Lighting Archives - HCO News

Sealed High Bay Luminaires

HCO News — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 18:24:52 +0000

Kenall introduces the EnviroPro EPHB series LED luminaire, a new fixture that combines an iconic appearance with certified performance enhancements, making it optimal for both harsh high bay applications and aesthetic architectural environments. The series features up to 31,510 lumens and offers a choice of three uplight options: 11%, 8% and a standard <1%. EnviroPro EBHB also includes options such as flexible mounting via either pendant or hook, TekLink TL100 controls, a temperature rating of -40 up to +50°C ambient, and multiple flux and lamp colors.

The EPHB is a companion series to Kenall’s popular EnviroPro low bay luminaire: like the EPHB, the EPLB features a desirable uplight option, IP certification and an impressive LED lifetime. The EPHB is ideal for mounting heights of up to 50 feet, whereas the EPLB is designed for heights up to 30 feet.

Kenall

The post Sealed High Bay Luminaires appeared first on HCO News.

How Lighting Can Boost Health During Hospital Renovations, Expansions

HCO News — Tue, 23 May 2017 16:56:03 +0000

By Steve McGuire

In the fast-paced health care arena, which has experienced continued consolidation and expense reduction, the smart use of resources is a must for the nation’s 11,000 community and American Hospital Association (AHA)-registered hospitals.

The good news is that outstanding opportunities to positively impact the bottom line often exist right in a hospital’s own lighting system. With U.S. Department of Energy studies confirming that lighting costs account for as much as 30 percent or more of the average hospital’s total energy expenses, upgrades involving high-performing, energy-efficient LED technology can be a quick and easy way to improve a hospital’s lighting quality while significantly reducing operating costs.

Delivering Comprehensive Benefits

Hospitals, which operate round the clock, are particularly well positioned to benefit from LED upgrades. Highly efficient LEDs can reduce a hospital’s lighting-related energy costs by as much as 50 percent or more and – as a function of their powerful coverage and bright, uniform lighting distribution – can enhance visibility and color quality while also helping to project a hospital’s dedication to quality, cleanliness and professionalism. All of these traits can enhance a hospital’s image as a comfortable, safe and patient-centric institution. At the same time, the long lifespan of LED technology helps reduce maintenance costs and concerns, freeing staff members to focus on matters of greater importance.

Litetronics is slated to deliver some $775,000 in energy and maintenance savings to the Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Hospital Campus in Boulder, Colo., over the next decade and pay itself back in just over two years.

“As hospital [officials] continue to look for cost-saving measures, particularly those that can impact their energy bills, LED upgrades are a low-hanging fruit that can help achieve that objective,” said Donna Craft, director of product planning for the Facility, Environmental Services and Construction division of Premier Inc., a national health care group purchasing organization (GPO) based in Charlotte, N.C., as well as a board member for the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE).

In addition to significantly reducing operating costs for a hospital upgrading from fluorescent, halogen, HID/metal halide or another older/more traditional lighting technology, said Craft, “…the color temperatures available with LEDs can help improve lighting quality and enhance the healing environment for patients as well as improve visibility and comfort for clinicians working long hours. LEDs can deliver benefits across the continuum of care.”

As a result, Craft added, energy-related systems like lighting play significantly into a health care facility’s daily operations as well as its patient environment, and are a large focus among health care executives today.

Boosting the Health of Hospitals

Consider the LED lighting upgrade recently undertaken at Baptist Health Associates, a 273-bed health care facility in Corbin, Ky. The hospital upgraded 675, 110-watt lighting fixtures – each housing three, 32-watt T8 fluorescent lamps and an electronic ballast – to Litetronics’ 50-watt LED RetroFit Kits. The kits easily upgrade existing fluorescent systems to long-life, energy-saving LED technology in just minutes. As a result, the hospital saw its lighting energy consumption and costs reduced by half. Based on the facility’s 8,730 annual hours of operation and the availability of more than $20,000 in product rebates from the local utility, the upgrade reduced the hospital’s energy bills by nearly $30,000 annually. The project will pay itself back in just more than two years, enabling the hospital community to enjoy the benefits of LED technology for years to come. Many hospitals are opting to reduce their electricity consumption and their expenditure by improving the sustainability of their lighting. There are even some medical facilities that look around to purchase custom lighting fabrication options, as nice lighting paired with intricate lighting designs can help uplift the mood of the patients as well as the staff.

An LED upgrade currently underway at Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Hospital Campus in Boulder, Colo., is driving a similar range of benefits. Replacing high-pressure sodium, metal halide and fluorescent lighting throughout interior corridors, underground and exterior parking garages, and utility/generator rooms with nearly 600 LED high-bay and linear fixtures from Litetronics is slated to deliver some $775,000 in energy and maintenance savings over the next decade. The project is expected to pay itself back in just more than two years.

With the elimination of mercury-containing fluorescent and HID lamps and ballasts, the upgrade will also reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint and enhance sustainability. And thanks to Litetronics’ patented system that enables the rapid installation of linear LED retrofits without breaking into the ceiling plenum, patient activities won’t be significantly impacted. The hospital will further save labor costs on clean up and avoid costly measures related to infection control.

A Superior Solution

Using Litetronics’ LED Retrofit Kits can help facilities save in overall energy costs and contribute to greater energy efficiency.
Photo Credit: Litetronics

Baptist Health Associates and Boulder Community Health aren’t alone. Craft confirmed that LED lighting upgrades have become extremely popular in hospital settings nationwide, particularly in garage and parking lot applications, patient rooms, corridors, surgical spaces and common areas.

“The fact is, health care institutions everywhere are all looking at lighting upgrades in some respect, and we’ve seen facilities engage in lighting upgrades at every level, from conversions involving 5 percent of a hospital’s space to those involving 85 percent or more,” said Craft.

In combination with the availability of utility rebates, which can help offset the up-front cost of energy-efficient lighting products, accelerate project payback periods and enhance ROIs, “there’s no hospital out there today that’s not considering LED lighting upgrades based on the comprehensive benefits they deliver,” Craft said.

Working with a trusted lighting manufacturer and a qualified installer, LED upgrades can be conducted quickly and cleanly. This ensures minimal disruption to hospital operations while enhancing the comfort, safety, security and overall experience of all facility occupants. An investment in an LED upgrade can also help position a hospital as a leader in green and sustainable practices and provide years of maintenance-free operations.

Overall, based on size, hours of operation and known operating challenges, hospitals represent tremendous opportunities for energy-efficient lighting upgrades. The time is now to embrace the energy and cost savings, maintenance reductions and quality improvements that an LED upgrade can drive.

Steve McGuire is the vice president of sales at Litetronics, a Bedford Park, Ill.-based lighting manufacturer. He can be reached at smcguire@litetronics.com.

The post How Lighting Can Boost Health During Hospital Renovations, Expansions appeared first on HCO News.

Lighting Controls Provide Green Benefits

It’s no secret that replacing existing lights with more energy-efficient lighting sources, such as LED, is one of the easiest ways to reduce energy use.

Lighting in commercial buildings can account for up to 40 percent of total energy cost, but what most people don’t realize is that making the lighting source efficient is only half the story — an even greater level of energy reduction can come from improving lighting control.

Lighting control systems, based on a variety of technologies, have been proven to reduce lighting energy consumption in commercial and industrial buildings by up to 70 percent. These solutions can automatically turn off lights when they are not needed, optimize light levels to suit worker needs, reduce overall demand for lighting energy, and provide facility managers with system-wide lighting management.

Although the core concepts behind lighting control aren’t new, a set of advanced wireless technologies are bringing them more mainstream, providing ways to expand capabilities to a wider set of customers.

Advanced Lighting Controls

Today’s advanced lighting control systems create a large-scale lighting network that delivers the correct amount of light, where you want it, when you want it. Lights can automatically switch or dim at set times or under set conditions; facilities managers can make changes to lighting when appropriate or to meet financial incentives; and users can have control over their own lighting levels to provide optimal working conditions.

Customers of lighting control systems often apply a set of lighting control strategies or applications, each of which uses a specific technology and method to control a subset of lighting usage. These strategies include occupancy sensing, daylighting, scheduling, task tuning and more.

Lighting control systems typically include some or all of the following:

• On/off and dimming controls

• Occupancy sensors to detect whether rooms are occupied

• Photosensors to detect the current illumination levels provided by natural and/or artificial light

• Scheduling that turns on, off, and dims luminaires at preset times

• A centralized control system interface (such as a wall panel or computer software) to manage all of the above

• A method of communication between the lighting equipment and control system

• A method of measuring, displaying, and responding to lighting energy usage

Emerging applications

In older lighting designs, each group of luminaires and lighting devices was installed in a closed loop and a facility manager could only access the lighting by physically accessing each room. Some of today’s lighting control systems change this equation by linking together the control of an entire building — and even separate buildings — to remotely manage and control light settings. This way, each light and device within a lighting control system can be individually addressable, creating a truly intelligent lighting network. This vastly improves ongoing management cost and complexity, and provides the capability for facility managers to reduce energy use in ways that were never before possible.

New areas of savings are also being created in advanced lighting control systems by making energy usage data readily available for facility managers. Better data often equals better savings, and as managers gain access to real-time and historical information about the usage of energy by light, room, zone and building, they have the information for more effective decision-making. Also, some lighting control systems can tie into utility demand management programs, allowing buildings to automatically reduce lighting use at peak times in order to gain financial incentives.

Further benefits of advanced applications can include tax incentives, enhanced compliance with LEED and other building codes, and interoperability with an ever-expanding network of in-building smart wireless devices, such as plugloads, blinds, thermostats and more.

Removing the Wires

Within these advanced systems, the introduction of innovative wireless controls is further reducing costs and complexity while easing implementation. Wireless lighting control systems utilize wireless technology (similar to the wireless networks you may use to access the Internet at work or home) to communicate commands between lighting devices — sensors, switches, and the ballasts or LED drivers connected to lights.

While traditional lighting control systems utilize a controller that is hard-wired to each device (often with miles of copper wiring), a wireless system uses a controller with an antenna that manages communications between devices. Facility managers and individual users can utilize a software interface to manage the system and change settings, which are then routed through a controller to the individual lights. The result is a flexible, scalable system that is easy to commission, especially in retrofit scenarios where existing building infrastructure often gets in the way of installing a new lighting control system.

Lighting Controls & Green Buildings

Lighting is one of the largest sources of energy use on the planet, and yet only about 7 percent of commercial buildings have installed advanced lighting controls. Although lighting control systems have been shown to provide tremendous benefits, many parts of the commercial building market have been hesitant to utilize these systems in anything but the most basic configurations. This is often due to cost and complexity due to labor, equipment and wiring, and the commissioning, management and upkeep of these systems.

The new generation of systems is eliminating these cost and complexity concerns and increasing system capabilities by removing the dedicated control wiring. Through the use of modern enterprise-class wireless networking technology, system-wide controls strategies can be implemented without significant upgrades or added infrastructure costs.

Concurrently, the smart grid and other building systems have embraced wireless technology and are beginning to reap the rewards. Removing the wires delivers on the promise of lighting control by providing even greater benefits, at a lower cost, and to a much broader set of potential customers.

While net-zero buildings are still a long way off in the United States, intelligent lighting control systems with wireless networking capabilities are readily paving the way in helping companies take simple steps to save money and make our buildings greener.

Joshua Slobin, director of product solutions for Daintree Networks, is responsible for developing the company’s industry solutions, ecosystem partnerships and marketing strategy.

The post Lighting Controls Provide Green Benefits appeared first on HCO News.