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Lighting Retrofits
Retail stores of any size can benefit from a review of their lighting systems, and retrofits.
While almost every retail business in the U.S. has converted from T-12 Fluorescent lamps to T-8 lamps, not everyone has looked at other opportunities. In retail, it's not just about light levels, it's about color, beam spread, ambient lighting levels, accent lighting, focusing accent lighting properly, and doing it all efficiently, with low lamp and ballast costs.
- Depending on how you choose meet those requirements, there are new fluorescent lamp options with super T-8, High Output T-5 lamps, and Induction Lighting, ranked in order from lowest to highest cost in current retrofit applications. The additional benefit of induction lighting is that the rated life is significantly higher than T-8 or T-5 applications.
- If you have high bay applications either in Stores or your Distribution Centers, High Output T-5 lamps in highly reflective fixtures can provide improved lighting output in many fixtures with lower energy usage.
- Incandescent lamps are being replaced in mass quantities by Compact Fluorescents, even in difficult merchandising environments. In the case of Compact Fluorescent lamps, the savings are usually as easy to get as changing the light bulbs. Many utilities currently have programs that provide the lamps at no cost, as long as you can provide the labor to install them.
- Improved color Metal Halide lamps can also be used in place of high wattage quartz lamps in specific merchandising conditions.
- LED lighting is already under production for indoor retail lighting, with significant progress made in white LED lamps in the last few years. In addition to significant energy savings, the lamp life ratings are significantly greater than other available lamp types.
- Most lighting retrofits have returns on investment in less than three years; those regions with lower utility rates may take slightly longer.
- Lighting Retrofits are not just about lamps, but also newer fixture designs that provide better light distribution from lower wattage. A simple check of new light fixtures that are in the marketplace can yield dramatic results prior to your next lighting retrofit.
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