The Case for LED Tube Lighting

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Our Sales & Marketing Director, Saima Shafi, has a featured column in this month’s Water, Energy & Environment Magazine discussing LED tube lighting:

For over 50 years, fluorescent tubes have been a reliable and effective means of lighting an enormous range of domestic, commercial and industrial environments. Applications are almost limitless – from the home to the classroom, from the office to the hospital, from the shop to the restaurant and beyond.

This universal acceptance of, and reliance on, fluorescent tubes was based, understandably, on good performance, reliability, availability and the lack of any feasible alternative. However, the first few years of the 21st Century heralded a challenge to the all-conquering fluorescent tube with the arrival and development of LED lighting technology.

It’s probably true to say that the single most significant fact regarding LED lighting is its potential to help users achieve huge energy savings. Reductions in energy costs by switching to LED lighting can range from 50% up to 90% depending on the application. These savings then translate to extremely short payback times so, at the very least, the argument to consider LED lighting is compelling.

Jaguar Land Rover Goodlight LED Installation

Unsurprisingly, the principal advantage that fluorescent tubes have over LED equivalents is their familiarity. Having been commonplace for decades, they have earned the trust of users all over the world. It’s this issue of trust that LED tubes need to overcome if they are to be accepted and, indeed, welcomed in the future. Users need to be confident not only in the product, including its performance and reliability, but also in the suppliers of this burgeoning technology.

Of course, trust cannot be achieved overnight especially when one considers many people’s reluctance to try something new. It’s easy to say ‘You’ll really appreciate it once you’ve tried it’ but how do you persuade someone to take that all-important step of faith? Actually, that’s a lot easier than you may imagine. Any reputable supplier will allow customers to ‘try before you buy’ thereby enabling them to accurately gauge performance plus energy and carbon savings before embarking on a full scale installation. At that point, these same suppliers will provide specially designed financial deals that often cover the cost of the installation using the money saved as the new lighting is being used. In his way, it can be possible to eliminate the need for any monetary investment to be made in advance.

Another element of trust is reliability. Again, a reputable supplier will be keen to show you existing LED tubes installations and provide details of energy and carbon savings. Furthermore, these suppliers will also offer genuine guarantees for their products based on actual performance data over many years. Beware of the supplier who’s been trading for a few months but is happy to match, or even beat, the lengthy and comprehensive guarantees offered by his much more experienced and longer established competitors.

In conclusion, I would advise anyone to allow LED tubes the opportunity to prove themselves in almost every application. I’m confident that they will provide measurable energy and carbon savings plus extremely short payback periods.

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