It’s not just about the kilowatts.
Most people are now aware of one key benefit of LED lighting - its efficiency. LED lighting long ago surpassed incandescent efficiency and is now approaching and even surpassing the efficiency of linear fluorescent and metal halide. However, there are many other benefits to LEDs including lasting five to 10 times longer than fluorescents, consuming less energy while on, are fully dimmable, contain no hazardous mercury, are nearly unbreakable, are free of annoying flicker and buzz and are safer, operating on low voltage DC, with no glass or vacuum.
Facilities that are already implementing LED systems are likely not doing so in general illumination applications. LEDs are no longer just for task or accent lighting or color-changing architectural effects, but are now being built into fixtures that are tackling some of the most challenging applications in general lighting, and they’re competing with very-efficient linear fluorescent and very-bright HID. Some LED performance examples include parking garage fixtures from multiple suppliers that deliver more than 6,400 effective lumens while consuming 77 watts, high bay fixtures with 18,000 usable lumens that consume about 190 watts and troffers with 5,000 effective lumens that consume just over 50 watts.
Maintenance Economics - The Missing Link
Though the LED fixture performance is attractive, the key characteristic of LEDs that has the biggest impact on the business case for LED lighting is frequently not efficiency, but their impact on maintenance costs, especially in lighting retrofit applications.
There are several aspects to consider when looking at lighting maintenance economic including lifetime, revenue-generating down time, fragility and toxicity.