Most store managers know that LED lighting offers major savings for energy costs. A store using LED lighting typically uses just a third of the energy compared to a store using traditional lamps. Just on these energy savings alone, LED lighting is worth considering, but that’s just the beginning of the story.
LED lighting offers several other significant advantages over traditional sources that can improve your store’s lighting and bottom line.
Long-Term Durability through Lumen Maintenance
One of the reasons why LED lighting is so effective is because it has high lumen maintenance. Lumen maintenance is a measurement of how much light a lamp produces in the future compared to some point in the future. For example, if a lamp has 70% lumen maintenance after 2,000 hours, it produces 70% of the light of a brand-new lamp at this point.
70% is an important figure because this is the point when the human eye can detect that a lamp is less effective. Good LED lamps run at 70% lumen maintenance or better for tens of thousands of hours. This isn’t even the point when the lamp burns out, just when it starts to dim. As a result, your staff will almost never have to change the lamps when you upgrade to LED lighting.
Reduced Heat Means Less Danger and Waste
Traditional incandescent lamps give off light by heating the filament inside to very high temperatures. Have you ever touched a lamp that is lit? Ouch! This is both a safety hazard and a waste of electricity; that waste heat comes from somewhere.
LED lighting doesn’t give off nearly the same amount of waste heat.This means you will waste less electricity and won’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt from touching a blazing hot lamp. Newer LED lamps are experimenting with thermal management systems as well. These systems spread any heat buildup from a lamp away from the filament so burnouts become even rarer.
Enhance Your Store Lighting through LEDs
LED lighting also improves the atmosphere of your store. These lamps offer a very bright, natural looking light that will help both your employees and customers see what they are doing. This is because LED technology has a very high Color-Rendering Index (CRI). Natural light has a CRI of 100 and LED lamps come very close to reaching this level.
Beyond white light, you can also customize your LED lamps to many other colors. This gives you the flexibility to design your retail lighting exactly the way you want.
Switching to LED lighting is a big investment and it’s understandable if you are worried that the energy savings are not enough to justify the cost. Look at what you receive from this upgrade:
- Reduce the energy cost of lighting by about 67%.
- Durable lamps that last for tens of thousands of hours.
- No danger or wasted energy from excess heat.
- Clear, natural light.
This is a tough combination to beat. It’s no wonder that more and more stores are making the jump to LED lighting.
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