Now that Digital Lumens (DL) is out of stealth mode it makes sense for us to start covering some of our learnings with LED high wattage applications.
Beginning last year we conducted a series of DL test trials with our customers. Recently we exhibited at the IARW show as a “coming out” party, showing both the now shipping DL system and a short video from our first large installation at a yet-to-be-announced freezer cold storage facility.
Prior to our DL tests we had learned that operating managers had three general concerns about LED high wattage applications – (1) light level performance, (2) cost and (3) glare.
Digging into each….
Light level performance: Some companies had previously conducted experiments with LED fixtures and found that they way underperformed versus their existing lighting systems. Two things worked in our favor during our tests: (1) DL’s system design and (2) LED’s love the cold. The foot-candle performance we measured was way above our customer’s current systems, this coming from DL’s integrated system design using the latest high performance LED chips and the fact that these environments run at below zero degrees, where solid state chips thrive.
Cost: LED fixtures are expensive – still true. But unlike traditional freezer storage high wattage HID and HIF lighting (which don’t turn off because they’ll literally freeze) the DL system does something really complicated – it turns off when no one is there. Then it turns right on when someone arrives. Then it turns off 30 seconds after they leave. $ee the Light? Since occupancy rates in these balmy environments are typically low (less than 10%) DL’s embedded data logging capability confirmed that lighting kWh is reduced to a stunningly low number – from 8760 hours a year to less than 800. Plus every watt removed reduced the cooling cost for the facility. Which makes the economic return that much more attractive. Oh, and there are utility rebates too.
Glare: Brighter, point source LED’s in high wattage can generate perceived glare, impacting operators and workers. Some people affectionately call them glare bombs. Here the DL system uniquely offers beam shaping, which allows us to use the LED directionality to our advantage, shining light where we need it and pointing it away from the operator’s eyes. This is very impactful – no other LED system we’ve found (and we’ve studied them all) has ANY variability on it’s light pattern – meaning these designs assume all environments are identical in where they need the light? You get the picture. So the DL beam shaping lets us adapt on the fly to the specific site and its operators.
All of this is best captured through a video clip from our installation – take a look here.