Hello !!
after a long time without writing in the blog (bureaucracy and people who wants to keep the secrets for saving the world for them….uuuuuuh this is not good folks !! ) here I am again to share with you all my latest experiences in LED lighting.
I want to open a forum to discuss what do you think the customers are looking for in LED lighting lamps and luminaires, do you think they are looking for lm/W based on a long therm analysis or they are looking for the lm/€ based on a short term ROI and that they know the price of the technology will fall during next years and then they will already received their money back and will be ready to invest again ???
this is the question today:
If you do some calculations you can see that for having an extra 10% in lm/W your cost will go up for a 14% and the difference is much higher when you want to achieve the best available lm/w.
and when you want to go for the highest lm/w of the luminaire or LED you will be paying and extra 45% for having and extra 30% performance in lm/W but remember lumens still remains the same. You are only getting benefit on the long therm
Let’s see and example:
We study 2 luminaires or lamps with 2 different lm/w and prices, let’s assume a difference on initial price of about 45% and the lm/W difference is 33%.
if we calculate the total cost of the luminaire at the end of life (let’s say 50.000 hours for a very good luminaire or lamp) the difference between having higher lm/w or lower lm/w is the same.
The only parameter that can make difference is the initial cost and difference in lm/W
but pay attention to energy costs that can be one of the key points to choose one or another system. Experts says the energy will go up and up for the next years.
Ok, I have done some simulations:
What we can see is that is very important to choose the best lm/w efficiency today for a lamp or luminaire because the lifetime is too long and the possibilities that the energy price decline are too low.
And have a look that if the energy cost goes up the initial benefit of buying a low cost LED model will result in a very bad investment.
my personal opinion is that people who is looking for a long therm installations should look for the best lumens/watt available in the market and install this luminaires, because 50.000hours is about 13 years full time and the energy is every year expensive and more expensive and the problem is not the cost of purchase is the cost during use.
For people who is thinking in an installation for 2-5 years and then renew it for a new one, my opinion is that the best option is to buy the cheapest products that should be the worst in lm/w but the best in cost at the total life of 10.000hours for example.
Let’s discuss about it !
Thanks for sharing,
Marc,
LEDs for PRO 