6 Reasons Companies That Replace Their HID Lamps with LED Corn Bulbs Stand to Benefit

 

If your warehouse or production facility is still lit with traditional HID lamps like high-pressure sodium lamps or metal halide lamps, there’s a respite on the horizon that has an uncouth appearance: LED corn bulbs.

LED corn bulbs, also called corn cob lamps and corn cob LEDs among several other names, are light bulbs that have numerous LED emitters arranged around a central cylindrical “cob,” giving them an appearance that is not entirely dissimilar to a corn cob; hence the name.

But LED corn lights are purpose-driven and are not a flash in the pan. There are many significant reasons that LED corn lights are superior to HID lamps, the greatest of which we will cover here.

LED Corn Cob Lights Deliver Equivalent Color Temperature, Luminous Intensity, Color Rendering Index, and Faster Startup Times

First, LED corn bulbs are a great alternative to HID lamps because they offer a wide range of color temperatures, from warm red amber, warm white, and daylight white light to cool blue. Whatever is necessary given the requirements of your setting (and which HID lamps currently provide), there is a reasonable LED facsimile.

Second, LED corn bulbs offer excellent luminous performance and light output that is on par with (or even exceeds) the HID lamps they are designed to replace. LED lights offer excellent light output in all conditions and are powerful enough for wide-area illumination, such as in parking lots and as low and high bay lights. They can also offer either directional or omnidirectional lighting.

Additionally, LED lights (since they are available in a wide range of color temperatures and light outputs) also offer a very wide range of color-rendering indices. It is sometimes a concern that replacement lights won’t display colors with the same fidelity as, for example, HID or halogen lamps - but there are LEDs that will.

Finally, and to close out this section, LED light bulbs (not just LED corn bulbs) offer faster startup times in all conditions. HID bulbs can take as long as 30 seconds or more in cold conditions to reach their full brightness. LED lights, by contrast, reach their full brightness almost immediately.

LED Corn Bulbs Can Be Lit in Effectively Any Configuration

Some HID lamps must be burned in a specific configuration according to their manufacturer requirements. That is, some HID lamps must be burned base-up or base-down, whereas some must be mounted into light fixtures in a horizontal position.

Although, this might not be a concern if you are going to retrofit existing fixtures with retrofit LEDs, since replacing the light is effectively as straightforward as screwing it into the socket (just make sure you have a bulb with an appropriate bulb base, wattage, and ballast compatibility).

Lower Maintenance Costs

How can it be that one type of light bulb can have lower maintenance costs than another, when you simply screw them in, supply electrical power, and leave them be?

Because LED bulbs last prodigiously longer than all other forms of lighting, including HID lamps. Granted, HID lamps make a good showing and last for a long time, but nowhere near as long as LEDs.

Consider your average metal halide (MH) lamps, which by most reasonable estimates are considered very long-lived lamps. Most of these will last somewhere between 6,000 and 15,000 hours. Before LEDs, this was considered a long lifespan indeed.

LEDs, unfortunately, dwarf the lifespans even of MH lamps by comparison. On the low end, you can expect your average LED light to last about 25,000 hours. Many more last closer to 50,000, and some are rated to last nearly 100,000 hours.

But what does this have to do with maintenance costs? Well, one of the primary maintenance costs associated with lighting is replacing bulbs. If you have to replace your bulbs only a quarter as frequently, that’s a quarter the cost associated with replacement.

Lower Operating Costs

The most commonly encountered benefit of LEDs is the same here as it is in all other industries: energy efficiency.

No matter how you split it, LEDs save energy and are much more efficient than any other form of lighting.

Even HIDs, which by comparison to most other forms of lighting are relatively energy efficient, are outclassed and outshone by LEDs.

Consider metal halide lamps once more, which are actually nearly as efficient as LEDs in terms of lumens emitted to wattage consumed.

Even so, metal halide lamps typically deliver a system efficiency of about 30 lumens/watt or even lower. Compared to LED directionality and system efficiency that is typically higher than 50 lumens/watt, LEDs are twice as energy efficient as HID lamps - or even more.

Ultimately, this lowers energy consumption and utility costs for facilities that upgrade to LEDs.

Lower Cooling Costs

Another important advantage of LED lights when compared to HID lamps is that LEDs not only produce far less heat, they are better at cooling themselves.

HIDs burn hot enough to ignite fires and must be positioned in a conscientious manner so as to mitigate this risk. LEDs produce heat, but much less, and are rarely (if ever) implicated in fires.

Where this really becomes a concern, however, is actually with respect to cooling costs and not a fire risk.

Facilities like malls, institutions, and high and low bays that use HID lights stand to save substantially on cooling costs through the hotter periods of the year because they won’t have to burn electricity simultaneously to heat (LEDs) and cool (HVAC) a setting.

Simplified Disposal; Lower Associated Expenses

Finally, HID lamps like mercury vapor lamps and high and low-pressure sodium lamps contain toxic metals like (namely) mercury and sodium. This can complicate disposal and drive up associated costs.

LEDs do not contain any toxic components and in fact, many of the materials used to produce them (plastic, aluminum, and semiconductor materials) can either be reused or recycled, making LEDs the green alternative to toxic HID lamps.

For businesses, what this really comes down to is cost savings. Not only will LED corn bulbs last longer, produce less heat, and consume less energy than HID lamps - it may even cost less to throw them away!

Upgrade Your HID Lamps with LED Corn Bulbs: Set the Goal Today

Though it might seem cost-prohibitive and time-consuming to develop a plan to phase out HID lamps in favor of LED corn bulb replacements, the benefits in the long term, for many businesses, outweigh the cost of the initial investments.

If you have any questions about the sorts of LED corn bulbs we sell, with respect to specification, performance, fixture compatibility, or the HID lights they are designed to replace, get in touch with us at 800-966-2345.