Practical advice on commercial lighting from LED retrofits to lighting design.

Our goal here on the Lighting Insights Blog is to offer helpful answers to common lighting questions and to keep you posted on key developments in the industry.

There are a lot of big numbers that get thrown around in lighting retrofit discussions. The savings –– from the cost of energy to the lessened maintenance workload –– can be eye-popping.

Yet, oftentimes, the only number that is really eye-popping to your boss is that of upfront cost.

The reality is, no matter how common sense a retrofit may seem, big expenditures rarely get passed swiftly. (And sometimes, the sheer size of the number on the price tag can delay a quick-ROI, "common sense" project for years.)

If you're like so many of our lighting-savvy customers who have had trouble getting budgetary approval for an energy-saving lighting conversion, maybe one of the ideas below can help you to get something pushed through and start saving your company money with a refreshed look.

Last year, we helped the Staples Center in Los Angeles retrofit to LED lighting. Between that venue and the adjacent Microsoft Theater, the property manager retrofitted over 100 fixtures to LED, bringing the cost of energy down to 25 percent of what the venues used to pay, when they were using metal halide fixtures. Check out our case study here.

But their decision had more to do with maintenance than energy, which can be extremely difficult in hard-to-reach areas. 

That brings us to our first reason why venues like the Staples Center and the Microsoft Theater are rapidly retrofitting to LED:

When you're in the business of opening beautiful places –– be they retail stores, restaurants, office buildings, or apartment complexes –– life can feel like a game of compromises.

Typically, you have four main objectives: meet building code, maintain design intent, stay within budget, and open up on time. And oftentimes, achieving all four of those things feels like a pipe dream. Just choose two or three. Something almost always has to give.

It doesn't have to be that way.

About 18 months ago, we announced that we would be building an orphanage in Haiti, in order to help and care for as many as 100 orphaned children in the Caribbean country. Today, there are over 80 children who call the orphanage home, but there is more work to be done.

Part of our original vision for this project was to include a "vocational training center," where the children could learn vital, tangible skills that easily translate to in-demand jobs on the island. We have begun construction on this part of the property, and on several classrooms. And now, we're looking to accelerate construction efforts by raising funds through a special, limited time partnership with our recycling vendor.

The busiest international port of entry in the world is 14 miles south of downtown San Diego, in San Ysidro, California. Every day, more than 20,000 people cross the U.S.-Mexico border through this port, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year.

When it came time to upgrade lighting, the U.S. General Services Administration –– which manages the San Ysidro property –– was looking to accomplish a few primary objectives:

• Raise light levels for border agents and customs officials as they process visa paperwork, inspect vehicles, etc.
• Increase fixture life rating to limit challenging, costly maintenance atop 125-foot mastheads
• Advance toward goal of net-zero energy consumption at San Ysidro by reducing energy required by fixtures

One of our lighting specialists was recently working with a chief engineer at a commercial office who was scrambling to get a suite ready for a new tenant. The process was pretty typical, and the tenant was putting a share of their improvement funds toward lighting upgrades.

But, as always with construction and remodeling, a problem surfaced: the lighting fixtures that the tenant's architect specified had a 6-8 week lead time, but the tenant was expecting to occupy the space in 4 weeks.

The chief engineer was caught in a pickle, and the manufacturer's rep the architect worked with on the spec had no similar alternatives to offer.

Dimming LEDs can be tricky for a variety of reasons, and it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint the source of the particular issue you're facing, like flickering. In this post, we'll zero in on one particular issue: a lack of load resistance.

Conventional (TRIAC) dimmer switches –– the ones designed to work with incandescent and halogen light bulbs –– require a certain amount of "holding current," or wattage in non-electrical-engineer terms, in order to work properly. When paired with an incandescent, the bulb draws enough voltage for the dimmer to work with and reduce. The control cuts the voltage, sending less to the lamp, or bulb, resulting in reduced light output (dimmed lighting).

Linear fluorescent lighting has for decades been the workhorse light source for so many applications, thanks to its long life ratings and relatively efficient use of energy. But the emergence of linear LED technology over the last decade or so has really changed the landscape, making buying decisions for linear applications more complex.

We get questions all the time about linear lighting. Is it risky to invest in LED lighting products? Are more fluorescent phaseouts ahead? What linear lighting products does Regency suggest?

Summer is in full swing and I'm glad, because that means baseball is in full swing. And I love baseball.

But the game of baseball is a lot like a lighting project. And I don't love lighting projects.

What gives?

Well, I should back up here. I work for a lighting company. So saying I don't love lighting projects isn't the most rah-rah thing to say.