Ok, getting back into aquarium lighting so my mind is a bit more on lights in general the last week.  Noticed the Gas station by my house just had the fixtures pulled from their canopy, and replaced the high intensity lights with LED arrays.  Then noticed Friday that a whole small town I drove through had replaced all the streetlights (only a few straggling yellow sodium vapors remained)- and the mega stop on the interstate (Bucky's) had also gone to all LED outdoor fixtures there as well.





Could these all be grant projects - are are they finally starting to be cost effective?  Side note - these are not located in trendy green neighborhoods - Luling is about as oil and gas as you get, they have wells on the city owned property.  Grew up joking about that town - why does it stink so much, that's the smell of money (the gas wells).




 

I'd say 50% of the projects I bid have gone to LED lightiing, everything from outdoor site lighting to interior lighting.

All I sell is LED anymore... thats all anybody wants... we just replaced all of our old Metal Halide 175w wallpacks with 90 watt LED's on our building and it looks like it's daytime out there now!

- Clint

60 watt equivalent bulbs at home depot are about $20 each. They are warrantied for 5 years. I replaced lights I use the most. Ones where I get home, turn them on, and usually leave them on until I go to bed. Factor in the heat regular bulbs generate and how often you replace them and you can save some money. I noticed a $25/m drop in my electric bill right away by replacing 8 bulbs I used the most.

Yes.  They either replace the hibays or fluorescents, whichever you have.



 

90W LED?

Link?

Wife and I are planning the garden for the house we don't have yet.

Everything we've read says that wired LED lighting is the way to go outdoors. Good output, low energy cost. Best thing going apparently.

I'm having a video conference room upgraded with LED lighting this winter.

RAB Lighting




- Clint

Most of what I have been seeing are larger LED arrays - the individual led's are probably not very high wattage, but hundreds of them put out a lot of light - easily brighter than 150watt mercury, sodium, metal halide.  If you want a smaller package however, you can get the arrays on a single chip - but that will most likely require active cooling.  I have been looking at the chip sized arrays at up to 80 watts - not sure but think that is a 18x25 array shoved into a package smaller than 1" square - before you bolt it to a heat-sink with a fan.
 

I just took the Certified Energy Manager's course last week. My company does energy management contracts, etc.

LEDs are expensive, but will save you money in the long run as far as energy use is concerned. The payback depends how long you operate the lamps, but you also don't have to replace them as frequently. So, there are some labor savings there, especially in citys and towns that are going to the LED street lamps.

The most important thing to remember is buy an LED lamp is to be sure the lamp has a good warranty (5 years or more). The LED lighting circuit is the most sensitive part of the lamp and the cheap ones aren't as good as the more expensive ones.

One thing I learned in the course is the old sodium lamps actually have more lumen output per watt than the LED lights, but the LEDs appear brighter because their light output is spread more evenly than the sodium lamps.

So if you have a parking lot the one lit by LEDs will appear brighter than the one lit by sodium lamps.

Just imagine if all security light and parking lot lamps were all replaced by LED lights. We would save several million KWH or more off the electric grid. Therefore burning less foreign oil or conserving more of our own natural gas.

More and more LED around here.  Not only electrical cost savings, but maintenance as well as you don't have to hire guys to go around replacing bulbs.

LED is coming in to the Aquarium industry in a big way.

The amount of performace they are getting out of them, and the speed at which the prices are coming down are stunning.

I suspect this is true of LED lighting in general.

We just redid our airfield with LED.