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

This article has been updated to include new linear LED solutions and current recommendations. It was originally published in September 2015. 

If you’re looking to convert your linear fluorescent lamps to linear LED lamps, there are now more options and additional risks to consider.

LIGHTFAIR 2018 in Chicago was another great opportunity to catch up on the latest advancements in lighting and network with those in the lighting community. As you walk the aisles at the show, it becomes clear that the US lighting market is moving from being a traditional, somewhat boring commodity, to more technologically advanced and design oriented, much like it is in Europe. 

What products should you retrofit to LED first?

Our lighting experts get that question all the time. Fortunately, there’s a pretty simple answer. 

If you have any applications in your building that still have incandescent or halogen lighting, start there first. Why?

The retrofit from incandescent or halogen to LED gives you the biggest energy savings and almost always the fastest return on investment. We all want to make our money back quickly on investments, right? If you’re using linear or compact fluorescent lighting anywhere in your building, your lighting is already fairly efficient, especially when compared with incandescent or halogen lighting. 

Can you actually retrofit T12 to LED without changing out the ballast?