LED Luminaires

Effective lighting design puts light where it is needed.

By Scott Manning

LED lighting under the canopy offers high brightness levels.

We're all feeling the pinch, both as consumers filling our cars' gas tanks, and as suppliers and retailers with shrinking profit margins. While there is little that can be done about the crude oil market, there is a change that can be implemented by petroleum retailers and convenience stores to lower energy costs. Lighting costs—an unavoidable expense—can be lowered by as much as 62 percent simply by changing the type of luminaires. Suppliers are in a unique position to help retailers positively affect their bottom line.

Typically, the industry consensus has been “the brighter, the better.” The recent trend toward increasingly bright light for gas stations/c-stores has caused drivers, residents of surrounding areas and local officials to complain about excessive glare, light pollution and light trespass. Previously thought of for only aesthetic purposes, light emitting diodes (LEDs) luminaires can have an impact on the bottom line, especially in a commercial application where lights are on 24/7.

Too often, unchecked energy use is one of the most costly operating expenses in a commercial property. However, as building owners experience higher utility bills, the need to find and implement innovative ways to reduce energy is becoming critical to an operation's viability.

LED Technology
LEDs have been around for a long time. However, most of the early adaptations of this technology made use of color mixing, but did not deliver substantial light levels and did not have the output necessary to match high intensity discharge (HID) light sources. High-brightness LED fixtures are now available for general illumination that surpass metal halide for output and efficiency.

LEDs do not burn out like a standard lamp, so individual diodes do not need to be replaced. Instead, the diodes gradually produce lower output levels over a long time. If one LED fails, it does not produce a complete fixture outage.

LEDs do not require any special equipment or drivers to deal with temperature conditions. LED performance is unaffected down to -40° Celsius or in high heat and humidity conditions. This allows for instant on/off control without specially designed circuitry.

In real-world applications, LEDs typically outlast metal halide bulbs by a minimum of five to one. This longevity translates into energy savings, reduced maintenance and reduced cost of ownership over the product's lifetime.

LEDs are solid state devices containing no moving parts, no filaments or fragile glass to break, eliminating the risk of damage during transportation, installation and operation, even in the toughest environments.

Some Considerations
Many LED manufacturers claim that LEDs are superbly efficient for indoor use. While it is true that LEDs produce a very intense, narrow and focused beam and are efficient at lighting up a small surface area, their typical total lumen output is quite small and has limited capabilities for illuminating a room. Some unusually high claims to LED efficiency require driving them at a high current, which will quickly shorten their life or do not take into account the inefficiency of the electronic circuitry to run them.

A frequent claim is that LEDs last for 100,000 hours. While this may be true with good electronic circuitry at a low current, the accepted life is usually more realistically given as 10,000 to 20,000 hours before the light output reduces to 70 percent of their initial output.

Other disadvantages of LEDs for interior applications are their relatively high cost per lumen of output and their poor color rendition since they generally give a fairly blue or grey colored light.

Another challenge is cost of the LED technology for outdoor general illumination applications. Current commercially available LED light fixtures intended for street and parking lot applications range in price from about $500 to $1,000 per fixture, according to a study conducted by the San Diego Regional Energy Office's Public Agency Energy Partnership Program in partnership with the City of Chula Vista. The study also addressed future lamp replacement's high costs as being significantly higher than for HIDs, “...because the printed circuit board containing all the LED bulbs would be typically replaced; however this should not be required for at least 10 years. Cost for replacement circuit boards with a full set of LEDs is currently about $400, whereas lamp replacement costs for conventional HID lamps is in the range from $15 to $40. It should be noted that these costs do not include labor to replace bulbs, which can be especially costly in hard-to-access locations.” The higher initial cost for LED luminaires is being offset by accelerating ROI curves thanks to lower maintenance, longer life, “green” environmental advantages and significant energy savings.

Caution should be the rule as decision makers evaluate LED technology compared to conventional HID fixtures. Understanding how to evaluate LED products, as well as how to integrate LED products into designs, are imperative to providing optimal lighting solutions.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is having a significant effect on the commercial building marketplace, and there are some tax reductions for using energy-efficient products. The law provides tax savings of as much as $1.80/sq. ft. for new commercial buildings that reduce regulated energy use by 50 percent.

Educate the Customer
Gas stations provide a perfect opportunity for LED technology to shine. Owners and operators are realizing that customers are drawn to their properties because of perceptions of cleanliness, safety and a friendly atmosphere. The use of LED lighting gives stations a bright, modern look. And even as crude prices drop below $100 a barrel, retailers' profit margins aren't about to suddenly increase. Utility deregulation and the high costs of natural gas dramatically impact retailers' energy costs. LED luminaires offer suppliers the opportunity to bring new technology to retail customers while educating them on a value-add of which they may not be aware.

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The PEI Journal • Fourth Quarter 2008 • Volume 2, No. 4 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
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