Facilities and businesses of all sizes are continuously focused on two things: saving money and increasing revenues. Although LED retrofit kits won’t necessarily improve sales (though proper lighting can), they can certainly improve a business’ bottom line tremendously.
It’s common for a conversion from HID lighting like metal halide or high pressure sodium (HPS) to LED to realize savings up to 75 percent. That’s not all either. Other cost-saving benefits, like longer lifespans and improved productivity all contribute to why LED is growing in popularity among businesses.
In addition to the benefit of LED, retrofit kits have an extra benefit of being cheaper than a full replacement. I’d like to briefly cover what exactly the difference is and why it is a major benefit to retrofit when possible. Then, I will go over all of the ways LEDs—whether it be a retrofit kit or entirely new LED fixture—are able to drastically reduce overhead and costs associated with maintaining a commercial lighting system.
Retrofitting versus Full Replacement
In simple terms, retrofitting is simply replacing the light source whereas a full replacement includes replacing not only the light source but also the entire fixture.
There are two main benefits of retrofitting versus full replacement: Retrofit kits are typically cheaper and cheaper to install because they are easy, quick and create less waste than when you replace the entire fixture.
The only time a full replacement should be considered is if the current fixtures are old, outdated or are not compatible with LED retrofit kits. As always, there are pros and cons to both.
Experts from MyLEDLightingGuide’s LED retrofit kit department always suggest to ask a qualified company to help with this decision; a good company will be able to guide you properly through the process. Otherwise, the process may lead to misinformed decisions that cost more money—exactly the opposite goal when converting to LED.
Direct Energy Savings
Energy savings is named the No. 1 benefit of converting to LED. The savings can be as high as 75 percent in energy savings alone and that’s exactly why it’s the main reason companies convert to this technology.
From a reduction like this, depending on how long the lights are used on an average per day, facilities realize a direct return on investment through a reduction in energy usage in three to four years.
Thankfully, because LED has such a long lifespan, these savings go on for much longer than that.
Benefits from a Lifespan Increase
LED technology and its lifespan can range greatly. Some companies offer kits that last around 50,000 hours and others all the way up to 100,000. On the low end of 50,000, this is still two to three times higher than comparable lighting technologies, like metal halide or HPS. This increase in lifespan allows two to three times less replacement kits to be purchased.
In addition to the lessened need to buy replacement luminaires, a reduction in costs associated with changing out those burnt-out bulbs decreases in the same amount of two to three times. Consider this: A facility may pay a company every two to three years to change out its burnt-out metal-halide bulbs whereas with LED it may only be once every 10 years. The savings is obvious.
Productivity Improvements
Light coming from an LED has the ability to create a much better suited color temperature dependent on the environment. This allows for the most optimal lighting temperatures for whatever work area the lighting is in, whether it be an office or production line.
Additionally, because LEDs never flicker or buzz, the eye strain and irritation that comes from flickering or buzzing lights is nonexistent after converting to LED. In turn, this keeps workers focused and actually can improve overall productivity and workplace morale.
By realizing these benefits of LEDs and retrofit kits, facility managers, building owners and electrical contractors can ensure their lighting systems meet or exceed their previous lighting system technologies.