Zero Carbon Engineering has considerable experience in working with lighting manufacturers in choosing, or if needed - developing, luminaires for various applications.  

LED lighting has been with us since about 2005.  At the time, efficiencies measured as lumens/watt were low but better than Fluorescent lighting and colour rendition and spectra weren’t great – LED’s tended to give off a distinctly “blue” light.  However, they did have the advantage – unlike fluorescent lighting – that they were completely agnostic to temperature. Fluorescent lighting does not like refrigeration temperatures, losing out on efficiency and being difficult to restart once switched off.

The technology developed with increasing efficiency (lumens/watt), colour rendition and the ability to choose the spectra emitted to a point in 2012-2013 when LED’s “took off”. 

Taking examples: -

1. GU10 halogen light takes 50W gives 330lm (7lm/watt) and are quoted with a life of 2,000hours. The same manufacturer’s LED takes 5W gives 345lm (75lm/watt) and are quoted at 25,000hrs.
2. A T5 HF Fluorescent tubes takes 28W gives 2900lm (105lm/watt) and are quoted with a life of 1,000 to 30,000hours. Replacement with an equivalent LED fitting will deliver a 50% saving on energy consumption and a life of 50,000hours.

Typically savings in areas with lighting levels of 650-1000 lux (a typical supermarket sales floor) can achieve paybacks of 3-4 years on energy savings.  Savings on office space are less – primarily because lighting levels are lower (c 400 lux) and because of lower ceilings more luminaires are required to achieve an acceptable lighting uniformity.  On top of this there are additional savings as with the longer life’s, maintenance interventions and the need to purchase replacement lamps happen less frequently.

As a caution, there has been an explosion in the number of LED lighting manufacturers. If you are purchasing lighting that is supposed to be there for five years (or longer), ensure that they are a company that will still be there in five years and be clear what the warranty covers – is it just a complete lamp failure – or does it also cover change in lumens output, colour rendition or (indeed) colour.