Lighting Solutions; Interior Incandescent, HID, LED & Fluorescent Lighting - Why they need Protection and how to Properly Protect them Efficiently
This is segment two of a three part article provided specifically to discuss protection of complete lighting systems including Parking Lot & Roadway, HID, LED & Fluorescent Lighting and Lighting Controls. In this segment, we will narrowly focus on Interior Incandescent, Fluorescent, HID and LED Lighting failures and proven solutions.
In today's electronic and digital environment, it is commonly understood that lighting is an important and critical part to the success, safety and security of virtually every business. From a small flower shop to a small office, major retailer, theme park, casino or manufacturing facility, lighting is an essential part of everyday life.
Due to the financial investment in lighting made by most business owners, market pressures have demanded many changes in the energy efficiency and prolonged life expectancy over the past two decades in particular. Along with the necessary changes in technologies to create smarter, more energy efficient lighting fixtures and lamps comes an increase in upfront costs of these new fixtures and lamp types, with the expectation of longer life and lower energy consumption by the owner.
With the current economic uncertainty, more and more owners are seeking ways to keep these -now necessary -costs of new fixtures and lamps down to a minimum. Meanwhile, lamp failure and replacement continue to rank as the #1 recurring costs to owners next to complete fixture replacement.
Most lighting fixtures and electronic ballasts on the market today are very susceptible to premature failure due to the sensitivity of the electronics within them. Many fail unexpectedly and without warning. Often times, there seems to be no known cause for failure. It is these times, in particular, where the majority of all of these unknown failures can be specifically tied to transient activity from either outside the facility or due to surges created inside of the facility itself. Many of the occurrences are due to the 'electrical noise' within a modern day power distribution system, resulting from electronics present in the system.
One aspect of these pre-mature failures that is most often overlooked by many owners is the availability of proven solutions to prevent this common surge damage and pre-mature failure of lighting systems. In turn, this will significantly decrease both the short term and long term costs associated with the lighting systems, as well as, alleviating the liability of having them inoperable.
In all fairness to the owners, many light fixture and lamp manufacturers are not pushing the owners towards considering these options or divulging that they are available or even needed. Of course, doing so could impact the residual replacement sales income many lighting system manufacturers expect or count on as a portion of their annual revenue.
It has been proven time and time again that with the implementation of the properly specified and applied surge protective devices, many of these costs can be dramatically decreased; thus, allowing the owner to use those budget dollars in others areas equally critical to the business.
It is becoming more commonplace for owners to implement quality and properly applied surge protective devices to prevent lighting system damage, premature lamp and ballast failure. Doing so makes their systems more reliable, while simultaneously decreasing their operating costs. Surge Suppression, LLC has consulted with the engineering groups of many lighting and ballast manufacturers over the years, as well as, some of the largest retailers and electrical engineering firms in the U.S. Consequently, SSI has created and implemented several effective, uniquely tailored lighting protection solutions to ensure near 100% reliability of their systems and minimize the owner's risks.