Get Smart with LED
LED is catching on, you can see shoebox pole lights and gas
station canopy lights being converted to LED all through the Rio Grande Valley.
They will be saving 40% to 70% replacing fixtures but with the right
configuration there can be even more savings. Atomic vehicle parking facility.
This facility is 100 acres and they previously only had 10 1,500 watt metal
halides at the front of the facility. They knew they wanted LED and they
decided on the LEXIN 300 and they now have 48 on 20' poles over the facility. I
could not do a direct comparison with the 10 metal halides with the 48 LEXIN
300 they adopted but the metal halides took two and a half hours to warm up and
20 amps and then after they warmed up they dropped to 7 amps compared to the
LEXIN 300 which pulled to amps and light up to 100% instantly.
Then Stephen Whitman facilities manager at Royal Freight
began with a goal to replace the three outdated and heavily degraded 1,000 watt
metal halide fixtures at their Pharr, Texas facility, the metal halide fixtures
kept burning out and they were heavy and were not suited for the wind pressure
variables. These fixtures were blown off in a wind storm. The metal halide
replacements would have to be three Pulse Start Shoebox fixtures pulling 775
watts and costing $680.00 distributor net. He had a 25' pole in the center of
the lot and he placed an order for a LEXIN 300 with a diffuser dome and pole
mount for a downward direction of the fixture. Stephen said "I like the
color of the light and it save a lot of energy, 300 watts is a lot less than
3,000 watts.” The configuration of this
fixture is the LEXIN 300 with standard lumen output of 31,990 lumens with a
polycarbonate diffuser dome reduces the lumens to 27,000 but in turn it
broadens the beam angle to 200 degrees with a 360 degree spread. The optimum
height is 35'. The fixture is mounted with a pole top Garden Fit Mounting
Bracket. It comes with a rear mounted driver housing or for easier access the
driver can be remotely connected at the bottom of the pole.
Whenever I see car dealerships and shopping center parking
lots with three or four shoebox fixtures on a pole I picture LEXIN 300 with
this configuration. Rather than replacing fixtures head to head. They will
still save energy but when you apply certain strategies you can save even more
on instillation but also with you electric bill. If you can save just by switching to LED and then compound that savings by optimizing the position of you lighting using one fixture to replace three or four existing fixtures, how much would you have to save to make it viable? If one to one saves 40% to 70%, then compounding that by replacing three or four fixtures with one fixture at the optimal height and angle you savings can go from 80% to 97%. That is not including the maintenance. Do the math, look at how many canopy lights and shoebox lights you are using, divide that number by two for the energy savings just from switching to LED, then divide that by 60% and then subtract the maintenance of replacing the metal halides and high pressure sodium fixtures every four to 12 months? You tell me if it makes sense?
