The Benefits of LED Lighting in a Warehouse

The title of this blog should be, “Why wouldn’t you use LED lighting in a warehouse?” I literally cannot think of one reason NOT to use LED lighting in a warehouse setting, unless you don’t want to make your life easier or don’t want to save energy, or don’t want to spend less money. Let me explain.

Benefit #1: Longer life means less relamping

With a longer lasting LED, you won’t have to even think about changing your LED for years. Not only are LEDs more convenient because of their long life, but you are also saving money and time by eliminating the costs involved on changing the bulbs.  

Whether your warehouse is big or small, most likely the ceiling lights are not easily accessible, sometimes up to 40′ high. In addition, HID (high intensity discharge) bulbs require regular re-lamping and ballast replacements.  This process is both labor intensive and costly. In some places, this requires a lift truck or a hired electrician and these costs add up. Maybe you’re thinking, “LEDs will require the same amount of effort to change, right?” Technically, that may be true; the key is that you won’t have to do it nearly as often! A regular HID (high intensity discharge) bulb and even a fluorescent tube have a life span ranging from 6,000 to 15,000 hours. A LED replacement is designed to last anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 hours. In the life span of 1 LED, you would have had to have changed the HID at least 6 times! Need I say more?

Oh, and of course, you also don’t have to worry about having a bulb out.

Benefit #2: Energy Saving leds – pay le$$

If there is one known fact about LEDs, it’s that they are more energy efficient.  What does that mean?  They require less power; they use less energy.  So, what a 400 Metal Halide can do in terms of light output, a 200 Watt LED is now capable of.  By reducing the energy consumption by 50% on every bulb, your savings will add up quickly. All of this means your electric bill won’t be as high!

Who doesn’t want to save money? Ok, maybe you are not the owner of the company, or you’re not being paid to lower operating costs.  If that’s the case, then perhaps conserving energy is a priority to you because your carbon footprint matters?  It should.

Running high wattage bulbs for 12 hours a day adds up. Most of the warehouse bulbs are anywhere from 400-1000 watts per fixture; that’s using up to 12,000 watts for only 1 bulb. Now, multiply that by how many bulbs you have in your warehouse, let’s say 10 bulbs. That means you are using 120,000 watts of energy to light your space. Energy is not free; this adds up quickly and makes for a high electric bill. Once you switch to a LED, you are cutting that energy usage by at least 50%.

For example: A 400 Metal Halide LED replacement only uses 200 Watts.  Moreover, a ballast pulls about 10% of  the wattage of the fixture.  In this case, this is an extra 40 Watts on just one fixture. So, instead of paying for 10,560 watts of energy for one bulb each day (24 hours/day), you would be paying for 4,800 watts each day for the LED.  That is less than half the energy by switching to a LED! 

As for the cost of energy (kWh) in your area – that, my friend, is out of my control.

Benefit #3: warehouse leds are safer & brighter

LEDs display a much brighter and safer illumination than any of the other options for warehouse lighting and are a better quality of light, which means a healthier and more productive environment for everyone.

To start with, many HID bulbs have a warm up period.  This means they can take up to 2-15 minutes to reach their full brightness, depending on the type of bulb and it’s cool down and warm up periods.  Nonetheless, having any lighting down time disrupts the function of that space, and it can be unsafe.

As for the kind of light and how it affects the environment, there is a lot of variation, but in the end, the LED wins.  Some warehouses use fluorescent bulbs in fixtures that often have 4-6 tubes per fixture.  These create an awful buzzing environment and can give people seizures and headaches, seriously. High pressure sodium bulbs are practically orange and I have heard people who work in warehouses report it feels dark and unsafe. Metal halide bulbs are hot, consume so much energy, and can take up to 15 minutes to reach their full brightness.  

Many of these types of bulbs used in warehouse lighting give of heat, in addition to the light.  In most cases, this means your cooling system has to work extra hard to keep the temperature at a reasonable level.  Luckily, LEDs do not emit heat and were designed to be cool burning.  There is not wasted energy on heat – yes, another advantage.

If that hasn’t convinced you, then let’s look at light in terms of whether it’s “healthy” or not.  This is something that is often overlooked, but really should be considered if you want to have a safe environment for your employees.  Many of the traditional bulbs, or non-LEDs, contain harmful ingredients like mercury, UV and infrared radiation.

Fluorescent bulbs use mercury to emit light, which can be extremely toxic if broken.  Fluorescent bulbs, mercury vapor, and metal halide bulbs all emit UV radiation.  There are known dangers of being exposed to this kind of radiation over a significant amount of time.  Up to 30% of HID emission is in the infrared spectrum, which simply translates to inefficient lighting.  The purpose of a LIGHT is to illuminate, not to give off heat (unless it’s intended as a heat lamp, which is usually an incandescent bulb) or harmless radiation.

LEDs are clean, cool burning, more robust, and all around a better choice.

LEDs as a better solution

In review, the benefits of using LEDs in your warehouse are: save time and money, save more money, and have a safer and brighter warehouse.  This is not to dismiss the fact that LEDs are an investment and that they need to be properly installed by removing the existing ballast.  However, the return on investment for industrial or warehouse lighting is rapid; this makes for a speedy payoff so you can begin to see savings within months.  Yes, the initial installation needs to be handles properly, but it’s better to do it once and be able to have worry free lighting for years, than have to do it over and over again.

Call Martek today for a free consultation to see which warehouse LED is best for your space! 856-427-9411