On the Road to "All LED" You Might Be Asking, "Are We There Yet?"
Posted: Jan 26 | Author: Jenn Thornfeldt, LC | Category: LED Lighting
About two years ago, we started having customers request quotes to do an all LED lighting upgrade. Cue the collective eye‐roll. The sales person would dutifully caution said customer about sticker shock, physical limitations of interior LED, importance of keeping options open, etc. Despite these valiant efforts, once the words “All LED” escape the lips of the customer, it shall be so! 1
So the gauntlet would be thrown down before us and the design team would diligently dig for reasonable2 LED solutions for any and all light‐producing devices within the confines of the property in question.
We’d simultaneously snigger and guffaw and think, “ALL LED, pshaw, this isn’t going anywhere, I give them 5 minutes before they’re begging us for fluorescent lamps and reflectors, harrumph, harrumph, harrumph.”
Meanwhile, a really great thing was happening… we were embarking upon a journey that would lead us to Here which is pretty darn close to There.” What do I mean by that? One of the most frequent axioms I’ve heard as it relates to interior LED is, “We’re not There yet.” There being the point at which interior LED makes as much sense, or more, than the newest generation of low wattage linear fluorescent.
So we are Here. And here is pretty cool. We’ve dug deep and far, we’ve led the way, we’ve wiped egg off our face, we’ve gotten darn good at this LED thing and industry standard prices have met us half way.
Manufacturers are more clever, our auditors know what to look for, our installers have cracked the code and we designers have been carefuly listening to feedback.
Here also means that our default option is now All LED and it is with hangdog sentiment that we revert to our once trusty fluorescent option.
Don’t misunderstand, there are a few applications that are still LED‐elusive and all the same stuff still matters (hours of operation, utility incentives, existing conditions, cost of electricity).
BUT, like we do to the loveable but naggy kids in the backseat of the car who ask, “Are we there yet?” we can respond, “oooh, we are SO close!”
1 I’m sure there was a perfect movie trilogy to reference there but I’m out of touch with non‐lighting related culture
2 Reasonable + LED = approved by quality control type agency, tested to appropriate standards, at least 95% of their website is in English
