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

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?

The answer is yes. Prior to 2016, there weren't any LED plug-and-play replacement options for T12 lamps from major lighting manufacturers. Now things have changed with a new magnetic ballast-compatible LED tube.

Last year, Philips rolled out an Instantfit LED tube that was compatible with old-school magnetic ballasts.

Admittedly, commodity T12 fluorescents haven't been manufactured in any kind of large quantity in the United States for a few years now, making them one of the endangered species of the lighting world. Additionally, beginning in 2010, legislation to cease the production of magnetic ballasts –– the functional heart behind T12 lamps –– went into effect.

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

Thanks to continuing changes in the linear LED solutions available in the market, there are now more options and additional risks to consider when choosing to convert your linear fluorescent lamps to linear LED lamps. And in addition to those technological advances, prices have come down to make upgrading to more energy-efficient linear LED lamps more affordable. 

Proven, well-known traditional lamp manufacturers have lowered their pricing on LED linear lamps so that it no longer makes sense to choose products made by riskier, lesser-known lamp manufacturers due to lower pricing.  

Sneak peek into our perspective

The annual dealer-exclusive Lightfair trade show did not disappoint this year. If you aren’t familiar with this event, it is the lighting industry’s showcase for new technology and products (the most well-lit public display of efficiency that the world has ever seen!). Normally invitations are limited to distributors, architects and lighting designers, so just in case you were not in the that group, we thought we would give you the inside scoop on what we saw in 2015!