Friday, July 29, 2011

Average Rated Life: Metal Halide (H.I.D.)

The next few blogs will explain industry standards for determining the life of a particular lighting technology.

High Intensity Discharge (H.I.D.) lamps today consist mainly of Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium. Low Pressure Sodium are not very common and Mercury Vapor technology is being phased out.

Manufacturer's will report a Metal Halide lamp, for example, has an 'Average Rated Life' of 20,000 hours. How is this determined and what exactly does it mean?

According to Philips Lighting, Metal Halide rated average life is the life obtained, on average, from large representative groups of lamps in laboratory tests under controlled conditions at 10 or more operating hours per start. It is based on survival of at least 50% of the lamps, and allows for individual lamps or groups of lamps to vary considerably from the average.

Metal Halide, in particular, are sensitive to the position in which it is being used. According to Philiips Lighting 2011 Lighting Catalog, a MS400/U/PS (Universal burn position-Pulse Start) has a rated average life of 15,000 hours. The same 400 watt metal halide with a specific burn position-MS400/BU/PS (Base Up-Pulse Start) has an average rated life of 20,000 hours.

Extreme temperatures and high or low operating voltages will have an impact on life of lamp, something not considered by the manufacturer when determining average rated life.

Venture Lighting, another Metal Halide lamp manufacturer adds, "Rated life does not account for the lumen depreciation, color shifting, and loss in efficacy that always occur as lamps age. To consistently provide a quality lighting system, you must not only consider the lamps that fail, but the lamps that continue to operate. Lower light output (lumen depreciation) occurs even though the lighting system continues to consume the same (or sometimes slightly more) electricity."

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fluorescent tubes to increase in price due to rare earth material shortage

Rare earth metals are elements vital to our energy-efficient fluorescent lamps as they are a crucial componant of the light producing tri-phosphors inside the lamps.
According to www.sylvania.com/phosphors, currently 95% of the world's rare earth metal mining and oxide production comes from China where the manufacture and export of these products are controlled.

The Chinese government has implemented new tariffs and mining regulations on rare earth materials. These actions, coupled with increasingly strict export quotas, have caused the price of these compounds to substantially increase – as much as 3500% since January of 2010 in some cases.

Due to regulation, exports of rare earth materials were reduced 40% from 2009 to 2010 and another 35% during the first half of 2011 compared with prior year. It is clear that the China policies regarding rare earth materials must be addressed with multiple strategies in order to stabilize pricing and supply of these critical minerals.

All lamp manufacturer's distributing linear fluorescent tubes in the United States are forced to raise their price to their customers in order to offset their steep rising costs. Sylvania.com is reporting they will be reviewing and potentially raising their prices monthly until the global pricing is stablized.

Here is a link to a PowerPoint presentation on the rare earth material shortage http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/sylvania-presentation-rare-earth-crisis.0e64cc05-e1a4-4419-8f60-95ae0d35ae71.pdf

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

CFL's and mercury......

Plenty of debate whether or not to use Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL's) because of the mercury content in them.

According to EnergyStar, a United States Environmental Protection Agency and United States energy program, the amount of mercury in a CFL is about 4 milligrams (mg). In comparison, an old thermometer contained about 500 mg of mercury-an amount equal to 125 CFL's.

However, because of the outcry against CFL's due to their mercury content, many manufacturer's have developed technology to reduce the amount of mercury down to as little as 1 mg per lamp.

How should you properly clean up a CFL if it should happen to break? The DOE recommends the following:

BEFORE CLEANUP

1. Have people and pets leave the room

2. Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor evironment.

3. Shut off the central forced air/heating air/conditioning (H&AC system), if you have one.

4. Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb.

DURING CLEANUP

1. Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visable powder

2. Place cleanup materials in a sealable container

AFTER CLEANUP

1. Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.

2. For several hours, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the H&AC system shut off.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Does Retrofitting linear fluorescent tubes with LED T8 tubes make sense?

Not according to a recent report published by the Department of Energy.

(excerpts from LEDs Magazine-May 2011)

The US Dept of Energy (DOE) has published the final report from an evaluation of three LED products designed to directly replace linear fluorescent lamps in commercial ambient lighting. These three products were among the "best in class" of products designed for this application at the time of the study, as identified by DOEs CALiPER testing program.

Key findings include:

•All three LED products drew less power than their fluorescent counterparts but also provided significantly fewer lumens on the room and work surface grids measured beneath and beside them.
•The prices of the LED products are such that none pay for themselves when compared to the standard T8 fluorescent lamp used as the primary baseline in the study.
•If lower light levels are acceptable, similar energy savings can be achieved much more cheaply by substituting lower-wattage fluorescent lamps. Such lamps also have very long lifetimes (30k + hours) and better lumen maintenance than the LEDs over their lifetime.
Alternative designs, such as panel-type products and overall troffer replacement systems, may prove more effective in the future than the products tested in this study. None of these alternative whole-luminaire designs were evaluated here, as this study focused exclusively on products designed for direct replacement of fluorescent lamps in existing troffers.



The report is available for download at:

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/gateway_t8-replacement.pdf

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Comparing Lumens per watt- The TRUE measuring stick of efficiency

Yesterday, the question arose, "what is the most efficient lighting source available?" The person continued by asking if it's LED yet, or is it still High Pressure Sodium.

For the novice, first let me provide a definition of Lumens per watt, which will be the measuring stick for efficiency. Lumens per watt is defined as "A measure of the efficiency of lamps. It indicates the amount of light emitted by the lamp for each unit of electrical power used". For example, a 100-watt lamp producing 1750 lumens gives 17.5 lumens per watt.

So, I wanted to provide a chart comparing different lighting technologies for you to easily see the differences. However, manufacturer's produce different products which makes it hard to put an exact number down. It is a lot like the gas mileage you get with a car. It is very difficult to say all 4-door sedans get 20 mpg. With that said, here is chart:

Incandescent- 24 lumens per watt
Halogen- 36 lumens per watt
Compact Fluorescent(CFL)- 80 lumens per watt
Fluorescent Tubes- 105 lumens per watt
Ceramic Metal Halide- 125 lumens per watt
High Pressure Sodium- 140 lumens per watt
Low Pressure Sodium- 180 lumens per watt
LED 200 lumens per watt

Does this mean you should change every light fixture in your facility to LED? Whoa, no way. LED has it's benefits and in certain applications it is terrific..in others, however, LED technology may not be the best option. Every area should be addressed individually to best maximize light levels, energy-savings and employee performance.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Welcome!

The purpose of this blog is to help commercial and industrial building owners understand the available lighting technologies, rebates and tax incentives.