes light (incandescent, fluorescent, LED, etc.), the quality of materials used to make it, and how much energy is wasted as heat rather than light output. With traditional lighting, more watts = brighter light, so more electricity is needed to create brighter light. With LED lighting, the correlation is less direct. As an example, a 100w incandescent bulb has an efficiency of 16 lumens per watt, a 26w CFL bulb rates 61 lumens per watt, and a 22w LED bulb is most efficient at 73 lumens per watt.
  • Warranty – As with any smart business decision, be sure to consider warranties on parts and labor so you’re not left in the lurch if a problem arises.
  • L70 (LED Lifetime) Ratings – With traditional lighting, bulbs either emit light or don’t (they burn out). LED lighting will very slowly decrease in brightness over time. In general, it’s best to replace LED lighting when it has lost 30% of its brightness — that is, when it’s producing 70% of its original lumens. That 70% level is the L70 rating of an LED bulb.  For example, an LED bulb with an L70 or LED Lifetime rating of 50,000 hours means that it can be on for a minimum of 50,000 hours before it will have lost 30% of its brightness.
  • Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) – The visual temperature of lighting, measured in Kelvins,  indicates where the color of the light falls between cool, bluish-white and warm, golden light. Bright, cool light will generally be better suited to a warehouse or outdoor situation while warmer light will usually work best in a restaurant, hotel, or office.  Areas within a facility may also require different temperatures of light.
  • Motion Sensors – Motion sensors allow you to automate whether lights are on, and even how bright they are, depending on activity. You may want to have lighting that comes on automatically when someone enters a conference room or a particular warehouse area, for example. Because LED lighting doesn’t require warm-up time to come to full brightness, lights can come on quickly, as needed.
  • Dimming – Dimmable fixtures can be very useful in situations where constant light is needed but only active areas require the brightest light. Automatic and even manual dimming can dramatically reduce lighting costs by lowering usage in unneeded spaces.
  • Advanced Controls – various capabilities of a lighting control systems including, but not limited to, daylight harvesting, scheduling, task tuning, energy usage reporting, humidity/temperature monitoring. Advanced controls allow a broad or granular bird’s eye view allowing more specific controls for needs of the space.
  • Type of Fixture – The types of LED lighting fixtures available are nearly endless, and can be chosen and mounted to suit any need and environmental considerations. High bay lights can illuminate large warehouse areas, linear lighting can work well in aisles, troffer lights are common in offices and schools.

How to Compare Competitor Products

With so many options to consider when evaluating LED lighting choices, you will need to compare options carefully.

  • Credibility and Experience – Are the fixtures produced by a company with experience in the field and a solid reputation?
  • Value – The upfront cost should not be your only consideration. Cheaper LED lighting will often fail to achieve its stated L70 rating.
  • Up to Date – If you want to take advantage of the latest advances in integrated lighting control and automation, you’ll need to select compatible products.
  • Compliance – The Federal Energy Management Program has efficiency requirements for some commercial and industrial LED lighting. Other regulations may also be applicable. Ensure your lighting and contractor are knowledgeable and in compliance with such requirements.

The experienced team at Relumination is ready to help you choose the best LED lighting for your business, and apply our years of expertise and high standard of service from needs analysis through project completion, service, and support. Contact us today to see how we can work together for a brighter future for your business.

Why LED is the Most Energy-Efficient Choice for Cold Storage Lighting

Are you in the grocery or warehouse business and need the right lighting for your cold storage? As a business owner or manager you realize the importance of being cost-effective, that’s why you need to choose the most energy-efficient option. The following are a few items for your consideration as to why LED is the most energy-efficient lighting for your cold storage.

LED lighting for cold storage

As you well know, finding lighting options that do well in cold environments has always been a challenge. Lighting options such as HID and fluorescent have not historically been known to be up to the job when it comes to cold environments. However, LED technology thrives in colder temperatures and do not face the same challenges as other technologies. As for energy efficiency, LED uses less energy than the it’s predecessors which can result immediate reductions in operating costs. The main reason that LED uses so much less electricity than other technologies is that they produce light differently.

How Older Technologies Waste Light

Other technologies produce light through various methods. While incandescent and HID pass electricity through a filament, fluorescent produces light by ionizing mercury vapor. Both methods require extreme heat for its atoms’ electrons to become excited enough to produce light, wasting nearly 90% of the electricity they consume, making them incredibly inefficient. They have a higher probability for failure, limited to a 360 degree beam spread resulting in wasted light, and lack of control capability.

How LED is more energy-efficient

On the other hand, LED produces light using electroluminescence. This process doesn’t use a filament and creates little heat, instead relying on a property of semiconductors to generate light. The methods used to generate light is not the only component of efficiency, equally as important is light distribution, LED has the ability to be directional to maximize the lighting while minimizing energy usage. Of course, the fact that LED doesn’t waste energy by creating or relying on excess heat is also part of what makes them so safe, as well as why they don’t need the large, fragile glass bulbs full of toxic gasses that make handling other lighting sources more difficult.

Here at Relumination, we want to help you find more energy-efficient ways to light your business. If you have any questions about cold storage lighting please contact us today!

Meeting Industry Standards for Lighting Warehouses

Warehouse productivity is directly linked to good lighting. Poorly-lit areas can result in mistakes, accidents, lower productivity, and higher operating costs. A well-lit warehouse enables companies to counter all of these negatives, resulting in higher productivity, lower operating costs, and therefore, higher profits. Integral to achieving the positive results is a basic understanding warehouse lighting standards.

Regulation Standards

OSHA Standards govern installation requirements for warehouse lighting and other industrial and commercial activities. OSHA measures light in “foot-candles.” One foot candle is the amount of light needed to illuminate one square foot of area from a uniform light source. While this takes detailed analysis and calculation, our customers know that we do those calculations on their behalf as part of our job specification. The regulations say that areas should be effectively lit with even distribution, and no gaps, across the work area. The light should be bright enough for specific jobs to be carried out without eye strain or dazzle.

How Relumination Works to Support These Standards

Firstly, we understand the need for our customers to maximize productivity and comply with State and Federal requirements. We are successful and well-established. We have in-depth experience of installing and updating warehouse and distribution lighting systems. Our responsibilities for our customers include:

  • Keeping up to date with State and federal standards.
  • Knowing OSHA regulations and how to build changes into the projects we are working on.
  • Keeping track of compliance tasks as they apply to projects and maintenance programs.
  • Using the latest OSHA software to do the calculations each regulatory standard demands.
  • Keeping all work streamlined so jobs are completed efficiently and without disrupting the warehouse productivity.

To achieve this we apply a powerful 6-Step Process. We begin with a detailed Needs Analysis followed by an engineered systems design which uses your current lighting locations and intensity to calculate the most efficient system for your facility.

We use the latest in photometric technology to ensure you get the right lighting intensity. Photometrics is a system which analyzes current lighting the way a human eye sees it. This means we can accurately design and install exactly the right kind of lighting. We propose everything in detail, allocate a dedicated project manager to ensure everything is done and completed as agreed. We then check everything, train your staff as needed, and begin our warranty and service support process.

 Choosing Lighting Fixtures

Obviously lighting fixture choice is driven by both regulation standards and bottom-line results. There are three main types of warehouse lighting: LED, fluorescent, and high-intensity discharge. LED lighting is the most cost-efficient because of:

  • The lower level of electricity consumption.
  • The longer lifespan (up to 250,000 hours.)
  • The ability to include customized and adaptable controls ranging from basic motion sensing to task tuning and progressive dimming. Providing even more energy savings.
  • Initial costs can be offset by the many local utility companies offering incentives for energy-efficient upgrades. Our staff has expertise and experience to navigate all of the utility rebate guidelines to maximize available dollars.

Our goal is to help you achieve your goals. Contact us to discuss your plans, answer your questions, and offer the advice you will need to make the best decisions.

Lighting Education: The Importance of Energy-Efficiency

Most of us never really think about how efficient our lighting systems are. Mostly we only care if it turns on when we flick the switch, and if it actually provides enough light to see by. However, when it comes to how much energy our lights are actually burning, you should be concerned, because it affects not just your bottom line, but everyone else’s as well.

Energy efficiency matters for everyone out there, and is something we should all care about. It all starts with your electricity bill.

Your electricity bill is just the cost of doing business, and there’s no way you can avoid it short of installing a self-sufficient energy-generating system on your premises. However, you can reduce what you’re paying by switching to more energy-efficient lighting. For example, by replacing traditional fluorescent lighting system with LED, customer’s would see up to 70% decrease in energy usage. With the upgrade to LED, you’ve now increased the available control capabilities which could provide an additional 20-25% in energy savings. While these upgrades can appear more expensive at first glance, they last years longer and provide the ability for the lighting to grow with the business. Once the upgrade is complete you reap the benefits on the back end by paying less in operating costs, improving safety and quality of the environment which have been proven to result in happier, more productive employees.

However, energy efficiency is sort of like recycling; when everyone gets involved, it makes a significant difference. Imagine, for a moment, if every business cut their electricity demands for lighting in half. The sheer amount of strain that would take off the local power grid is not a small thing. When you calculate it in terms of saved resources, and pollution that’s avoided, it makes an even bigger difference. The less power that’s necessary, the fewer resources we use overall, and the easier it becomes to replace our older, more harmful systems with newer, cleaner ones.

So if you change one bulb to be more efficient, it’s the same as recycling one can. It might not do much on its own, but if you do it every time, and if other business owners, your customers, and your community get involved, it will make huge changes by the time you’ve all combined your efforts.

For more information on how you can start being more energy efficient today, simply contact us today!

A Commercial Retrofit Is a Long Term Investment; Plan Carefully

Since most high-quality LED fixtures are rated for 250,000 hours or 20+ years of continuous 24 hour use, building owners considering a commercial lighting retrofit should realize that they are investing for the long-term.  A properly done LED retrofit requiring minimal or no maintenance will stay in place more than a decade.  Rather than relying only on the initial cost of fixtures and installation to evaluate return on investment, owners and managers should calculate the cost of ownership over the entire life of the project.

Of course, payback periods differ depending on what you are retrofitting.  For instance, changing from incandescent lighting to LED fixtures can result in a payback period less than a year.  On the other hand, retrofitting fluorescent tube fixtures with LED tubes takes a two-year payback while switching from fluorescent fixtures to LED tubes may provide a three-year payback.  Rebates and other incentives can lessen these payback periods.

Likewise, the quality of the site visit, the proposed layout, installation and customer service plan are more significant for LED retrofits than for metal halide or fluorescent retrofits requiring maintenance every 2-3 years.  While an LED retrofit doesn’t last forever, it comes close and deserves the extra care.

Considering LED’s longevity, it’s important to identify the right LED product for the project, such as LED color which varies from a very bright blue suitable for parking lots to a medium blue for an office setting and perhaps a warmer range for break areas.

Although return on investment accelerates when companies capitalize on funding opportunities, the funding process is often complex with many requirements including submitting the correct form at the right time and specific inspection criteria.  Choosing a company experienced in working with utilities and other funding agencies, really streamlines the funding process.  In addition, utilities often require that a participating contractor be in the loop to obtain funding for a building retrofit.

To optimize the return on a commercial lighting retrofit, building owners and managers should work with a partner who stays up-to-date with the latest advances in LED products and who is proficient in sourcing rebates. We’d like to share our expertise with you.  Please contact us for more information.

 

3 Tips for Energy Reduction at the Office

If you’ve had an LED retrofit completed, you’re already on the right track to reducing energy consumption in your office. LED lights use as much as 90% less energy than conventional lighting, and last up to five times longer. Even with your energy-efficient LED lighting, though, there are many more ways to improve your energy reduction. Try out some of these tips:

Install motion detectors: Turning off lights when they’re not in use is one way to do things, but it’s easy for someone to forget when they’re in a rush. Motion detectors that turn your lights off after there’s been no movement in a room for a certain period of time ensures that no matter what happens, you won’t be coming into the office the next morning and finding that the light in the copy room has been left on again. Plus, you can still turn the lights off manually.

Install task lighting: There’s no need to turn on all the office lights if it’s only one or two desks in use. Between their small size, bright (and dimmable) lighting, and the fact that they don’t give off heat, LED lights can be installed almost anywhere to provide more efficient lighting up-close.

Dim lights to necessary levels: You don’t need to keep your LED lights on the highest setting. Often, a lower setting is more than enough – especially when spring and summer roll around if your office gets natural lighting. Dim your LEDs when they’re too bright, and they’ll both last longer and save you more on your energy costs.

If you haven’t yet installed LED lights in your office or business, contact us today for a free estimate.

Benefits of Manufacturing Facility Lighting Retrofits

Retrofitting Lighting Systems

Retrofitting a production facility’s lighting has many benefits. So many manufacturing facilities use metal halide high bay fixtures or other fluorescent lighting. While these have advantages over some other systems, LED lighting offers many benefits making a retrofit a sound business decision. Every business wants to lower its operating costs, maximize productivity, and increase employee morale. Installing the latest lighting systems can achieve all three.

Cost-Effective

Cost savings are the obvious benefit. Utility costs can be reduced by as much as 70%, but even a 30 – 50% saving can make a lot of sense when taken over three or four years. This sort of saving not only delivers a quick ROI, but in future years it continues to deliver lower energy and operating costs. Lighting controls such as occupancy sensing, task tuning, daylight harvesting, progressive dimming, and automatic setbacks can assist a facility to achieve up to 90% energy savings and maintain safe, comfortable light levels across the facility.

In many states, there are utility rebates and incentives available to companies that install energy-efficient lighting and controls to reduce their energy consumption. We are experts in navigating how you can qualify for these incentives and will handle the application process on your behalf. Those incentives help to deliver an even faster ROI.

Higher Productivity, Safety, and Morale

Employees working in a well-lit area are less likely to make simple mistakes, for no other reason than they can see exactly what they are doing. Improved lighting also improves safety by enabling employees to avoid potential mishaps and accidents. Nothing disrupts productivity and lowers morale like a serious accident.

No Productivity Disruption

We will work around your systems and schedules to ensure your productivity is not disrupted. Many manufacturing facilities have regular preventive maintenance, repair, and new equipment installation events. We can work with your teams to do our work while projects like these are in hand. Our goal is to perform the implementation of your project around your schedule to minimize disruption to your business.

The Takeaway

There are many benefits, both immediate and long-term, to retrofit your manufacturing plant’s lighting system. The decision is based on knowledge, so if you would like to learn more and arrange an initial consultation, please just click here to contact us.

The Importance of Photometrics

When it comes to the lighting you will use in your facility, the photometrics will be a pivotal asset. With these, you will know how the lighting in your facility is seen by the human eye. In other words, it means you will be able to use it to discern which lighting system to go with and the most efficient way to use it.

What is Photometry?

Photometry is the science of measuring light and how the human eye sees it. In basic terms, it is the measurement of how much we can see in a given space. Photometrics show you how intense the lighting is and how much it will allow you to see.

Photometrics are used primarily in relation to lighting technology, in things like photography, audiovisual, and architecture. They can be used to make the lighting of a facility or building much more efficient, saving money on electrical costs.

What will Photometrics Show?

They are engineered to show if a proposed plan will actually meet the lighting specifications of a project or design. They can also be used for an already existing facility to find better and more efficient ways of lighting the facility. You can see why photometrics can be so important to a business owner.

Saving on everyday costs like electric can really make a difference in the overhead costs for a business. Photometrics can help you make those changes you need to cut costs. Without using photometrics, you could be missing out on huge savings in your big picture.

To Wrap Up

As you can see, photometrics are a vital tool when it comes to designing a facility or trying to find some costs to cut. You can even use photometrics when you’re shopping for a new location. Photometrics are a vital tool for every business owner and shouldn’t be overlooked. Contact us today to learn more!

Time to Be “Smart” About Lighting Solutions

In the past several decades, the lighting industry has come a long way, going from incandescent and fluorescent lights to HIDs and LEDs. The 21st century has brought us a new approach to lighting – smart operation.

The power of smart lighting solutions is hard to underestimate. They allow you to save time, money, and effort while taking care of the environment.

IoT and Lighting

IoT (Internet of Things) is a network of devices that collect data from integrated sensors. Then special software processes the data to offer automated solutions to the users.

What does all that have to do with lighting?

1. Smart Light Switches

These switches work as regular switches do, but you can also control them remotely. Meaning, you can turn lights off and on whenever you are not in the building by using an app on your smartphone. You can also set up a schedule according to which the lights will go on throughout the day.

Coupled with motion sensors, these light switches can turn on and off when someone enters or leaves a facility.

2. Smart Bulbs

A smart dimmable bulb can dim without you having to install a dimmer switch. You can control the dimming remotely through an app.

Some of these bulbs can also change color and even play music. We’ll tell you why this seemingly useless feature may be important for a commercial facility later in the article.

Why Should You Consider Smart Lighting Solutions?

Changing a light bulb seems easier and cheaper than investing in an IoT-enabled lighting source. However, with time, you can see an impressive ROI.

  • Heightened Security – the ability to manipulate lights remotely can help you ward unwanted guests off your property. This is when the music-playing feature can come in handy.
  • Lower energy bills – remote operation and scheduling options allow you to reduce energy bills tremendously. An LED energy-star certified smart bulb consumes up to 90% less energy than a regular light bulb.
  • Saved money – LED smart lights can work up to 50,000 hours while an average light bulb can’t last longer than 2,000 hours.
  • Impressive convenience – the ability to control when and how your lights work remotely is highly convenient. For example, you can reduce the chances of workplace accidents by regulating the bulb’s brightness at the right time.

Lighting systems are a perfect tool for reaping key benefits of the IoT progress. They are already integrated all over any facility, be it a warehouse or a department store. When fitted with the right equipment, they can collect the necessary information and offer numerous benefits.

Stay on Top of the Latest Technologies with Smart Lighting Solutions

Millions of property owners have made the first steps to making their buildings smart by installing smart lighting solutions. In a few years, the trend is likely to turn into a standard.

Contact us today for more information about smart lighting solutions.