If your industrial facility is currently using traditional lighting such as fluorescent, HID, incandescent, or halogen bulbs, it’s ultimately costing you more while limiting your benefits. You could even be creating an unsafe work environment, putting your employees at risk for health or work-related injuries. threatening employee health and increasing the risk of work related injuries.
Here are 5 reasons why it’s time to upgrade your industrial facility lighting to LED now:
1. Reduced Energy Bills
LED lighting is known for its efficiency, making it the first choice for anyone wishing to decrease overhead costs. Facilities can potentially cut their lighting energy consumption by as much as 80 – 90 percent over legacy systems like high-pressure sodium (HPS) and other high-intensity diode (HID) sources, creating significant cost savings.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, about 48 billion kilowatt-hours were consumed for lighting in manufacturing facilities in 2018. Upgrading industrial facility’s lighting to LEDs alone could cut usage by 43 billion kilowatt-hours, saving enough energy to light over 30 million homes. Combined across the US, LED lighting could save American industrial facilities $3.6 billion in energy cost each year.
2. Less Maintenance
Are you tired of constantly seeing burned out bulbs in your facility? Routine maintenance often requires production shutdowns, along with the use of mechanical lifts and supplemental lighting. (Hello workplace hazards! But more on that later…) Because high-performance industrial LED fixtures can last more than 100,000 hours – virtually eliminating lighting maintenance for up to 10 years or more – companies can avoid wasting the time and energy it takes to replace lamps.
In addition to less maintenance and repair required for burned out bulbs, LED lighting substantially reduces maintenance costs. Conventional HPS bulbs fail as often as every 24,000 hours and more frequently in high-vibration and other harsh environments, resulting in frequent change-out. Fewer bulb changes not only save you time, it also saves you money.
3. Improved Visibility
A typical HPS bulb produces illumination with a color rendering index (CRI) of less than 30, which results in that unnatural orange glow that distorts colors. This makes it difficult for workers to discern between colors on hazmat placards, wiring, and labels, all of which rely on color-coding for effectiveness and safety. By comparison, industrial LEDs boast a CRI of 70 or above, for a much more natural color that mimics natural daylight. This provides optimal illumination to improve workers’ color perception.
By the time a fluorescent bulb begins to reach the end of its life, it typically emits around 40 – 50% less light. The phosphor coating inside the tube deteriorates with age decreasing the quality of light, meaning your lighting performance is declining from day one.
In contrast, LED tube lights perform at 100% capacity with 100% efficiency. Check out these before and after photos showing an upgrade from traditional to LED lighting:
Traditional lighting also emits light in every direction – essentially wasting light where it’s not needed. The use of reflectors to get light where you want it loses 10% effectiveness in each reflection. LEDs provide a directional source of light that is more effective and efficient. You can maximize your savings by choosing the right beam angle for the intended fixture mounting height.
Fluorescent, incandescent, halogen, and HID lights emit a substantial portion of their output in the invisible infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV) spectrums. This means that claimed output isn’t what you actually see. An incandescent bulb generally wastes 90 percent of its energy as IR heat, and just 10 percent goes toward making visible light. Unless an LED bulb or fixture is specifically IR or UV, it produces little to no UV light or infrared radiation.
Traditional lighting loses a significant amount of light before it makes it to where it’s needed, and it loses it much faster than LEDs. This problem is known as lumen or light loss. Factoring in lumen loss helps you shop for the most cost-saving LED replacements.
4. Safer Work Environment
Nearly 3 million American workers are hurt on the job each year, and poor lighting is to blame for the most common accidents, including slips, trips, falls, and contact with objects and equipment. Despite the risks associated with poor lighting, more than 90% of industrial facilities still rely on conventional fixtures, which are notorious for their unnatural orange glow, insufficient light output, short lifespan, and potential danger from mercury exposure.
Research has shown that simply improving workplace lighting can reduce accidents by as much as 60% percent. In industrial facilities, this could mean the difference between life and death for employees who work in harsh conditions.
Fatigue and drowsiness are contributors to accidents and injuries, and this can become even more problematic in overnight shift work. White light of modern LEDs reduces fatigue and makes workers feel five times more alert. One CDC study even found that LED lighting helped people detect trip hazards 94% faster, which alone could cut down on thousands of accidents each year.
Modern, long-lasting LED lighting is the ideal solution that can help to dramatically reduce the risk of industrial accidents by providing a safer, well-lit environment. They also decrease the risk of a burn hazard. While incandescent bulbs contain filaments that heat up and burn out, LEDs conserve energy and stay cool to the touch, meaning they pose less of a fire and burn hazard than heat-generating lights like incandescent.
5. Environmentally friendly
For obvious reasons, any kind of lighting technology that eliminates toxic gases and materials from the manufacturing process can’t be a good thing. A single HPS bulb contains enough mercury vapor to poison an entire classroom full of children. That means just one broken bulb can put workers at risk of mercury exposure causing severe toxicity symptoms including some that can have lifelong implications. LED fixtures contain zero mercury or other harmful chemicals, making them a much safer alternative in industrial applications.
The two biggest environmental advantages of LED accrue from its low energy consumption and long life. As compared to CFLs and incandescent lamps, fewer LED lamps need to be produced, packaged, transported, used and ultimately disposed, making them the ideal solution to greener workplace lighting habits.
By virtue of their long-life performance, reduced maintenance, and improved visibility, LEDs are an important consideration when it comes to the short and long-term health of industrial workers. Although they are slightly more expensive than alternative light sources, LEDs are more efficient, have a much slower rate of lumen depreciation, consume significantly less power, and could qualify for energy rebates making LED lighting the clear choice for industrial manufacturing facilities.
If you’re thinking of adding these benefits to your facility, Moore’s provides a hassle-free LED lighting upgrade experience. From design, removal, installation and disposal, we take care of it all without you having to worry about a thing. Check out more info here!