Energy efficient flood lights

[TPES]

So...

Currently have a mixture of 400w halide floods and old 1000w halogens (1000w halogens on shorter columns)

These are supposed to be lighting up a large car park, all controlled by photocell, on all night every night, customer wants to replace with a lot more energy efficient lighting and loose no more light output, (his words).

So do I look at 80/150w induction flood lights ? Or 150w LED Furrud floods?

Any recommendations?

 

[MDJ]

Good question, I priced some LED street lights the other day actually and nearly fell over when the cost of approx £600.00 a light for the equivilent of a 400 watt son t came back at me. So the question is how much money has the Customer got?

 

[RyanCheetham]

I recently fitted two Flex 50w LED flood lights on a bungalow so the client could see his cats in the garden. He didnt even blink at the cost of the units, each one was £110 +vat! Plus they looked pretty ugly on the property but he said he liked them. I want LED floods on my house but will wait for costs to come down first!

 

[Richard Burns]

You are really balancing the energy efficiency vs initial cost vs maintenance cost.
Halogen are right out on all counts.
The metal halide are pretty energy efficient and fairly cheap to buy but have high maintenance cost.
Induction lamps are very energy efficient, will be furiously expensive and have low maintenance cost, you could change the lamp but the fitting will have died.
LED lamps are very energy efficient, very expensive and have low maintenance cost. Lamp not changeable but again fitting will die before that.

So really you are then going for the longevity of the fitting and electronics, LED are reliable at the higher end you are looking at, not sure on induction but would have felt they were reliable but more likely to have a failure than a quality LED, because of the voltages involved.#

Overall I would go for LED over induction but only because of familiarity.

 

[plugsandsparks]

400W MH are very bright and hard to beat, check out the lumens vs nearest you can get with LED, Just going through a similar exercise and ended up convincing customer to use a timer and reduce wattage of MH units as it was really too bright for a car park.

 

[atm84]

Why don't you go to a couple of manufacturers and get them to come up with some proposals.

 

[Hawk]

We replace these fittings with 200W CFL's metal base or 2x55W CFL's polycarbonate base. Good energy saving and you don't have the initial outlay if using LED's. I have installed these in carparks and the clients have been impressed!

We also supply these fittings. If interested PM me.

 

[Engineer54]

We replace these fittings with 200W CFL's metal base or 2x55W CFL's polycarbonate base. Good energy saving and you don't have the initial outlay if using LED's. I have installed these in carparks and the clients have been impressed!

We also supply these fittings. If interested PM me.

Post up some details and data, let's have a look at these fittings??

 

[TPES]

Had a lighting designer out, he recommended either 150w LED's or the 150/200w induction.. The induction should be comparable to a 400w halide, a lot longer lamp life and lower running cost compared to the halide.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I know LEDS are the future but I just love the light given off my MH.

MH efficiency is around about 25% I believe as in 75% inefficient. Sounds awful but not that bad, until you look at the same figures for LED lights.

just work out when the light 'pays back'

 

[plugsandsparks]

Genuinely interested in comparable units to 400W MH, do you have any specs for the 150W LEDS and 200W Ind they suggested ?thx

 

[TPES]

 

[Richard Burns]

Talk about trying to sell induction lamps! what about balance people!
Based on that information I would be going with LED.
Interesting to know they work at low temperatures, thank you.

 

[TPES]

Why would you choose LED over induction?

What puts me off LED is once the fittings up that's it! No maintenance.. Say after a couple of years you were unlucky and get a problem with the fitting.. You have to change the complete fitting for another new one.. There more expensive to buy initially and obviously you won't get the light spread on it as you would the induction flood as they have the reflectors..

Although LED cost less to run.. But the induction is still a big saving on running costs compared to MH if you were looking to change

Now sell the LED to me...

 

[Richard Burns]

OK looking at the stats and information you have given.
If an LED fitting is well designed, then the energy efficiency is higher (you are comparing 150W LED to 200W IND), you should now be able to approach 100lm/W.
The colour rendering index is given as >80 for Induction, however this is a bit vague since you may want to be looking at the 90 - 95 range, does it meet this or is it 80.1? LED should be able to give you a 90+ colour rendering.

The lumen depreciation rates seem higher than I would expect so I may be confused here but I thought LED only had about a 5-15% lifetime depreciation, if you design for a specific Lux level and have to replace lamps within 2 years: more cost, though obviously the design would actually take this into account.
LED should be able to be supplied with a similar 5 year guarantee, if not then not worth the risk.
Operating temperature would be similar and mercury levels would be much lower than quarter of a gram per fitting (though there are good recycling avenues available).
Maintenance:
Lamp replacement on Induction should be OK, however this would only be if there was a fault, the same as the LED.
The cost of replacing the control gear would likely be similar to the cost of a new fitting
The fitting itself may well not last beyond ten years in either case.
However I would say that the total non maintainability of LED is a downside. (Though in ten years the cost of LED fittings should be about £10!)


Right that is enough drivel from me. I do not know enough to make a reasoned judgment so trust the lighting designer (not the manufacturer!)
(Get out clause no.1:biggrin