5 Reasons LED Tubes Just Won’t Work
The trend in commercial LED over the past few years has been the “ballast compatible” LED tube. Facility managers, CEMs, and some architectural consultants have flocked to the so-called retrofit LED tubes in an effort to make the switch to money-saving, energy wise commercial and retail lighting in an effortless, and inexpensive, way. After all, the LED tubes look compatible. They appear to be effortlessly interchangeable with the traditional fluorescent tubes. Why not just “swap out” the tubes and keep going?
To understand why this is a bad idea, you must first examine the reasons why you want your commercial or retail organization to change over to energy saving LED technology. First, foremost, and always, businesses must keep the bottom line in view. LED technology doesn’t just save you money in terms of energy cost, but you will realize a substantial savings in:
- Maintenance — Commercial LED lighting is maintenance-free, with Power Concepts.
- Longevity — Properly fitted and installed, LED lighting can last several years, cutting replacement costs by a huge margin.
- Power Company Rebates — Most local power companies offer retailers and commercial organizations pretty substantial rebates when you make the switch to LED technology for your lighting.
Additionally, many businesses are attracted to commercial LED lighting for the color consistency and no warm-up period. That means your showroom or sales floor will be able to display your inventory in a consistent, easy-on-the-eyes manner. There’s also the “green” aspect that attracts many responsible businesses. LED technology is earth-friendly, from it’s creation, to energy-usage, to eventual disposal and recycling of your lights. No landfill space required!
5 Reasons Tubes Don’t Work
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Ballast Incompatibility
When replacing the lighting in your commercial setting, you costliest upgrade will be in replacing your ballasts. That’s why many businesses opt for LED tube replacements, assuming they need only replace the tube and not the ballasts. There’s really no way to predict how much life is left in the ballasts, therefore you could experience random, intermittent lighting failures throughout your retail store, or facility.
Not all LED tubes are compatible with all fluorescent ballasts. Ballast/LED safety agency compliancy aside, the entirety of your existing ballasts may not safely support your LED tubes. You could essentially invest quite a bit in so-called “compatible” LED tubes, only to have many of them not even usable.
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Inconsistent Energy Savings
The purpose of a ballast for fluorescent lighting is to control the current that powers the light. There is a broad range of styles and types. For that reason, ballasts are not consistent in the amount of energy they use, and moreover, the current that flows to power your LED tubes. This can impact the consistency and effectiveness of your lighting, the life of your tube, and your ability to predict any energy savings.
CEMs and facility managers who are expecting to reduce the amount of money spent on energy for any business will need to upgrade existing ballasts as well as replacing traditional lighting with LED technology.
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Inconsistent Lumens Output
Because of the incompatibility between existing ballasts and LED tube lighting described above, there is no way to predict lumens output. This will result in your LED tubes producing fewer lumens than necessary in some areas of your commercial or retail setting. These inconsistencies don’t just create unpredictable energy costs, but also greatly affect the lighting in your facility, illuminating some areas fully, and some with minimal illumination.
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Easy Install? That’s Where the ‘Easy’ Ends
Ballast-compatible LED tubes seem like the perfect answer. They’re an ideal way to retrofit energy wise lighting into your existing fixtures by simply popping them into place. Re-lighting your entire facility can be done over the course of about a day, installation costs are low, and you reap all the rewards of LED lighting. It almost sounds “too good to be true”, right?
Alas, it is too good to be true. If you take the easy way out by installing so-called “ballast-compatible” LED tubes, you will pay dearly in the long run. Your lighting, and power savings will be inconsistent, your lights may be unsafe, and you will end up upgrading your ballasts at some point.
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Tubes and Existing Ballasts Are Not Safety-Agency Compatible
The problem with replacing existing fluorescent and traditional lighting with LED tubes is that the compatibility may not be there. You can’t put new LED tubes in existing, older, possibly compromised ballasts.
To ensure the safety of your employees and customers, you must make sure your LED tube lights are UL and LTL approved for use with existing ballasts, in addition to having DLC and LM79 certification. Check to make sure there are no recalls or safety alerts on your so-called “retrofit” LED tube lights before you purchase. Or, better yet, bypass the ballasts altogether and opt for faster, easier installations with the linear LED replacements from Power Concepts.
For easy, customizable solutions for your commercial and retail LED lighting, contact your LED professionals at Power Concepts. Together we will design a lighting plan that works for you. You can enjoy all the benefits of LED technology in your commercial and retail settings when you begin with Power Concepts. Contact us today if you have questions.