There are at least three lesser-known benefits of LED that we think have flown under the radar thus far, but expect them to become more relevant over time.

First, since LEDs don’t emit Ultraviolet light and very little heat, they don’t attract nocturnal insects nearly to the extent of other outdoor light sources.  Since you will have fewer dead insects caked on to your lens covers, you can expect an improved light loss with LED.

Second, as efficiency gains continue to be made in the LED light industry, the Color Rendering Index (“CRI”) has risen, meaning objects are seen more accurately.  LED lights already possess much higher CRIs than, say, sodium lamps, but as it continues to widen the CRI gap with other light sources, the much better quality of security camera imagery should weigh more heavily in LED’s favor.

Third, there is a growing body of scientific research around the impact on human health of artificial lights.  The Lighting Research Center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has long documented a positive correlation between light quality and the stress levels and general well-being in the workplace.

Many researchers have found fault with fluorescent lighting in particular, believing it to be poorly-representative of the full spectrum light characteristic of sunlight and also subject to flickering, strobing, and humming.  Several months ago, we replaced fluorescent tubes with LED tubes for a school for special needs children, and the Headmaster swears he has seen a marked behavioral improvement in the kids.

We encourage you to spend some time researching this topic because we suspect the evidence demonstrating negative health impacts from poor artificial lighting will proliferate.  While it’s true LED is an artificial light source, we think it has to be placed in the “high-quality” bucket for the following reasons:
    It doesn’t use a ballast, so there is no flickering, humming, or strobing
    It emits no Ultraviolet light and very little Infrared radiation (that is, heat)
    It can be manufactured with more precision along the electromagnetic spectrum.  

It measures the approximate number of hours that it will take for the light to reach 70% of its original lumen output.  When the label on an incandescent bulb package says its “rated life” is 1,500 hours, that is the approximate number of hours until it simply burns out.  With LEDs, although “burning out”—more accurately called “catastrophic failure”—does occur, it is very rare with high-quality products, and it is far more common for them to simply fade slowly over time.

This fading is called “lumen depreciation”, and the industry convention has been to peg a LED’s useful life as that point in time when it reaches 70% of its initial lumen output (called “L70”, if you’re curious).  In other words, the “end” of the LED’s useful life is when its lumen output drops 30% from its level on Day 1.

Mind you, we have seen plenty of instances where the photometrics we run show that L70 will EXCEED the current lumen output of the lamps the LED is replacing.  To illustrate, if we retrofit a metal halide lamp currently producing 2 footcandles in a parking lot with an LED that starts out at 3 footcandles, when it reaches L70 it will be producing 2.1 footcandles, which is still higher than before the retrofit!  And, remember, this LED lamp is regarded as at the “end” of its useful life at that L70 juncture.

No, of course not, and we’ll tell you when it’s not.  Our audit of your facility will enable us to provide you a financial payback of each fixture type, so you can decide which items make financial sense and which do not.  For example, LED replacement tubes for T8 fluorescents generally deliver unattractive paybacks if used 12 hours/day or fewer, but the financials for T12s are much more attractive, and a strong case can be made to replace T10s if financing and/or incentives are added to the equation.