High bay Lighting trends

Skeletal frameworks installed in some facilities form interior subspaces called bays, often characterized as High Bay Led Lighting (>20 ft. off the floor) or low-bay (<20 ft.). Such high-ceiling applications are common in industrial, warehouse, big-box retail, convention center, and gymnasiums. General lighting installed in high-bay applications typically involves high-output luminaires emitting 15,000 up to 100,000 lumens per luminaire. These luminaires often operate at least 12 hours per day, making them good candidates for energy-saving options for both retrofit and new construction.

Traditionally, high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps dominated this large market, which saw significant displacement in retrofits based on high-output linear fluorescent. In recent years, High Bay Led Lightingmanufacturers rolled out LED high-bay luminaires that promise high energy savings compared to both options, along with other significant advantages such as superior life and controllability.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) estimated LED penetration at less than 10 percent of the overall installed industrial lighting base in 2016 (up from 6 percent in 2015), indicating a sizable estimated retrofit opportunity of 82.4 million high- and low-bay luminaires. In new construction, the High Bay Led Lighting big drivers are energy codes and energy-saving opportunities, while in retrofit, the big drivers are utility rebates supporting LED technology, particularly premium efficiency luminaires and controls, along with regulations that are restricting available of less-efficient lamps and ballasts.

“In terms of performance, LED high-bays are leading the way for all indoor fixtures,” said Eric Meadows, Global Product Manager Industrial LED, High Bay Led Lighting Current by GE. “Several years ago, I don’t think you’d really be able to claim that LED fixtures could compete with T5 fluorescent lamps, and really the industry was primarily targeting 250/400W HID products for LED replacement. Today, we are absolutely going after the most efficient fluorescent technologies in retrofit as well as new construction and having incredible success due to the price-performance combination available today.” High Bay Led Lighting

Meadows added that typical LED luminaires are generating about 50 percent energy cost savings compared to HID and 30-40 percent against fluorescent. Premium-performance options offered by the top-tier manufacturers are going even further, saving 70-80 percent over HID and 55 percent over fluorescent. The best-performing products, he pointed out, are edging close to High Bay Led Lighting technology’s theoretical maximum efficiency in a practical application. As of September 2017, the most efficacious product listed in DoE’s Lighting Facts database was a 108W high-bay luminaire emitting more than 22,000 lumens, resulting in an efficacy of 210 lumens/W.

“There is a vast range of LED high-bays available on the market today that feature a variety of options for light output, size, optics, wattages, CRI [color rendering index], and CCT [correlated color temperature],” said Joe Engle, Product Manager, New Product Innovation, Hubbell Lighting. High Bay Led Lighting “Controls integration and compatibility continues to progress quickly, and we’re now using drivers with 0-10V control leads to ensure they are control-enabled. It’s likely there is an efficient, reliable, and affordable LED high-bay for every application.”