Non-lighting-specialists face a learning curve, having to translate the familiar 40W, 60W, 75W, and 100W power levels into the language of brightness (respectively, about 450, 800, 1,100, and 1,600 lumens). They do, however, have some help: Manufacturers and the Energy Star program offer online overviews; and the Federal Trade Commission, through the Lighting Facts label program, requires packaging to display brightness, cost comparisons, longevity estimates, and (if applicable) presence of mercury. Commercial personnel who are specifying lamp choices are unlikely to find lumens-per-watt ratios intimidating, but it is also advisable to become conversant in candelas and color rendering index (CRI), Vedder says, particularly for PAR lamps in directional retail applications.
For a purchaser under time pressure whose circumstances rule out extensive research or sample testing, Energy Star ratings are a reliable guarantee of quality in screw-based lamps, notes Joseph Howley, industry relations leader for GE Appliance and Light. The important variables are built into the Energy Star specifications: lumen output, candlepower, lamp life, beam spread, chromaticity, color points, and startup time, which specifically can vary in fluorescents.
A key principle in all of these decisions is to assess the questions that an application presents rather than to take any one technology for a catch-all answer. “I’ve been around long enough to remember 30 years ago when MR16s came on the market,” Gonzalez says. “They were the new, hot thing, and the answer to every question was ‘low-voltage tungsten halogen,’ to the extent that it almost became a design mantra. It was no longer about ‘What do you like? What don’t you like? How do you light a space?’ It was ‘How do I put the MR16s in on the project?’ ” (But we should not underestimate the vitality of MR16s: They remain unregulated and are available in all three major varieties—halogen, fluorescent, and LED—and popular for their small size, range of beam angles, high CRI, and dimmability.)
As incandescent options fade away, halogens, CFLs, and LEDs become more viable alternatives. But informed observers caution that “equivalency” is a vague term, especially when it comes to color quality. Instead, they recommend tailoring features, savings, and timing to specific applications.
Halogens: Still Viable, but Not Optimal Long-Term
These lamps offer the simplest substitutions. “It’s just another resistive load on the circuit, and the same rules,” Vedder says. “If you want a complete, ‘I-don’t-have-to-think-about-how-it-works’ [decision], pull out an incandescent, stick in a halogen, and it’ll work just the same.” Up-front costs and complex research for a transition to LEDs may be enough of a hurdle in some settings that the “good-enough” option of substituting halogen lamps, offering about a 30 percent gain in efficiency, will be preferable.
Older halogens, however, will join incandescents among the phased-out lamps. Halogens in the PAR30 and PAR38 classes, Howley says, will require IR filament technology, silverized coating, or both to meet energy standards. Cheryl Ford, marketing manager for Osram Sylvania, notes that the 2009 IRL regulations call for replacing the majority of her company’s halogen line by July 2014. Osram Sylvania is pursuing a three-tier strategy with consumer lamps lasting 1,500 hours, a mid-range line lasting 3,000 hours, and a 4,500-hour model that will be of greatest interest to the commercial market. Among PAR38 lamps, there is a 30 percent improvement in efficiency—notable, though not competitive with the 80 percent savings from LED PAR38s.
There are also fewer suppliers in the halogen market than in other sectors, Vedder notes, because legislated requirements are harder to meet. Whereas ANSI tolerances for incandescents allowed 4 percent leeway plus half a watt (some 100W lamps, for example, actually drew 104.5), the “equivalent” 72W halogen has a firm maximum of 72W. Estimates of energy performance with halogens, however, should include their thermal effects. Even the new IR halogens, Vedder observes, waste about 70 percent of their wattage as heat, and they emit ultraviolet frequencies that can damage merchandise. Longevity in the 1,000-hour range makes current-generation halogens acceptable, but not ideal, replacements for incandescents in applications where familiar color rendering is a priority.
CFLs: Cheap, Easy, but Not Universally Loved
Opinions about these once-iconic spiral lamps vary widely. Still, the CFL has a stronghold on certain lighting types. Downlighting, however, is not one of them, Gonzalez says. With price points of CFL and LED products converging over the past three years, he says, “we haven’t specified a compact fluorescent downlight in our office for sometime.” But he views CFLs as appropriate substitutes for incandescents in restaurant and hotel applications, despite objections over their color temperature; he prefers a 3000K white over the common 2700K. A 13W CFL’s lamp life of 12,000 hours improves on a 60W incandescent’s 1,000, but it does not compete with an LED’s estimated 25,000 to 50,000 hours.
Though dimming is a persistent problem with CFLs, Gonzalez notes that major hospitality chains have standardized using switches instead of dimmers in their rooms. Dimmability has been an acceptable sacrifice for energy savings, which include indirect HVAC expenses.