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Author: Art Icklewright

Due the wide and varied nature of commercial premises e.g. factories, offices, public spaces, commercial lighting is in fact a broad term. What this kind of lighting has in common with domestic lighting is the need to save money, energy, and the environment without reducing the quality of the lighting. Commercial and domestic settings are also both subject to the new EU ruling which came into force in September to phase out incandescent bulbs in favour of more energy efficient energy saving bulbs and lamps / halogen and CFL bulbs.

Many of us may be familiar with the use of fluorescent lamps in e.g. office spaces. These gas discharge lamps combine the electricity with mercury in lamps / tubes to turn the ultra violet light produced into visible light that comes from the fluorescent effect generated by this reaction. Despite their bulkiness, these are much more energy efficient than incandescent lamps / bulbs.

Other familiar commercial settings for most of us are shops. These could use a combination of light sources, but to pick an example, retail high street clothing or gift shops will need long lasting, reliable, energy efficient bright lights for displays and accent lighting, preferably that don’t produce too much heat. Low voltage dichroic lamps work well for track and display lighting, are compact, have high efficacy and require low voltage. These multifaceted reflector lamps (MR) are compact and therefore flexible in how they can be deployed.

LED lamps can also be very compact, and they can provide a bright focused light source that doesn’t give off heat because they don’t use heated filament and gas combinations to produce the light. For this reason they could be used to provide light near to products on sale to enhance their appearance, without fear of damaging the products.

Other large public spaces, entertainment venues e.g. theatres, concert halls, stadiums etc, are likely to use intensely bright lamps that can light large areas if necessary such as (pressurized) metal halide lamps and parabolic aluminized reflector lamps (PAR lamps).

Although there are lamps most likely to appear only in some larger commercial settings, it is likely that most commercial lighting will involve a combination of lighting types which also have domestic applications.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/what-is-commercial-lighting-1680882.html

About the Author

Art Icklewright is an author specialising in lighting and light bulbs of all kind including low energy light bulbs, energy saving light bulbs and G9 bulbs.

Originally posted 2011-03-20 10:01:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

FPL downplays the impact of lighting on electric bills, with a page on its Web site that says “lighting is not typically a major user of energy in most homes [the average cost is $70 a year].” An energy calculator on the same page shows it costs $64.80 a month to burn 15 100-watt bulbs 12 hours a day. Comparable lighting produced by CFL bulbs would cost around $15 a month.

I went around my house the other day and counted 33 incandescent bulbs.

Forget the mall. This holiday season, I’m headed to the hardware store.

Michael Mayo’s column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at mmayo@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4508.

From Sun Sentinel - 12/21/08

President-elect Barack Obama has talked about turning the White House into the Green House and making energy efficiency in federal buildings and public schools a top priority.

“Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that,” Obama said in a Dec. 6 address. “We will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy efficient … by replacing heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs.”

Light bulbs? I had this picture in my mind of Obama and Al Gore standing on ladders, fiddling with every fixture around Washington, D.C.

I mean, how much can really be done by changing light bulbs?

Turns out a lot.

Just ask Giacomo Dresseno, longtime chef-owner of Primavera Restaurant in Oakland Park. Facing an economic downturn in a business with a slim profit margin, Dresseno decided to do something when his FPL bills climbed to nearly $3,000 a month last year.

He went green, switching hundreds of incandescent bulbs to the latest in Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. He also got rid of some inefficient refrigerators.

The bottom line: His latest electric bill was $1,400, a 50 percent drop from its peak.

“It’s saving me $15,000 a year,” Dresseno said as he showed me the new lighting around the restaurant.

That’s a lotta pasta.

“It seems like a lot of work, but it’s not,” Dresseno said. “The technology is there, and it’s not that expensive.”

The only drawback: CFL bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, so if the bulb breaks it can be a hazard and a hassle.

Dresseno said he has spent less than a thousand dollars on the upgrades, an investment that paid for itself in less than a month. He showed me the new bulbs in the kitchen, with eight fluorescent fixtures drawing only 64 watts each, compared to 240 watts used by the old ones.

He showed off the women’s bathroom, where 45 watts’ worth of LED bulbs does the job that 480 watts of incandescent bulbs used to do.

Dresseno spoke about the ripple effects. “Feel this,” he said, as he unscrewed an LED bulb with his bare hand. It was warm to the touch, about 120 degrees, but it didn’t burn like an incandescent bulb. All those bulbs producing less heat means the air conditioning doesn’t kick on as much.

So maybe there is something to this, something simple and concrete most businesses and homes can do right now without installing expensive solar panels or building a windmill on the front lawn.

“I feel like it’s politically correct, it’s the right thing to do,” said Dresseno, originally from Lake Como, Italy. “And it puts more money in my pocket and less in FPL’s.”

Now that’s change we can believe in. Saving the planet is one thing, but getting revenge on our favorite utility by denting FPL’s bottom line should make this irresistible for South Floridians.

Originally posted 2009-04-18 09:29:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter