LED Lighting in Forecourt Canopies – An informed View

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Introduction

For over 12 years, Chalmor has been leading the way in forecourt energy savings. Chalmor’s Endurance induction lamp fittings offer proven technology; forecourt pioneers that installed this technology ten years ago still report no failures!

Canopy lighting costs and efficiency levels are coming under ever-increasing scrutiny, as companies spend anything between 30 and 60 per cent of their electricity budgets on lighting alone. Most petrol retailers are looking at three main options for their needs. These are inexpensive metal halide lamps, induction lamps and light emitting diodes (LEDs).

How they work

• Metal halide (MH) lamps consist of an arc tube (also called a discharge tube or “burner”) within an outer envelope, or bulb. The arc tube may be made of either quartz or ceramic and contains a starting gas (usually argon), mercury, and MH salts. Traditional quartz MH arc tubes are similar in shape to mercury vapor (MV) arc tubes, but they operate at higher temperatures and pressures. Typically lamps have a life expectancy of 15,000 hrs and very efficient initially, but depreciate heavily over their life.
• Induction is the process of transmitting energy via an electro-magnetic field. The light emitting gas inside the lamps is energized by passing alternating current through a coil, or inductor. Induction lamps are similar to regular fluorescent lamps, but they don’t have electrical contacts to conduct electricity from the fixture to the light-emitting gas inside the lamp. Additionally with a lamp life of greater than 60,000 hours and efficiency maintained throughout their life they are a popular solution.
• LED lighting is based on semiconductor diodes. When a diode is switched on, electrons are able to recombine with holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence. The colour of the light is determined by the energy gap of the semiconductor. For commercial lighting, there are two main methods of producing high intensity white-light using LEDs. One is to use individual LEDs that combine red, green, and blue light to produce white light. The other is to use a phosphor material to convert monochromatic light from a blue or Ultraviolet LED to broad-spectrum white light, in a similar way to a fluorescent light lamp. The useful life of an LED is typically 50,000 hours, subject to the environment placed. LED’s are the least efficient of the three, but maintain their performance relativity well throughout their life.

Metal Halide v Induction

Although Metal Halide fittings may appear to be a cheap solution they have three major disadvantages, it is difficult to control fittings in line with occupancy and daylight, lamps are lower efficacy and shorter life compared to the other HID sources.

The below table: Shows typical energy savings achieved by installing Chalmor’s Endurance fitting and Chalmor’s Universal Lighting Controller (UNI –L) against Metal Halide fittings.

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