Today’s LED market is being inundated daily with new products that have claims of durability, long life and light output and distribution similar to Incandescent and Halogen sources. With so many products to choose from it is hard to know which manufacturer is credible and which lamp will actually meet the specifications on the label. The Department of Energy (DOE) has provided numerous tools to help consumers wade through all the specifications including Lighting Facts labels, UL Listings, Energy Star approval, and LM-79/LM-80 testing to list a few. Additionally, Lighting Facts has created a publicly accessible database where they publish the testing data for all the products that have received their label. The data can be sorted through by fixture type, lumen output, color temperature and wattage. Each of these selections can help any end-user choose the correct product for their application. Lastly, I have uploaded the DOE article regarding LED equivalency to Incandescent and Halogen products. The article does a great job of defining the characteristics to look for with each LED lamp and summarizes considerations that everyone should take before selecting their lamp.
LED Products: Establishing LED Equivalency (Department of Energy)
Philips Free Webinars for April and May 2011
Over the next two months Philips will be offering free webinars that will touch on the following subjects:
- Intro to Linear LED Lighting, Warehouse Coolers and Freezers
- How to prepare for the Fluorescent Legislation
- How to prepare for the Incandescent and Halogen Legislation
- Don’t miss out on Rebate Programs
- Lighting a Warehouse – Getting the light where you need it
- Energy-Saving Alternative for HID Lamps
- LEDs in Healthcare Applications
- How to meet your energ-saving school budgets
- Office Lighting – Supoorting the visual tasks that get work done
If you would like to register for any of the webinars please go to Philips and the registration link will be on the right side of the page. The entire webinar schedule is linked as well: Philips Webinars April and May. As stated above all these webinars are free and will provide some great information about the ever changing world of lighting.
T12 Bonus Rebate Program through Xcel Energy Minnesota
Xcel Energy Minnesota has just released that they are increasing their rebate incentives for businesses that retrofit T12 systems with energy-efficient T8 or T5 systems. The bonus incentives offer an additional 50 percent rebate per fixture for T12 - T8 retrofit, T12 - T8 optimization and T12 - T5 retrofit measures only. As our nation gets closer to enacting legislation that no longer permits the manufacturing or importation of most inefficient T12 sources, many utility companies will be offering programs like the one mentioned above to change over as many systems as possible. However, most of the T12 incentives will expire or they will be significantly cut when the legislation becomes permanent on July 14th, 2012. For smaller energy users please first check to see if your business qualifies for CEE’s One Stop Efficiency Rebate Program (through Xcel Energy) as they grant higher incentives for select users. The T12 Retrofit Incentive Xcel Energy and the T12 Retrofit Incentive CEE program details are linked for your convenience.
Department of Energy Releases 11th Round of Caliper Studies
What is the Department of Energy (DOE) Caliper Study you may ask. The DOE’s Caliper program evaluates LED (Solid State Lighting) products to provide insight to consumers on how well the current market’s LED’s are meeting performance standards. In order to remain impartial, all of the DOE’s products are identified by code they created as to not directly point fingers at certain manufacturers. Overall, the goal of the Caliper program is to provide an educational resource to the consumer on how quickly the LED landscape is changing. If you would like to see a summary of the most recent results or read more about the program please click here.
Next Generation Metal Halide vs. Fluorescent
Holophane Vantage
Typically, when we are making recommendations for one-to-one replacement of 400 watt metal halide fixtures if a customer wants more light, we recommend going to a six lamp T5HO fixture. While there are other great options for one-to-one replacement like six lamp T8 or the newest generation of metal halide fixtures, these were thought to deliver only equivalent light, not more. However, I saw something today that has changed my mind on that.
One of our Holophane Reps was doing a lunch and learn for an engineer and a large part of the presentation was centered around the newest generation of metal halide lighting, the 210 watt MasterColor Elite. Since he had worked with this engineer on a food processing application where a six lamp T5HO enclosed and gasketed fixture was specified, he thought he would run the numbers with the 210 watt MasterColor Elite to see how the light levels compared. The results were stunning. He was able to achieve exactly the same light levels with the MasterColor Elite system with nearly 40% energy savings (the MasterColor system uses 227 watts in comparison to the T5HO system that uses 360 watts). In this comparison they used a Holophane 210 watt MasterColor Elite Vantage fixture against their six lamp T5HO EMW fixture.
210 Watt Master Color Elite
The advantage comes from the size of the light source and the efficiency of the fixture. Whenever you can reduce the size of the lamp, your fixture becomes more efficient because you can control where the light goes more precisely. Since the 210 watt MasterColor Elite is 50% smaller than a standard 400 watt metal halide, and is certainly a lot less surface area of lighting than six T5HO lamps, the fixture becomes efficient enough that the MasterColor Elite’s 20,800 mean lumens are equivalent to the T5HO’s 28,500 mean lumens.
So, even I have to be reminded sometimes that we can’t just look at lumen data for lamps because the efficiency of a fixture can make such an impact on delivered light. Going forward, especially for food processing customers, I will know I have another option for increased light with the 210 watt MasterColor Elite. Please contact Joe Gangl at 651-769-8019 for more information. Hope this was helpful!
AllStart Promotion: Buy 5, Get 1 FREE!
The AllStart lamp is a new energy-saving alternative for your metal halide systems. Philips Lighting is offering you one (1) free Energy Advantage CDM lamp with AllStart Technology when you buy five (5) CDM lamps with AllStart Technology. This promotion applies to all Philips AllStart products except AllStart TuffGuard lamps. The promotion will expire December 31, 2010. If you’ve been considering switching your 400W, 250W, or 175W metal halide systems to a more energy-saving option, then now is the time to act!
Lamps with Philips AllStart Technology provide the following benefits:
- Immediate energy savings – Saves you up to 18%
- Easy switch out – Direct retrofit lamp to both probe and pulse start magnetic ballasts (not suitable for operation on electronic ballasts)
- Reduced maintenance and recycling costs – Long life ≥ 20,000 hours rated average life
- Excellent light quality – Provides crisp white light, a color rendering of ≥ 85, and 100 lumens per watt
- Flexible operation – A true universal operation that does not affect lamp life
All SMMPA utility customers (including Austin, Owatonna, and Rochester Public Utilities)receive a prescriptive rebate of $20 per lamp for the 205 Watt and 330 Watt AllStart lamps. Xcel Energy customers of Minnesota have also received a custom rebate of up to $33 per lamp for the 330 Watt AllStart. Contact one of the Lamp Champs for any of your rebate questions.
How to claim your free lamp(s):
- Contact your local Werner Sales Representative or call 651-458-3701 to place your order. Also, if you have any questions feel free to call one of the Lamp Champs: Kelli Lewis at 651-216-0242 or Joe Gangl at 651-769-8019.
- Buy your product and complete the rebate form located at www.philips.com/ourusers.
- Fax in a copy of your invoice and the completed rebate form to (508) 378-8443 by 12:00 AM EST on January 4, 2011.
- You’ll receive your free lamp(s) in approximately 4-6 weeks.
To learn more about the AllStart lamps or to find a part number, click here to see the cut sheet.
DOE Test Results for LED Retrofit Lamps
The latest report from the Department of Energy on LED lamps gives the scoop on LED retrofit lamps. For this report, LED MR16s and LED PAR30s were put to the test at a hotel in San Francisco. Here is a summary of their findings:
- The LED replacement lamps resulted in approximately 70 percent energy savings compared to the halogen lamps
- The simple payback was estimated to be 1.1 years ( in part due to high relamping labor costs in San Francisco)
- User feedback indicated that the LED lamps delivered warm lighting that flattered interior finishes and skin tones, and duplicated the original lighting design intent without distracting glare or flicker
In addition, the DOE lists several lessons learned from testing LED retrofit lamps. The seven lessons learned are as follows:
- Don’t buy LED replacement lamps sight unseen: Buy and try a few before committing to large retrofit projects. Continue reading
