Program LED Strip Lights To Save Money
Installing LED lights in your business, warehouse or home is the first step toward realizing a dramatically lower lighting bill. The next step is to program LED strip lights to connect with occupancy sensors, timers and smart controls to maximize the greatest savings possible.
As demand for green technology and efficient use of resources continues to grow, networked LED lights have become a crucial component in the modern energy retrofit. Energy efficiency investments could total $959 billion from 2014 to 2023, according to forecasts by Navigant Research. One thing is for sure: when it comes to effective ways to save energy on your lighting bill, LED-based lighting systems are impossible to beat.
To start with, LEDs are incredibly efficient. Thomas Edison’s incandescent lightbulb, which brought electric light to the 20th century, produces just 16 lumens per watt. In comparison, most commercially available LEDs produce anywhere from 60 to 100 lumens per watt. But the efficiency of LED technology doesn’t end at the diode; its ultimate energy-saving superiority lies in its advanced control capabilities.
Using LED-based automated systems, lights can be programmed to turn on and off automatically when people enter a room. Further, dimming and other advanced features can be controlled externally via smartphones or software connected to the internet. This networked management is possible because LEDs can be switched off and on digitally, and can easily be finely adjusted for both brightness and color temperature. Highly advanced LED-based lights can even be tuned to correspond to natural sunlight entering the room in a method of lighting known as daylight harvesting.
Advanced daylight harvesting uses sunlight entering a room from windows and skylights and adjusts the LED lighting system to automatically add the necessary light to meet the room’s predetermined brightness level. Changing to LED lighting is like making the switch from an analog system of the past to the digital systems of today.
The savings from these intelligent LED systems are significant, and in terms of ROI this sort of installation typically pays for itself within just a couple of years. For example, Ace Hardware made the switch to an intelligent LED-based lighting system in its retail stores, and was able to lower its per-square-foot power consumption by almost 40%, representing an average electricity savings of 81%.
Once installed, the intelligent LED-based lighting systems can be left to run themselves while the programs take care of turning lights on and off in the most efficient manner possible. Not surprisingly, businesses that install intelligent LED-based lighting systems experience an uptick in productivity as well as significantly lower electricity bills.
Digitally networked LEDs also produce higher quality light than conventional lighting systems based on CFLs or incandescents. The human benefits of LED-based systems make them a critical component of an emerging field of interest known as “human-centric lighting.” The idea of human-centric lighting is to optimize human health in indoor environments by adjusting artificial light levels to suit our circadian rhythm—the 24-hour human internal clock that regulates emotions and attention spans. By changing brightness levels and color temperatures of lighting systems throughout the day to mirror the natural cycles of sunlight, human-centric lighting can positively influence our concentration, mood and health.
Of even greater importance worldwide, electricity production is the single largest contributor to human released CO2 emissions, accounting for 38% of U.S. emissions from 1990-2012. The reduction in electricity usage afforded by LED lighting promises to be of enormous environmental benefit to our planet. Businesses that install LED systems will boost morale as workers and customers understand that they are doing their part as responsible stewards of the environment.
The greatest pleasure of working with LEDs for us is being able to provide our clients with the solutions they need. It’s really great to see our strip lights installed in the countless innovative and sustainable projects that we help to develop every single day. Your vision is what inspires us to do what we do!
Do you have any cool ideas for LED strip lights? Give us a call at 1-844-FLEXFIRE (1-844-353-9347) or shoot us an email to info@flexfireleds.com and we’d love to get involved!