Although Light-emitting Diode (LED) lighting is commonly used in bicycle lights, torches, traffic lights, garden lights and exit signs, it is fluorescent lighting that largely dominates commercial settings. However, Director of commercial energy consultancy CarbonetiX Bruce Rowse believes that LED lighting could be widely used in commercial settings as soon as 2015.

LED lighting 101

LED lighting is a more efficient alternative to fluorescent lighting. The light cast from a LED lamp is highly directional, which prevents wastage. Unlike fluorescent lighting – which in some cases emits only 56 lumens of useful light per watt – almost all of the light produced by an LED lamp is useful. LED lighting has immediate full brightness when switched on, and also has a very long life, typically in the vicinity of 30,000 to 50,000 hours.

Why is LED lighting not installed everywhere?

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There are currently several barriers to the widespread installation of LED lighting in commercial settings. These include high costs (LED tubes range from $50 to $120, compared to the $5 cost of a standard fluorescent tube), exaggerated performance claims from manufacturers, and continuing uncertainty about the life of LED lighting due to the relative youth of the technology.

Executive Director of LED provider Lightsense Duncan Macpherson says “The comparative cost [of LED lighting] is obviously a barrier, despite the longevity of LED technology verses traditional fluorescents.

“Decisions are still based on upfront capital cost rather than being seen to be green.”

Product manager of the Australian branch of LED manufacturer enLighten David Whitfield has concerns about the hazards involved in installing poorly designed LED lighting in Australian workplaces.

How is the technology improving?

As LED technology steadily improves these barriers are subsiding.

“Prices are on a downward trend,” says Mr Rowse, adding that experts suggest that by 2015 prices would be in the vicinity of $20 to $30 per tube.

“Assuming that energy use can be Y then halved by using LED tubes whilst providing similar illumination, the payback in energy savings is likely to be in the order of three years for a typical office, or lower once maintenance cost savings from longer lamp life are considered,” says Mr Rowse.

Developing LED standards

There is also a move towards certification, driven by companies and government in the US, that could offer industry transparency by standardising manufacturer claims, which Mr Rowse says are often exaggerated.

Furthermore, according to Mr Whitfield, reforms are taking place in our own backyard, with Australia’s Electrical Regulatory Authorities Council requesting Standards Australia examine LED lighting issues.

This is in addition to the continuing technological improvements in LED lighting, which serve to widen the gap between fluorescent and LED even further.

“Notwithstanding exaggerated performance claims, lamp luminous efficacy is improving,” says Mr Rowse.

“Our experience in testing LEDs over the last two years has shown a great improvement in LED efficacy over that time.”

He predicts that by 2015 LED tubes will be widely available from electrical wholesalers and retailers, and that there will be a proliferation of new high performing buildings with smart LED-based lighting systems.

“Based on current interest, government incentives and rapidly reducing price, we would probably agree,” says Mr Macpherson from Lightsense.

He cites the successful refitting of a commercial building in Perth’s prestigious St George’s Terrace as an example of the momentum that is already building behind LED lighting. The owners decided to undertake the retrofit, which involved replacing existing lighting with LEDs, using the Federal Government’s Green Building Fund grants.

“The owners have achieved greater than 50 per cent savings on lighting in their first billing period since the upgrade,” says Mr Macpherson.