What is coming after LED?
When LED hit the lighting scene in a big way 15 years ago, many thought that there could be nothing to improve on it. As innovation ramped up and the product improved, the LED manufacturers built a strong wall around performance and efficiency making it a high bar to improve on. With the history of […]
What do I need to know before replacing Metal Halide with LED fittings?
The past 10 years has seen a huge shift from traditional Metal Halide fittings over to digital lighting in the form of LED. This shift has not been fast nor smooth, with many issues occurring along the way. The first issue for big-area and sport LED was the fact that the metal halide fittings were […]
Have LED lights improved over the past 10 years?
We often get the question as to how LED lights have improved and evolved over the past few years. If we take a quick look backwards, LED really only started to hit mainstream around 2011. Up to that point we were still installing halogen downlights and replacing 60W bulbs with low energy fluorescents which seemingly […]
What will it cost to install lighting for a sports club
For (almost!) every sport played in the country, there is an Australian Standard AS2560.2 which governs recommended lux levels (how much light) and uniformity (evenness of light). The main deciding factors are how fast is the ball moving and how big is the ball. For this reason the recommended lux levels for tennis are much […]
What is sail area for LED lighting and does it matter?
The sail area of LED light can be understood by thinking of a ships’ sails. When the sails are up (greater sail area), they catch the wind, and the boat moves forward. When the sails are down (lower sail area), there is much less resistance to the wind and therefore the boat doesn’t move. In […]
What is the difference between anodising and powder coating for aluminium heatsinks?
The three main coating methods for aluminium heatsinks are anodising, powder coating and wet spray. Both have benefits over the other so it’s important to choose the right one for your application. Often, a combination of the two are found in the same lamp due to these differences in characteristics. Anodising This is an electrolytic […]
Why are most LED lighting heatsinks made from aluminium and how are they formed?
When choosing a heatsink the manufacturer has to balance performance, cost and weight. Some metals like gold and platinum have excellent heat-sinking capabilities but are very expensive. Others, like copper, are not overly expensive, but very heavy. Aluminium, as it turns out, is a good balance of all three main characteristics. Aluminium is readily available, […]
What are the most important factors in determining efficiency of an LED light?
Efficiency is often thought of as lumens per watt i.e. how much light do we get out (lumens) vs how much energy we put in. However there a few aspects which need to be considered before this seemingly obvious question can be answered. Firstly we need to establish what the manufacturers are referring to when […]
How do you know if an LED light is ‘efficient’?
When we talk about efficiency there are a number of elements to this which we need to understand before commenting on ‘efficiency’. In different industries, efficiency has different meanings. In a warehouse high bay, efficiency means using a small amount of energy to get a good amount of light as the lights are on for […]
Can I retrofit LED lighting to existing poles?
When considering changing lights to LED one of the first considerations should be if the poles can be reused. It’s important to note that this is not, or should not, be a compromise. Done correctly, there is no downside to reusing the poles and can often allow you to direct the savings to other projects […]