Faq

Q. Can you replace a Metal Halide bulb with a LED High Retrofit kit one-for-one and not have to add any additional lights?

A. Yes. We have successfully replaced many lights with our retrofit kits that have either 70-400W Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium or Mercury Vapor bulb. They are designed to be a one-for-one replacement. The only time we add more is when the customer wants to add additional lights to fix a bad light issue that was pre-existing.

Q. What lights should I be thinking of replacing with these retrofit kits?

These kits are really designed to replace 70W to about 400W HID. We have other solutions to replace the bigger wattage’s, 1000 and 1500. The issue with the higher wattage’s is the solution needs to be thoroughly thought out and tested. That involves engineers who understand heat and light design. What good is any solution if it overheats and fails prematurely? Our kits are perfect for anything that is 400W or below. We have installed 1000’s of these (worldwide), and have a proven track record of success. Follow the simple installation instructions and you should see year after year of high quality light and engineer savings. And remember,ALWAYS REMOVE THE REFLECTOR IN THE FIXTURE.

Q. How can you replace 400W MH with initial lumens of 40,000 with an LED product that produces 11,000?

A. We can, and here’s how. First, let’s make sure we understand one thing – let’s compare apples to apples. There are vast differences between HID lighting and LED Lighting, and the differences add up to why we can create as much light on the ground with less lumens.

• LED Light is directional: All our lumens are coming straight down. That’s 100% directed to where it is needed. In contrast, Metal Halide and other HID bulbs are omni-directional, that means, only very little light is heading down and the rest is shooting off in all directions that must be collected and directed downwards. The unfortunate reality is that gathered and redirected light is not efficient, and any lumen that needs to bounce more than once against the reflector is effectively useless. As much of 30 % of the lumens created is loss in this reflective process.
• LED Light has higher quality. This is all about CRI, and yes, we have heard about high CRI Metal Halide bulbs. So first things first. CRI stands for Color Rendering Index, it is a scale between 0 and 100. 0=no light, 100=sunlight. The closer to 100, the better the light. Mercury Vapor and High Pressure Sodium are around 20 and 30 CRI (ie very bad quality), Metal Halide is better, 60+, and LED is better still, 75+. So the result is, you need less quantity of lumens if you have higher quality of lumens. Now let’s talk about high CRI Metal Halide and Fluorescent. This is a bit of physics and good marketing. The truth about CRI is the standard is measured against 8 colors. If you take a look at a high CRI Metal Halide bulb under a spectrometer, you will see it has high CRI with those 8 defined colors, but much lower CRI with ll the other colors in the spectrum. So in essence, these lights are designed to pass the test. LED CRI, however, is consistent across all colors. So in effect, 80 CRI in LED is better than 92 CRI in Metal Halide.
• Visible vs Invisible Spectrums. This has to do with UV and IR light. These sources are created by traditional light sources, and traditional light meters read them and count them as a foot candle. All good, but completely useless for humans. We do not see UV or IR light. So if you place a light meter under a Metal Halide light, your foot candle measurement includes visible and non-visible spectrums. LEDs, on the other hand, do not produce UV or IR, so the light you see is the light we can see.And yes, we do know that you can design a LED to produce UV and IR, and we typically see these used in the grow light world where these sources are important. But in a High Bay, they are not.
• Lumen Burnout. Metal Halide and other HID bulbs are bright, out of the box. The reality is, after 4-6 months of use, 12 hours a day, they are not as bright as the day they are installed. This is why they call it initial lumens and not sustained lumens. The reality is lumen degradation occurs in every light source, including LEDs. In the LED world, we talk about L70, the number of hours before the LED source is at 70% of initial lumens. In the HID world, L70 happens very quick, in the LED world, we have products where L70 is in excess of 100,000 hours. Also, in an HID bulb, when lumens degrade, so does CRI. That is a double hit – both quantity and quality are dropping at the same time.

Q. Are LED Retrofit Kits expensive?

A. Actually, they are very cost effective. Considering you get to keep your investment in your existing fixtures, retrofitting is extremely cost effective. Why replace fixtures that are perfectly good?

Q. What sort of energy savings can I expect?

A. At lest 50%, and as much as 80%. We have product that is rated up to 90 lumens/watt. That means we can replace 400W with as little as 105W. Now just a little additional education. A 400W Metal Halide bulb consumes more than 400W. They have a ballast, and the ballast consumes energy, about 15% above the bulb draw. So 400W is really 450-460W, so replacing it with our 105W unit that produces over 14000 lumens is a 76% savings. And all our customers who installed this light have given us similar responses: “WOW”.  Check our our install pages for visible proof.

Q. Is that all the savings there is?

A.  No, we also talk about reduced maintenance costs. When you have a light with an L70 of 70,00 hours +, this means your crews will spend less time in lifts repairing lights and more time on critical equipment that makes your company money.

Q. What about safety?

A. LED Light is higher quality light. Employees see better. And if they see better, less accidents. And also, the quality of the work goes up, because employees see their work stations better.

Q. Are your retrofit kits IP65 rated?

A. No. The drivers are IP65 rated, but the LED heads are not. However, they can be installed inside an existing IP rated fixture.

Q. What voltage options are available? Can you do 3 Phase Power?

A. Typically, we can do 100-277V, 347 and 480V. We can also provide step down transformers from 347-480 down to 277V. And we can hook up to 3 phase power.

Q. Are your products UL, ETL or CSA Listed?

A. Yes, every single one is ETL and cETL Listed. They are all tested to the same safety standard, and while everyone has heard of UL and CSA, ETL is an equivalent safety standard and the same UL tests are performed to get the ETL certification. ETL is a USA standard.  They are just different laboratories and companies doing the same safety testing. So rest assured, an ETL Listed product is just as safe as a UL Listed product.

Q. Do your products qualify for rebates?

A. All of our retrofit kits are DesignLights Consortium Listed. We can assist you with all the documentation required to help in the rebate process.

Q. What about color temperature?

A. Our high bays are typically a Day White color, around 5000K. This is a bright white color, but not harsh, like Cool White that tends to be 6000K+, or yellow, as in Warm White in the 3000K range. We offer retrofit kits in 4000K, 45000K and 5000K.

Q. What about Motion Sensors and Control Networks?

A. We can do both, individual motion sensors or complete wireless networks. And we will be honest with you, we won’t sell you something you won’t need. Our retrofit kits can be dimmed, and work with motion sensors. Turning on and off a LED Retrofit Kit does not affect the life of the unit.

Q. How do you install a retrofit kit?

A. The truth is that installing a retrofit kit is no more difficult than doing a bulb and ballast replacement on an existing fixture. The only difference is that we have an LED Driver that is installed where the existing ballast was installed and our head is mounted where the bulb was located. There are some additional steps that must be taken to ensure the longevity of the LED product.

1. the fixtures reflector has to be removed. This is necessary for three reasons. 1. It is not needed. All the LEDs light is directed downwards. There is no light to reflect. 2. Removing it increases the internal volume of space inside the fixture. More space means more cooling. More cooling means longer life. 3. If the reflector is not removed, the warranty is void.  Read point 2. It is very important to remove the reflector to make sure the LED performs well and is not overheating
2. the socket is only used to hold the fixture, it is not powered. The driver is hooked directly to the LED head with 2 wires. We do not need the socket powered up.

So essentially here are the steps. These must be performed by a licensed electrician

1. Turn off the power to the fixture
2. Open the fixture
3. Remove the bulb.
4. Remove the ballast.
5. Remove the reflector.
6. Install the driver where the ballast was. Wire the driver to the incoming power.
7. Install the LED head into the light bay
8. Wire the head to the driver. Make sure the wires do not impede the fan’s movement.
9. Remove the plastic cover protecting the LED Head.
10. Close the fixture.
11. Turn the power back on.