LED Floodlights – A worthwhile investment in efficient lighting

The new range of LED floodlights is now in South Africa. The technology advances in LED technology now offer you high quality floodlights for your home or business. In terms of energy saving, LED floodlights deliver this and more. Flood lights are just that – they flood an area with light, whether it’s a parking area, signboard, or home entertainment area, lighting is one of the main security requirements.

Why Use LED Floodlights?

In the past , LED’s were used primarily in traffic signals and other applications that require high visibility – signals or lights that can be seen clearly from distance. In this application , LED lighting proved most effective. There were some questions regarding the ability of LED’s to PROJECT LIGHT.

Developments in LED technology have led to these LED floodlights becoming more efficient at projecting or ‘throwing’ light , therefore making them acceptable alternatives to normal Mercury Vapour, high pressure Sodium and Metal Halide floodlights.

LED floodlights offer similar light output levels at a fraction of the energy requirements and this is where their appeal lies for the consumer.

LED Floodlights – Lighting Output

The big attraction for using LED floodlights are the comparisons between the energy used to deliver the same level of lumen output.

So , let’s say a standard 100W linear floodlight would only require a 20W LED floodlight to deliver the same light output of around 820 Lumens. Moving up the spectrum , a 100W LED floodlight would replace a 500W linear halogen floodlight. So the maths here is quite simple…using these floodlights would reduce your energy consumption on your floodlights by around 80%.

If you have 10 X 500W floodlights around your premises then switching these to LED  would take that consumption from 5000W per hour or 5kWh to 1000W per hour  or 1kWh. Which means that instead of using 5kW per hour , you would cut that down to 1kW per hour!

Over a daily 10 Hour period, that would save you 40kWh per day – or around 1200kWh per month. That’s a pretty good reason to convert to LED Floodlights – don’t you think?

As the technology advances in LED floodlights continues and the demand for energy saving lighting products increases, the types of floodlights will continue to gain traction in the market.

Innovation in Solar LED Streetlights.

Sunfor Tech , a Johannesburg based company specialising in LED Street Lights and LED Solar Street lights have released an innovative new design that has 4 registered South African Patent design.

The Nezio, offers a new dimension in the collection of solar energy using a 4-sided collector rather than the traditional single sky facing panel.

This new concept allows the collector to absorb UV from around the fitting and thereby provide more energy into the unit faster than before.

This image shows the incredible lighting ability of this product at a Netcare Facility and believe it or not, this is ONLY a 10W Fitting!

That’s truly incredible considering the amount of light and area being illuminated.

Shannon Mey of Sunfor told us that the Nezio is set to revolutionize the ideas we have around solar collectors and give greater efficiency for both light output and energy collection.

The Nezio comes in two options , one with the arm and the other the straight fitting and are available from Sunfor Tech.

Sunfor Technologies

Shannon Mey – 082 447 4675

shannonn@sunfor.co.za

The LED Lighting Epidemic.

In the last few years, the influx of LED lighting has dramatically increased. Like all new things that save energy, the market has responded well to the offer of LED.

However, you should know that at this time there are no standards for LED in South Africa, which basically means that anyone who can get LED Lamps from China, Vietnam, South America or ICELAND can bring them in and dump them on the market.

This further opens the doors for unscrupulous businesses to take advantage of poorly informed customers.

Many LED Lamps and lights come with a warranty ranging from 1 – 3 years. Make sure you buy one with at least a 2 year warranty and ensure the company you are buying from will back the warranty.

Buying LED lamps ‘voetsoets’ from markets is a risk in that the power factor may be low and this leads to using more energy  not less and the lamps may fail in a short time with no backup.

Then you have to go and buy more!

Rather buy wise the first time!

LED Lamps – The  Facts

 

The good: They use even less power than CFLs

The bad: They can be rather dim. They also have a Power Factor less than 1. According to Energy Star requirements, LED lighting in the USA should have a Power Factor of at least 0.7 for bulb powers greater than or equal to 5W. Less than 5W, and there is no minimum Power Factor.

LEDs are highly directional. So, choose a bulb that will emit light in the direction you need.

Many LED bulbs that replace standard incandescents shoot all their light straight up, which wouldn’t make a very good bulb for a table lamp if you’re trying to read a book underneath it.

LED – Colour Temperature

If you are going to use LED lighting indoors or where there are going to be people , pick a ‘Warm White’ or 2700K Colour temperature lamp.

The (VERY GOOD) reason for this is that the human body and mammals in general need RED light for good health.

Blue light affects the sleep hormone , this is why it is not recommended to use a tablet, phone or even watch TV 30 minutes before bed.

Scientists around the world are concerned at the impact that the high level of blue light emitted by LED lamps could have on human health – especially related to eye health due to the glare and this impact is heightened for children who have more sensitive eyes than adults.

A recent white paper released details the potential impact exposure to LED Lighting can have and this is discussed more in this article.

Warm white LED VS Cool White in a bedroom.

Rule of thumb – if you are buying LED’s for outdoor use, the ‘cool white’ and ‘daylight white’ is fine, for indoors, rather get the ‘warm white’ option.

Also, I find that the “warm white” lamps give a more homely , comfortable feel to the space, whereas ‘cool white’ tends to make spaces look clinical – almost like a hospital!

Color Temperature: 2700-5000K. Pick a 2700K bulb!

Lifetime: Usually 25,000 hours (25 times the life of a normal bulb, 2.5 times the life of CFLs)

Know the Power Factor.

I was recently looking at a special offer from one of the major retailers for 6 LED Lamps for just R100. These were Eurolux 6W LED Lamps in either ES or BC. Looking at the specs , I noticed that the Power Factor was rated at 0,5. This means that a 6W Lamp is using 12W of power to generate 6W of light!

So much for efficiency!

Simply put, Power Factor means how much power is wasted by the bulb. A Power Factor of 1 means no power is wasted.

A Power Factor of 0.8 means that 25% more current is required by the bulb to do the same amount of real work. But electrical losses are related to the square of the current. If you need 25% more current, you have 1.5 times the losses.

With an even lower Power Factor of 0.7, 40% more current is required to do the same work, and you have about 2 times the losses.

Be informed.

Saving Energy has always been about providing accurate info so that you can make informed decisions about ALL things energy saving. LED is a great technology and as it develops, it will become better.

In the meantime, just know the facts…