America (IES) recommended light levels
while withstanding the high ambient
temperatures commonly found in manufacturing environments.
Mark Spencer, director of market-
ing, Lusio. Absolutely.
Energy Efficiency. With our LED
high-bay fixtures with up to 103 lumens
per watt, a facility can lower its energy
usage by as much as 70 percent compared to traditional HID and fluorescent
fixtures.
Enhances Control. Energy use can
be further curtailed by dimming or turning off fixtures when areas are not occupied. LED fixtures turn on instantly
with no ramp-up time.
Bob Smith, PE, director, energy
marketing solutions, Cooper Light-
ing. It depends.
Manufacturing plants’ requirements
vary widely, and no single lighting technology offered today is the best solution
for all of them. First, it is very important
that these applications have adequate
and reliable light levels for safety.
High Cost. Although LED luminaires
have technological advantages over
both the HID and fluorescent luminaires
that typically are specified today, they
may not provide sufficient energy savings to overcome the higher costs as a
mainstay alternative.
However, LED technology’s value is
forecast to improve over time as the
LED performance advances. The LED
improvement road map, updated by
the U.S. Department of Energy (http://
apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/
publications/pdfs/ssl/ssl_mypp2011_
web.pdf ), shows LED efficacy improving
as the cost decreases. As this occurs,
LED luminaires will gain broader acceptance and will replace the HID and fluorescent systems.
Les Kaminski, technical sales man-
ager, Waldmann Lighting. Definitely.
Long Life. LED lighting offers many
advantages due to its long life. Because there is almost no maintenance,
it eliminates service and downtime, allowing for machines to operate without
the need for lighting maintenance.
Bob Roller, vice president of light-
ing, business development, Cree.
In general, yes.
The answer is not as straightforward
as the question. Up until now HIFs have
been the lighting choice for manufacturing facility managers. Advances in
LED technology and efficacy, however,
make LED lighting a compelling and energy-efficient option for manufacturing.
Manufacturers often require the high-est-quality lighting, with specific needs
ranging from high foot-candle requirements to extremely even lighting. Our
LED is suitable for most manufacturing
applications.
“You can’t find a metal
halide wallpack out there
with a five-year warranty.
— Ross Barna,
RAB Lighting Inc.
William Busch, senior product
manager, Philips Day-Brite. Yes.
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership.
LED luminaires are applicable for manufacturing plants, because they can produce light levels comparable to those
of traditional HID and fluorescent light
sources with reduced total owning and
operating costs. Power consumption is
lower, and maintenance costs are reduced due to the longer life of the LEDs.
Rey Roque, vice president of mar-
keting, Pixi Lighting. It depends.
There is such a huge variety of manufacturing plants, from the huge Boeing
747 Everett facility to Dole food processing plants to small-footprint machine
shops. Currently our LED luminaires cannot replace fluorescent high-bay applications or even applications that currently
Figure 2
LEDs work well with controls and can be
dimmed or connected to occupancy and
photocell sensors. Photo courtesy of Lithonia Lighting, Atlanta.
use metal halide or sodium lamps. Our
LED luminaires (flatlights) are specified
for approximately 12 feet maximum, or
they can be used for higher ceilings with
cabling to lower them.
Joe Martin, vice president and
general manager, Precision-Para-
gon. The short answer is yes …
LED lighting can be a good choice
for manufacturing plants, but it’s not al-
ways the best choice, or even the most
energy-efficient choice. It all depends
on the specifics of each manufacturing
plant’s needs and the goals of the light-
ing retrofit.
Fluorescents More Efficient. For the
most common type of lighting fixture in
a manufacturing facility, high-bay lighting, fluorescent lighting has been the
de facto energy-efficient technology for
the past 10 years. It is only recently that
LED-based high-bays became viable.
While LED lighting is still rapidly
evolving, the current generation of LED
high-bay fixtures are still a bit less efficient in terms of lumens per watt than
the current generation of fluorescent
high-bay fixtures.
However, with the right fixture in the
right application, LEDs may be as efficient as fluorescent high-bays in terms
of lumens per watt.
For example, we make some of the
most efficient LED-based fixtures in the
business, but generally, efficient LED
high-bays produce around 80 lumens
of light, but some of the most efficient
