Owner of the Altitude bike shop in Waterford, Ireland, Eamon Barrett, advises lighting up a bicycle if you want to sell it. The chrome, the glossy new spokes, and the glossy technicolor paints all gleam in the brilliant light.
However, Mr. Barrett started to get uncomfortable with fluorescent lights burning nonstop to support the move to a supposedly green mode of transportation. Approximately three years prior, he made the decision to convert Altitude’s showroom, workshop, cafeteria, and back offices to LED lighting that is more energy-efficient.
Certain places now only have lights on when someone enters the room thanks to motion sensors. A battery and some new solar panels power the system in part.
“Everyone benefits,” Mr. Barrett claims. “The quality of the lighting is better.” Moreover, he claims that his yearly electricity bill has decreased by 35%. Mr. Barrett continues, “If not for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sharply increased energy prices, those savings would be even greater.”
That has anything to do with the initial switchover cost. Mr. Barrett estimates that he replaced the lights on his 6-7,000 square foot property for about €10,000 (£8,800; $10,900). In addition to the increased expense of the solar panels and battery, he predicts that it will take about seven years to recover this.
LEDs achieved a major milestone last year. The International Energy Agency stated that they accounted for 50% of lighting sales worldwide. On the other hand, the amount of energy used for lighting is actually increasing as more and more individuals install electrically powered lighting worldwide. The latest LEDs are ultra-efficient – but we probably need to do more to ensure that lighting doesn’t end up using more energy overall.
“The number of lights used in each household is increasing,” says Shivika Mittal of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London. “That is offsetting switching to LED.”
She claims that a lot of residential buildings have already switched to LED lighting, especially in the West. However, commercial buildings are taking slower to make the shift. Government regulations may aid in enticing companies to relocate. She goes on to say that when lighting is combined with smart systems like Mr. Barrett’s motion sensors, much more energy can be saved. That might contribute to a decrease in the world’s lighting energy use.
Plastic is recycled by Marmax Products in County Durham to create patio furniture including picnic tables. The company finally converted its warehouse and offices from incandescent light bulbs to LED illumination last year. General Manager Dave Johnson adds, “We felt that we were doing our bit because of our product range.” An assessment of energy savings identified the potential for switching to LED lighting. “You always have more to do,” Mr. Johnson continues.
The number of lumens (or visible light emitted) that an electric light emits per watt of energy used is a useful indicator of its efficiency. White LEDs only provided about 20 lumens per watt in the early 2000s, according to Paul Scheidt, senior product marketing manager at Cree LED, a significant lighting producer.
Cree LED released white LEDs with a 228 lumens per watt rating in March. While incandescent lights squander over 90% of their energy as heat, LEDs use almost all of their energy to produce photons, or light.
Warm white luminaires with a color temperature of 2,700 kelvin can still produce about 160 lumens per watt, according to Mr. Scheidt, but the efficiency of warm-toned LEDs decreases significantly. However, more advancements are anticipated. According to Dr. Mittal, these lights’ efficiency may double over the next 20 years.
It’s still difficult to replace long-gone lighting in some places. The lighting manufacturer Gemma Lighting was asked in earlier this year to provide recommendations for street and exterior lighting at the Stamford Hill Estate in London.
Ten percent of the original lights were still operational when we assessed the area. Many black spots were produced, according to marketing manager Piers Lowbridge. High pressure sodium, or SON, lamps were used in the previous lighting. Currently, all 100+ fixtures have been swapped out for LED ones.
According to Mr. Lowbridge, the old lights would have consumed 341,000 kWh of energy annually if they had all remained in operation. This amount of energy would have covered the annual electrical needs of over 120 typical British houses. The new LEDs cut that number in half, requiring only 36,000 kWh a year.
Additionally, according to Gemma Lighting, even though the switchover cost £34,500, the previous bulbs would have cost £115,000 annually to run, including maintenance overheads, had they all been in working order.
Additionally, the business just unveiled a stand-alone solar-powered street light that doesn’t require a grid connection. It has a motion sensor and a light sensor built in so that it only goes on when it becomes dark outside. This enables the light fitting to react to passing cars or people by increasing its brightness from 30% to 100%.
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One difficulty with LEDs is that the blue light they produce has been connected to a number of illnesses and health problems, including disturbed sleep. Even warm-toned luminaires release some blue light. According to Dr. Karolina Zielińska-Dąbkowska of Gdańsk University of Technology, photoreceptors in human eyes are especially sensitive to blue light.
“As a practising lighting designer and researcher, I think the only way is LEDs but they still need improvement,” she states. Installations of LED lighting are occasionally criticized for being overly brilliant.
According to Mr. Scheidt, lighting installers have been selecting luminaires with “too much blue” in them for years, but this is starting to change.
Clearly, the use of LEDs is increasing. Mr. Barrett emphasizes that if put wisely, they may help businesses save a significant amount of money. He now observes less efficient lighting—as well as the wasted heat it emits—when he’s out and about.
“If you’ve got any kind of a large retail space and you’re running old lighting, honestly, at this point, you’re just wasting money,” according to him.
