LED Lights & Light Fixtures

Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology has changed lighting as we know it. There are millions of reasons to replace all aging incandescent and HID lamps for energy saving practice. We'll focus on the top 5 reasons:

• Provides up to 80% energy consumption. This lowers power bills.
• Lasts up to ten times longer than traditional light bulbs. This lowers upkeep and replacement costs.
• LEDs emits three times the amount of visible light compared to traditional bulbs.
• Produces 0% Infra-Red (IR) light. This saves money on cooling costs.
• Has a lumens maintenance that is roughly 10 times longer than metal halide bulbs.

Fun fact: You can now recycle your LEDs! This is great for the planet. Recycling helps reduce waste in your community. Contact your local recycling centers for more information about where and how to recycle them.

Before buying your LED replacement bulbs, you need to understand the basics of Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), Lumens, Color Rendering Index (CRI), and the equivalent wattage of your current lamp.

Color Temperature - (a.k.a. CCT) is measured in between 1000K to 10000K. Most LED lamps are tuned between 2700K to 6500K. The lower the temp the warmer the light (yellow color). The higher the temp the whiter it is. Anything over 5700K will start emitting into the blue spectrum. The mood of a room is often set by how warmly or coolly the light emits. You are more likely to pick a 2700K to 3000K A19 bulb for your home to set a softer and calmer tone. While you would consider a 4100K to 5000K bi-pin LED T8 tube for your office to raise productivity.

Fun fact: Kelvin is a unit of temperature. The abbreviation K is used in the lighting industry to let you know how much white light is being given off by a bulb. The lower the Kelvin, the more yellow the light appears.

Lumens - Lumen or luminous flux is the true measurement of light being emitted, while wattage is the measurement of power consumed. Therefore, we need to retrain ourselves to buy lights based on the number of lumens and not wattages. The lighting industry has corrected itself and labelled most LED bulbs in terms of lumens.

Color Rendering Index - (also known as CRI) is the measure of a light source's ability to display color in its natural form. 'Natural form' means how a color should look under full sunlight. The CRI reflects a rate of accuracy, so it ranges from 0 to 100. The higher the CRI, the truer the color you see. Most commercial warehouse light fixtures are tuned with a CRI of around 80 because there is little need to make sure that colors appear truest to their actual hue. While a jewelry store or paint body shop will likely select a lamp with a CRI of 90 or higher because color precision matters so much in those kinds of highly visual industries.

Equivalent Wattage - At the end of the day, you just want to know which LED bulb is equivalent to your burnt-out HID lamp. Many times, an LED light fixture still includes wattage numbers of their packaging alongside the number of lumens. To make things even more complicated, not all LED lamps are created equal. Some have better efficacy than others. Not all 100W corn bulbs emit the same lumens just because they’re using 100 watts of power. It is important for you to compare the lumens output and not wattage. If you still want to know what wattage you need, you can follow these basic formulas to estimate the LED wattage equivalent. While these figures aren’t exact, they will get you close to the number you’re looking for.

• For incandescent bulbs, divide the wattage of your current bulb by 7 or 8.
• For fluorescent tubes or CFLs, divide the wattage of your current bulb by 2 or 3.
• For metal halide (MH) lamps, divide the wattage of your current bulb by 3 or 4.
• For high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs, divide the wattage of your current bulb by 2 or 3.

Efficacy - Although we didn’t mention efficacy on our original list, we though it was worth mentioning in order for you to understand wattage equivalent. Efficacy is the number of lumens emitted per watt. For example, a 150-watt LED high bay can be from 15,000 lumens to as high as 28,500 lumens depending on its efficacy. While a 400W HPS bulb will likely just emit about 40000 lumens with only 20000 usable lumens. In basic term, the higher the efficacy, the more efficient that lamp is in producing light. Now we hope you will have a better understand of why not all LED light bulbs are created equal.

Either you are in the market for a flush mounted LED ceiling light or our new popular 2 by 4 LED panel, these basic concepts will guide you in making better decision for your next lighting project.

• It is designed with the most efficient components.
• It meets the strictest requirements imposed by the DesignLights Consortium.
• For states that offer rebate programs through your utility company - It is more likely that only DLC Premium certified lamps and fixtures qualify.

Do you have one of those friends who likes to show off with his newest toys? Is he able to turn his lights on and off with Alexa? Or, better yet, is he able to set the mood by dimming his lights from his phone? Well, that’s not magic. It’s Smart Light. It’s actually pretty simple.

This is what you need:

• Smart Light – WIFI Enabled light bulb or fixture.
• Alternatively, a Smart Light Switch.
• Smart Hub

You can set them to turn on and off randomly or with a set schedule. This is very useful when you are on vacation. Do you know what else is useful when you are on vacation? The ability to control your lights from wherever you are.

Wait…what about Alexa? If you own an Amazon Echo, a Google Home, or even an Apple HomePod, make sure your smart hub of choice is compatible. Most new, reputable smart hub brands have the skills already developed with the Google, Amazon, and Apple ecosystem. Now go set up your smart home, and start to have some fun.

Wait…Did I mention you can also make your lights dance to a tune as well? How cool is that? Stay tuned and we will show you how.

Traditional lighting refers to all lighting technologies prior to LED. The three most common types of traditional lamps used for commercial lighting are:

Incandescent lights – Thomas Edison introduced the first commercial incandescent bulb in 1879. The idea in itself hasn’t changed since then and it’s quite simple. Light is produced by running electricity through a thin piece of tungsten (a.k.a. "filament"). An inert gas is used to keep the filament from catching on fire. As the electricity flows through the filament, it heats up and gives off both light and radiant warmth. With an efficacy of 10 to 17 lumens (lm) / watt (W), it is the most inefficient bulb on the market and has the shortest lifespan. The average lifetime for an incandescent bulb is only 1000 hours. This level of inefficiency is why these bulbs are being phased out worldwide.

Fun fact: As of 2014, 40W and 60W tungsten filament incandescent bulbs are no longer allowed to be produced in the U.S.

Fluorescent bulbs – UV light is created by agitating mercury vapor with an electric current. The UV light then glow a phosphor coating within the bulb to produce visible white light. With an efficacy of 50 to 100 lm/W, it is five times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and has am average lifetime of 10000 hours. They come in two forms: Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) and tubes. The most common tubes are circular, U-Bent, and linear LED Tubes. The drawback is that it contains hazardous mercury. It also has the tendency to flicker once the ballast starts to fail.

High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lamps – The two most common HID lamps are Metal Halide (MH) and High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) bulbs. Light is produced by an electrical arc between two electrodes housed inside a gas atmosphere. With an efficacy of 75 to 100 lm/W and a lifetime rating of 15000 hrs, it was the most efficient option for high wattage applications. You would often find them in area lights, street lights, and high bays. The drawback is that it takes 5 to 30 minutes for the light to warm up to 100%. As much time is also needed to cool it down to 0%.

LED Light – In the simplest term, electron holes and neutrons are collided with each other to emit light. This is done by applying the right voltage to the two semiconductor plates. With an efficacy as high as 190 lm/W and a lifetime rating of up to 100000 hrs, it is the king of light source. Compare to its ancestor, they are better in every way. Here are the top 10 reasons why LED is the right lighting solution:

1. No Mercury
2. Instant On and Off
3. No Flickering
4. Minimal to no UV light - Cool-to-the-touch surface
5. Lumen maintenance is up to 10 times better – Maintain 70% of it’s initial lumens for longer period
6. Last up to 50 times longer
7. Efficacy is 11 times more efficient
8. Dimmable Capable
9. Tunable to full range of CCT or RGB color
10. Smart Light Capable

Fun fact: LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Electron holes are positive charge particle. Neutrons are negative charge particle. Photon is the light particle.

Dimmable LEDs are becoming more and more popular. But not all LEDs are dimmable. Keep in mind that not all dimmers are also compatible. If you currently have an incandescent light bulb dimmer, it will not likely work with your new LED lights.

There are two types of LED Dimmers:

• 3-way Dimmer - Mostly used in residential applications
• 0-10V dimmer - Mainly used with commercial lighting with higher lumens