What is Commercial LED Lighting?
Commercial LED lighting, defined as lighting used for commercial spaces such as offices, stores, schools And universities, government buildings and manufacturing facilities, has made a huge transition in the last 10 years. Formally, these facilities used high-wattage traditional lighting technology like HID lamps (primarily metal halide and high pressure sodium) land fluorescent lighting in particular. But in today’s marketplace it’s all about LEDs (light emitting diodes). This goes for both new construction and renovation and retrofit.
Renovation and Retrofit
In the renovation market there is a tremendous interest in saving energy and reducing maintenance costs in existing buildings. Many building owners may not be savvy on LEDs but they understand their electricity bill and the fact that they may have outdated and high-wattage lamps in their facilities basically because they have to keep buying them and replacing them. For example, in an industrial facility or warehouse environment, an end-user may have 100 metal halide high-bays in service. These energy sucking fixtures can lose 40% of their initial light output after only 20% of their service life. In addition they require a ballast that consumes additional energy so that a 400 watt fixture can actually be consuming significantly more than 400 watts.
ATG products for your Renovation and Retrofit projects:
Similarly, other lighting categories can be addressed like stairwell lighting. Stairwell lighting is a major lighting category worth targeting because stairwell lights have to be on 24/7 for safety concerns. Therefore it’s important to use fixtures that are not only energy-efficient but also have motion sensors, or ultrasonic sensors, that pick up sound or motion when people enter the stairwell but then dim down to much lower levels when no one is present. It’s no wonder people are looking for solutions for metal halide retrofit to LED.
ATG products for metal halide retrofit to LED:
Fortunately, there are many ways that people can find help in their search to lower energy costs. For example, a Google search could easily point in the direction of lighting companies offering free value added services like site surveys, application engineering, rebate assistance, ROI analysis and no-cost mock ups. Renovation and retrofit of commercial LED lighting in 2021 is a huge business because of many combined factors including up to 2/3 energy saving, better lighting control and dramatically reduced maintenance costs.
New Construction
In new construction, LEDs are the standard go-to for architects, specifying engineers and lighting designers. End-users need to be energy conscious from the get-go and in many cases local code compliance mandates energy efficiency. This is where lighting controls come in. Generally, there is a number of ways to comply with local codes like California’s Title 24. When it comes to Title 24, if you don’t pass the plan check, you don’t get a building permit. Game over. Whatever method is used, you’ll find lighting controls of some type in the bill of materials.
There are a number of different ways for the LED fixtures to be controlled either by way of a standalone control systems, where fixtures are operating independently, or by sophisticated systems like Bluetooth Mesh networks that have all fixtures communicating in an ecosystem. With systems like Bluetooth mesh, you can create areas and zones. Each zone can be programmed separately from another one allowing total flexibility in a given area – for both indoor and outdoor applications. Additionally because each fixture in the system is communicating with each other, the system continues working even if one fixture goes down.
ATG products for your New Construction projects:
Parking Lot Lighting
Commercial LED lighting retrofits for parking lots is an excellent idea! Primarily because parking lot lighting utilizes pole-mounted fixtures at high mounting heights. Those high mounting heights require high wattage fixtures. In the recent past, 400W metal halide was the most popular wattage for fixtures of this type of application. Now you can save 2/3 the energy by sleek architectural LED fixtures. The new generation of LED area lights generate similar light output for 150 watts and require much less maintenance. So when considering energy saving LED lighting, end-users and building owners should take advantage of all the available tools and remember they can save energy not only on indoor but also on outdoor lighting applications. Never forget integrated lighting controls to achieve maximum energy savings with available rebates.
ATG products for Parking Lot Lighting: