Your LED Lighting Is Still Working. But Is It Still Performing?
By Brian Healey, VP of Sales & Marketing, Pearl Street Systems & Engineering
Over the last 10+ years, I’ve had a lot of the same conversations with facility managers.
“We already converted to LED.”
And in many cases, they’re right. The facility may have gone through a major LED upgrade 5–10 years ago. It was a great energy project at the time, the lights are still on and functional, and there haven’t been many failures. So, lighting has understandably moved pretty far down the priority list.
But there’s another question worth asking:
Is that LED system still performing the way it did when it was installed?
That’s something we’re starting to look at more often with our customers, especially as some of the earlier LED installations begin to age.
LED TECHNOLOGY DOESN’T JUST “BURN OUT”
One of the big differences between LED and the fluorescent and HID lighting it replaced is the way it ages.
We were all used to lamps failing. A fluorescent tube went out, somebody noticed it, and maintenance replaced it.
LED is different.
The LED boards and diodes inside a fixture lose light output gradually over time. The fixture can still be on and appear to be working normally, while producing less light than it did when it was originally installed.
And because that change happens slowly, it’s very easy not to notice.
Think about a hallway, lobby, mechanical space or parking garage you walk through every day. If the lighting level dropped significantly overnight, you’d probably notice it immediately. If it happened little by little over several years, would you?
Probably not. And neither would the tenants, employees, patients or students in the building.
WHAT DOES “50,000 HOURS” OF LED LIFE ACTUALLY MEAN?
You’ll see 50,000 hours referenced on a lot of commercial LED products, including plenty of products we’ve specified and installed over the years.
It doesn’t mean the fixtures — or a percentage of the fixtures — are expected to fail at 50,000 hours.
A common LED rating is “L70 at 50,000 hours.” In simple terms, L70 is a measure of lumen maintenance — the amount of light the LED is expected to maintain as it ages.
The important part for a facility owner isn’t necessarily the terminology. It’s understanding that LED light output changes over time even when the fixture continues to operate.
How quickly those operating hours accumulate also varies tremendously by facility.
An office operating its lights 10 hours a day is very different from a hospital corridor, parking garage, residential common area or other space operating 24/7. A continuously operating fixture accumulates approximately 50,000 hours in less than six years.
That doesn’t mean every six-year-old LED fixture needs to be replaced. Far from it.
It does mean that older LED installations — particularly in high-hour applications — are worth looking at again.
CHANCES ARE, YOU DO NOT NEED NEW LIGHT FIXTURES
This is probably the part that surprises customers the most.
If we evaluate an older LED system and find that light levels have depreciated, the answer isn’t automatically, “Let’s replace everything.” On the contrary, it almost never is.
Depending on the LED fixture or retrofit type, as well as the manufacturer, there may be a much simpler solution.
Can the LED board or light engine be replaced? Is the driver replaceable? Does the manufacturer still make the original components? Is there a current-generation replacement that’s compatible with the existing housing?
Sometimes there is a relatively straightforward maintenance solution that can restore performance without replacing the entire fixture.
Other times, we find that the original product has been discontinued, the manufacturer has changed its product line, or replacement components are no longer readily available.
This is where we can help as a lighting distributor. We can identify what was originally installed, track down the manufacturer and product information, and determine what current LED board, light engine, driver or replacement component is the proper fit for the existing fixture.
That’s where doing a little homework can save a facility team a lot of time — and potentially turn what looks like a fixture-replacement problem into a much simpler maintenance project.
But maintenance is only one reason to take another look at an older LED system. There is a second opportunity we are seeing more often: in some facilities, the LEDs themselves may now present a new energy-efficiency project.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE EARLY SCREW-IN OR “TLED” LINEAR TUBE RETROFITS?
This is another area we have been revisiting.
A huge number of facilities converted fluorescent fixtures to LED tubes (“TLEDs”) during the first few years of their existence — roughly the 2013–2017 era. I know I sold hundreds of thousands of these products back then!
At the time, those projects made a lot of sense. They reduced wattage, significantly reduced annual lighting-system maintenance, and generated substantial energy savings compared with the fluorescent systems they replaced.
But LED Technology Hasn’t Stood Still — Far From It
Today’s LED lamps can produce the same — or in some cases better — light output using less wattage than many of the earlier-generation LED tubes. Back in the day, a 4-foot T8 Gen 1 LED replacement tube was upwards of 21–23 watts per lamp (depending on ballast factor, etc.). That same type of replacement product today, with a new compatible driver, may only use 11–13 watts.
So now, we’ve reached an interesting point in commercial lighting where an existing LED system can potentially be an energy-efficiency project again.
That doesn’t mean replacing old LEDs is automatically an energy project — the economics still have to work. But if a facility has hundreds or thousands of older TLEDs operating long hours, it’s absolutely worth running the numbers.
And yes, there can even be utility rebates available for replacing older LEDs with newer, more efficient LED technology! Depending on the utility program, territory, existing wattage and the potential energy savings from the old LEDs to the new LEDs, an existing LED system may still qualify for incentives.
“WE ALREADY HAVE LED” ISN’T THE END OF THE CONVERSATION
For years, one of the first questions in an energy conversation was, “Do you still have fluorescent or HID lighting?”
That question has changed to: “Do you have LEDs, how old are they, and how often are the lights on?”
Pearl Street can come on site, take current light levels, identify the existing products and potentially confirm then and there if the existing LEDs are too far degraded.
From there, we can determine which direction makes sense. Is this simply a maintenance project where we help identify and source the proper current-generation components? Or is there enough wattage reduction, operating hours and scale to look at it as a potential energy project?
If there appears to be an energy opportunity, we can run some quick one-for-one fixture calculations, review available utility incentives where applicable, and determine whether the economics warrant taking the next step.
The point is that you don’t know until somebody takes another look.
LET’S START WITH A SIMPLE SCREENING
Let’s start by screening your existing LED systems and determining whether what you have is primarily a maintenance opportunity or whether it has the potential to become an energy project.
We can start with a brief call to talk through what was installed, approximately when it was installed and how the spaces operate. Or, we can have one of our engineers come on site and walk the spaces with your facility staff.
At Pearl Street Systems & Engineering, we can help evaluate existing LED installations, identify the products and components currently in place, check current replacement availability, measure existing light levels, and determine whether there is a practical maintenance or energy opportunity.
Your LEDs don’t have to be failing for your lighting system to be worth another look.
Reach out to Brian Healey at bhealey@pearlstreetsystems.com or (908) 923-4150 to schedule a screening — a quick call or an on-site walkthrough.