Facilities management is focused on increasing sustainability and decreasing energy usage not only to help the environment but also to save your company money. With progressively stricter commercial building energy usage codes like the IECC and ASHRAE 90.1, however, reducing energy by decreasing lighting wattage may have the unintentional effect of also decreasing the safety of a building’s premises.
Before the dominance of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, light sources included 1) incandescent lighting which requires a large amount of power, 2) fluorescent lighting which makes use of expensive ballasts that are needed for dimming, and 3) high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting which is typically used in street lighting but uses the highest lumens per watts. All of these lighting sources are single-life bulbs that diminish wattage over time before ultimately extinguishing at their use’s end.
LED lighting, on the other hand, diminishes over an extended period of time that isn’t as noticeable, and can be rated to last over 100,000 hours. Other advantages of LED lighting include:
- Ability to function in a broader temperature range
- Ability to be used in dimmable controls
- Ability to be switched continuously off and on to full brightness
However, some disadvantages to LED lighting are 1) LED motion-activated lights have been known to fail in colder temperatures, 2) LED lighting might be less attractive than traditional lighting aesthetics, and 3) decreased lumen output over time that goes unnoticed. To ensure that LED lighting use in your facility is both energy-efficient and effective, it should be designed by qualified engineers and technicians. To build your custom industrial project plan today, please contact Vanguard Resources at (210) 495-1950 or email us at info@vanguardresources.com.
*Information from this article was found from https://www.facilitiesnet.com/lighting/article/Are-More-Stringent-Lighting-Codes-Adversely-Affecting-Building-Security–19178
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