LED Work Lighting Helps Contractors Get the Job Done
Chuck Ross
It truly amazes me how LEDs have transformed the lighting industry in just a decade. In 2012, manufacturers introduced the first bulbs to match the output of a standard 60W incandescent. They weren’t dimmable and could cost $25 or more. Fast forward to 2023, and LEDs now dominate the lighting market, and inexpensive replacement lamps can cost less than $5 and last 10-20 years. Of course, you can still pay $20 or more for more sophisticated products, but they come with features like color shifting that only top-end lighting designers could have created a decade ago. Of course, LEDs also have spread well beyond illuminating our homes. For example, work lighting also has benefited from the energy efficiency and longevity the new technology provides.
Work lighting for jobsites often used HID light sources in the past. These were definitely high-output products, but they certainly didn’t qualify as efficient. Jon Fredrikson, brand marketing director for LED manufacturer Light Efficient Design, says advantages reach beyond the fixtures’ operating costs.
“The energy savings are the easiest to pinpoint – typically you will see about a 70% savings in energy consumption switching to LED,” he says. “With that, lifespan and maintenance of HIDs are the “X” factor – if you need to spend a considerable amount of time and energy to replace HID lamps every few years, that can add up quickly.”
LEDs now predominate in both styles of jobsite fixtures, standalone and daisy-chained products. Fredrikson says these options each have advantages for specific applications.
“I’ve seen them both used in applications like construction at a major airport and sidewalk illumination in big cities while work is taking place above,” he says. “Individually the standalone work lights are brighter, while the string lights don’t have quite the same lumen output per light.”
Work lighting for jobsites often used HID light sources in the past. These were definitely high-output products, but they certainly didn’t qualify as efficient. Jon Fredrikson, brand marketing director for LED manufacturer Light Efficient Design, says advantages reach beyond the fixtures’ operating costs.
“The energy savings are the easiest to pinpoint – typically you will see about a 70% savings in energy consumption switching to LED,” he says. “With that, lifespan and maintenance of HIDs are the “X” factor – if you need to spend a considerable amount of time and energy to replace HID lamps every few years, that can add up quickly.”
LEDs now predominate in both styles of jobsite fixtures, standalone and daisy-chained products. Fredrikson says these options each have advantages for specific applications.
“I’ve seen them both used in applications like construction at a major airport and sidewalk illumination in big cities while work is taking place above,” he says. “Individually the standalone work lights are brighter, while the string lights don’t have quite the same lumen output per light.”
Photo courtesy of Light Efficient Design
