Specialty and Architectural Lighting — LED

One of the distinct advantages LED bulbs have over CFL is their better performance in winter and in cooler environments. A big complaint of older compact fluorescent lamps was that they took an excessively long time to warm up to usable brightness in the winter, making them impractical for outdoor or garage lighting. While LEDs can struggle when the weather is hot, they perform best when temperatures are cool. This is for several reasons. Less...

Now that both incandescent and halogen bulbs are disappearing from the market, many people want to replace their current household lighting with the LED light bulbs. This is a great option for many because the price of LED bulb keeps decreasing and lighting companies become more efficient and the cost of manufacturing comes down. However, you need to learn how you can find the best LED replacement bulbs for your home. There are some important...

There are different types of light bulbs with a variety of shapes, bases, wattages, voltage, and more. Some of the best quality bulbs are MR light bulbs. MR is an abbreviation for "multifaceted reflector." These light bulbs are most often low voltage halogen MR reflectors which come in different shapes which include MR16, MR11, and MR8. The same lamp shapes also come in a line voltage type, using a GU10 base, although overall options are...

With a variety of lighting applications and lamp types, schools have many opportunities to both improve the quality of the lighting in their facilities and reduce operating costs. In addition to higher efficiency traditional lamps and better controls, LED lighting retrofit opportunities have reached a point both in the maturity of the technology and in lower prices to warrant strong consideration. Retrofit Classrooms with T8 LED Tubes Classrooms, usually illuminated with T8 fluorescent recessed troffers...

Before you head off to your favorite store, online or brick, to buy LED light bulbs to replace those short-lived incandescents, you should read on. When LEDs first came on the market, there was wild talk about how these bulbs will last forever... or at least 100,000 hours which is over 11 years. Compared to incandescent bulbs with an expected life of around 750 hours, that might as well be forever. Rated Life More recently...

When it comes to upgrading to LED lighting, owners of small retail businesses may assume that bottom line benefits accrue primarily to large operations retrofitting with hundreds or even thousands of LED lamps. While scale and buying power certainly help larger businesses justify major light upgrades, locally owned retailers will find they too have LED options well worth exploring. Any smaller sized retail business open six or seven days a week probably operates enough lighting...

In a world suddenly awash with LED light bulbs and fixtures on the market providing stunning white light for homes and businesses, it is easy to forget how recently the only LEDs we laid eyes on were single diode red and green dots blinking at us from instrument panels, most likely 1980s-era audio or computer equipment. The missing link that took years to develop, with many failures along the way, was the blue LED. Finally...

At some point it will become necessary to change out old light bulbs, and for many lighting situations this does not pose a problem. Where a problem does occur is when bulbs in directional lighting, such as track lights, require replacement. While homes may have a few MR or PAR bulbs in various rooms, businesses like museums, art galleries, restaurants, and retail stores may have hundreds of bulbs with varying beam angles. Making sure these...

Before the passage of the 2007 Energy Bill, it was easy to replace a general service household light bulb. All you had to do was read the number on the top of the bulb and find the exact replacement: 60 watts was always 60 watts. But now, with common 40, 60, 75 and 100 watt incandescent bulbs no longer being manufactured for general purposes, consumers are being forced to change their thinking on lighting. This...

A 2018 study by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensallear Polytechnic provides detailed guidelines for comparing LED and HID light sources for use in commercial greenhouse and other horticulture facilities. The report is also a cautionary advisory on transitioning to LED based only on the criteria of improved energy efficiency and longer lamp life compared to HID. Scope of LRC Study Commercial environmentally-controlled greenhouses in the U.S. account for nearly 900 million square feet...

Should you buy that cheap UVC LED bulb on Amazon or eBay? It's a 500W equivalent and screws into your table lamp. Great deal, right? Unfortunately, it's starting to come out that these bulbs are fake. Instead of outputting UVC light, many are likely UVA blacklights, and manufacturers are exploiting coronavirus fears to sell fakes to consumers and medical professionals.

One of the most common light fixtures found in both commercial and residential applications is the ceiling recessed downlight. The clean, smooth ceiling look of recessed downlights makes them popular in office entryways, lobbies, hallways and conference rooms. In homes, recessed downlights are common in kitchens and are often found in rooms throughout the house. Realizing the significant potential for both energy and maintenance cost savings, manufacturers have developed a large range of LED retrofit...

High bay fixtures that use metal halide lamps are common in warehouses, shops, sports facilities and big box retail stores. Wattages for metal halide lamps in these applications typically range from 175 watts to 400 watts. Manufacturers are, in 2020, many generations into their lines of LED lamps designed to replace high wattage metal halide. The wattage for equivalent illumination from LED lamps designed for high bay is generally in the range of 50 watts...

Many manufacturers offer both glass and plastic tube construction for LED replacement lamps. So which is best, glass or plastic? The answer depends on the application. Here’s a brief guide. Application LED Tube Material Damage Protection Comments Office & General Lighting Glass Minimal Protection Least expensive for large scale retrofits Grocery & General Retail Glass PET Coated Shatter Protection NSF Rated Mid-range expense Food Processing & Industrial Plastic Best Protection NSF Rated Most expensive Lamp...

When new LED lamps are used to replace traditional light sources or LED fixtures are part of a retrofit project, an important but often overlooked issue that must to addressed is the compatibility of existing controls. Lighting is a system. The light source is one component. Ballasts, transformers, dimmers, occupancy and photo sensors must be compatible or the new LED light source upgrade will not function properly. It’s not uncommon, after LED lighting has been...