Some industrial LED observations

[FrontSideBus]

Those of you who have me on facebook probably know that I've transferred over to another site since we was taken over by another company. This has given me a chance to compare 3 different lighting installations.

The production floor in the old site had a dropped false ceiling and was lit by hundreds of 4 lamp 14w t5 recessed fittings. On my recommendation they changed to 865 lamps in them and the level of illumination was very good with minimal glare. Due to the relative low ceiling height, the horizontal illumination was also very good too. Overall a very bright and pleasant place to work with no shadows or dark spots anywhere.

The new site is split across two units:
One machine hall is lit by load of prismatic-shaded high-bays with 400w clear metal halide lamps in them. The lighting level is quite good but due to the quite wide spacing between the luminaires, there are darker patches and there is quite a bit of shadowing going on. There is a noticeable shift in colour between some lamps and most annoyingly, in some lamps the arc seems to be wobbling about creating a weird flicker as the light source moves about the focal point of the reflector system slightly. Glare is quite good unless you are right under one and look up.

The other hall has a new LED high-bay installation and is mounted quite a bit lower than the halide units. While the daylight colour is very nice, they are quite bright and vertical illumination is very good indeed. However, because of the point-source nature of the LED modules and complete lack of a conventional optical system, the glare is horrendous, the LED chips are visible no matter where you are and it's quite hard on the eyes after a while. Another effect of this is no light is emitted upwards so the entire ceiling area is very dark and gloomy and really makes it feel like you're working in a cave. Horizontal illumination is extremely poor and there are dark shadows all over the place. While at first glace it looks the brightest, it is in fact the worst lighting installation by far! Absolutely horrible!

So there is my two pence lol.

Addendum:

I'm not sure who makes them or what model they are but they look similar to this except the ones in work are bigger and have 4 LED chips mounted close together. As you can see from the shallow angle of the hood, the extreamly bright point source is always in your eyeline...
http://www.ledlightingandlights.com/ima ... 841300.jpg

[AngryHorse]

I've yet to see any LED highbays in use, but do you reckon they would benefit from a deeper reflecting dish, or some form of prismatic bowl?

[fluorescent]

Sounds terrible. Our mill floor at work is lit with about 80 million 200w 6500k LED high bays that have a prismatic reflector that doesn't really appear to do much. They are very, very high up too. Lighting is horrible, dim and gloomy. Quite a few of them are flashing now or are unlit or partially lit. Not sure how long they've been up there.

[Slyspark]

Got a company at the moment tho have asked me to quote on replacement of some 400w halide hi-bays with either retrofit LED lamps, or complete replacement fittings. As it stands, the Venture 4000K lamps currently fitted, state a lumen output of 40,000 lumens. The brightest retrofit LED lamp or fitting I can find is a mere 25,000 lumens (200w). On that basis, I'd pretty much have to double the number of fittings in use, so not like they'll save anything in running costs. With a Philips retrofit LED module costing about £200 and a branded fitting even more than that, all its going to end up being is a very expensive exercise in doubling the number of fittings, at huge expense, for no difference in light output. I've told them not to bother and to just replace the existing lamps (and faulty gear) and keep the fittings they've got.

[FrontSideBus]

The fittings in work might well benefit from a deeper presmistic shade to try and shield the emitter and also to direct a bit of light upwards. I should have also mentioned there are more LED high bays than Halide fittings too.

Having worked under the dropped ceiling and recessed 4 x 14w Louvre fittings for so long, I’m not a fan of any high bays tbh!!!

[Cobster]

I was part of a team at my last workplace who were responsible for implementing costcutting measures. For a few hours a week we'd meet to look at ways of making things harder and employees more miserable.

One such change implemented before my time was to replace 400W MBF highbays with 250W SON. This was absolutely horrible for the staff working on a production floor with machinery. They installed one 6' single bare lamp T8 fixture in each production area so staff were at least working under a bit of white light.

After my arrival the whole disaster was stripped out for 6X 60W? (can't remember) colour 835 PL lamps with HF gear. Only two lamp failures in 4 years over lots (can't remember) of fixtures.
I still stand by this specification, as the colour was great to work under, looked like a sunny day with a nice atmosphere. Even better, our machines were all painted a beige colour with yellow highlights, which practically glowed under the light.
Low ceilings went from T12 to 840 T8 or T5 HF if on PIR.

We had the option to go LED, and trialled a small range of these horrid fixtures, but just couldn't get the beige colour to look right under 6500K, which was essential when customers came to visit to inspect their machines being assembled.
I think not long after we turned LED down, the sales rep. for their products committed suicide. He was a nice chap but I/we had nothing to do with it - honest.

Hope this gives an insight on another person who nearly suffered from installing LED.

[FrontSideBus]

Well since I've been working there, a few of the halides in one of the machine halls have failed within a few days of each other, (no idea how old they are but some of them are a bit flickery) but last night when I went in for a shift I noticed the failed lamps have been replaced.... and fuck me it's amazing the difference! I know they suffer from lumen depreciation but when you see it right next to the old ones the difference is staggering, both how bright they are and how good the colour is! I think the whole place should be group relampep but I don't think they will.

"For a few hours a week we'd meet to look at ways of making things harder and employees more miserable."