Greentech Lead America: LEDs are the next big thing in commercial lighting, and GE has unveiled five commercial lighting trends that will dominate the year ahead.
“The next 24 months will be a pivotal period because our work on commercial LED solutions the last decade has enabled new thinking about LED-based residential lighting,” said Jaime Irick, general manager of North American professional solutions, GE Lighting.
The five commercial lighting trends for the coming year are:
1. Saving where customers don’t see
Increased lumen output has made commercial LED lighting a viable investment. It is more energy-efficient than traditional fluorescent and high-intensity (HID) systems. A new generation of industrial-strength LED lighting delivers the “punch” to illuminate spacious work and storage environments.
Facility owners also appreciate the maintenance advantage of LED lighting in high bay applications—typically four times longer lived than conventional light sources.
According to GE, approximately 1,500 warehouses in the U.S. now have LED lighting.
“From facility management to city planning, reaching new heights in low energy use has been made possible by continued commercial lighting innovation,” said Irick. “Highly efficient high-output fixtures, controls that capture critical data and LED options you never knew about all are factors in a brighter energy future for business.”
2. Advanced energy management
Facility managers know that reducing energy use is no small task. Lighting and heating/cooling systems are the two biggest energy consumers in U.S. office buildings, according to a 2012 U.S. Department of Energy report. Together, lighting (20 percent) and heating/cooling (28 percent) can account for 48 percent of a building’s total energy consumption.
“Operating separately, a lighting control and building automation system must be monitored and adjusted regularly. When integrated, however, these platforms can communicate seamlessly to optimize efficiency,” says Irick.
Integrated systems enable automatic adjustments for changing outdoor conditions, smarter scheduling of building operations and the generation of on-demand energy usage reports, even from off site.
“New centralized systems also allow for advanced monitoring and reporting of lighting, heating and cooling operations,” notes Irick. “Lighting control solutions available today work in direct conjunction with a building automation system, giving users a combined approach for combating the biggest energy costs in buildings.”
3. Lighting and ceilings working together
Designers of retail and office environments have long been constrained by conventional T-grid ceiling schemes—replicating the familiar grid-like layout across all manner of spaces often as a matter of function over form. Today, a new category of ceiling is bringing style to uninspired areas.
Integrated ceiling systems concentrate lighting and other utilities in narrow bands running the length of the room. This gives architects the freedom to create imaginative layouts that are no less accommodating to standard maintenance operations.
4. Designer LED fixtures
LED technology offers new freedom in fixture design. Both linear luminaires and illuminated pendants are realities in a new era of aesthetically pleasing options. Chic, ultra-thin and strikingly sculpted, retailers, hoteliers and restaurateurs alike are choosing from a growing cast of bulb-less beauties to light up their sets.
5. Smarter LED streetlights
In increasing numbers of cities big and small, traffic managers and council members are weighing the value of conversions to LED street lighting. Besides significant energy and maintenance cost savings, the optical advantages of LED illumination here again allow fixtures that better aim light where it’s needed.
Where 400- and 1,000-watt HID fixtures have lined roadways for generations, new white LED lights using 200 watts and less are popping up across America. Some cities spend as much as 60 percent of electricity consumption on street lighting. New fixtures like GE’s Evolve™ LED Scalable Cobrahead seek to balance this budget with more pavement distribution patterns suiting a wider range of roadway classifications.
“Outside the home, the impact of bright, energy-efficient LED lighting and intelligent controls can be applied, experienced, seen and appreciated nearly everywhere you look today,” added Irick.