What is the difference between traditional fluorescent light and induction light?
An induction light is similar to a fluorescent light in that mercury in a gas fill inside the bulb is excited, emitting UV radiation that in turn is converted into visible white light by the phosphor coating on the bulb. Like fluorescent, the phosphor coating determines the color qualities of the light. Fluorescent lamps use electrodes to strike the arc and initiate the flow of current through the lamp, which excites the gas fill. Each time voltage is supplied by the ballast and the arc is struck, the electrodes degrade a little, eventually causing the lamp to fail. Induction lamps do not use electrodes. Instead of a ballast, the system uses a high-frequency generator with a power coupler. The generator produces a radio frequency magnetic field to excite gas fill. With no electrodes, the lamp lasts longer. Induction lamps, in fact, last up to 100,000 hours, with the lamp producing 70% of its light output at 60,000 hours. In other words, their rated life is 5-13 times longer than metal halide (7,500 to 20,000 hours at 10 hours/start) and about seven times longer than T12HO fluorescent (at 10 hours/start).
How efficient or energy saving is it?
While induction lamps can generate more lumens per watt compared to metal halides (80 v. 70), it is not as efficient as T5’s that powers 100+ lumens per watt.
What kind of application is induction lighting for?
Induction lamps are ideally suited for high-ceiling applications where the lamps are difficult, costly or hazardous to access. They are also ideally suited for such applications where the advantages of fluorescent lighting are sought but a light source is needed that can start and operate efficiently in extremely cold temperatures. As a result, induction lighting is a suitable for a wide range of applications, including not only warehouses, industrial buildings, cafeterias, gymnasiums, etc., but also signage, tunnels, bridges, roadways, outdoor area and security fixtures, parking garages, public spaces, and freezer and cold storage lighting.
For some applications, well-designed linear induction hi-bays are better than well-designed HID hi-bays with regard to glare, contrast ratios and vertical foot candles. Here are two examples. Imagine yourself playing volleyball. As you follow the high arching ball coming towards you, would you prefer having to look up into a point source HID bi-bay or a 4ft long induction hi-bay with one 400W lamp? Imagine yourself as a forklift driver having to deal with vertical surfaces and load and unload pallets in high warehouse racks. Compare vertical foot candles with well-designed 4-ft., 8-ft. or extended-row linear induction hi-bays mounted in the middle of rack aisle row parallel to the racks with well-designed HID hi-bays mounted in the middle of rack aisle row. Envision how easily a loaded pallet can block the light from the point source HID lamp.
What are the increased costs to use induction lighting?
The increased costs occurs in the induction systems themselves – which could be 5 to 6 times more than metal halide systems, and also in new fixtures, which can inflate payback periods and reduce return on investment. But you also generally get a 30% reduction in capital and operating costs immediately from the reduced number of fixtures made possible by the higher light output. You also get 15% more efficiency just because the induction system (lamp and electronic ballast) is more efficient. Apply that over ten years plus replacement and maintenance costs and suddenly it makes a lot of sense to go into induction lighting systems.
What advantages are there for induction lights v. metal halides
I think the biggest advantage that induction lighting has over metal halides is the ability to instantly start and shut off. The reason I said that is because we see the fastest growing replacement of metal halides to induction in areas like tunnel and street lighting. Why? Because a driver driving at 55mph cannot afford to be inside a pitch dark tunnel for more than 2 minutes waiting for the metal halides to restart! Many tunnel lighting fixtures have an emergency direct current backup where the light will run on batteries until the electrical power is back up. Metal halides, once turned off in an outage require a cooling off period for the gases to return to a solid state before it can restart itself. A solution to this problem is to install fluorescent lamps such as T5’s or CFL lamps, as emergency lamps that will light up immediately. But that in turn increases the installation of fixtures and lights, as well as periodically testing these back up lamps to see if they are still functional. Not to mention that these are usually installed in minimum quantities and in low wattages that barely suffice as emergency lighting. Our tunnel fixture installed with SOLARA ILS will switch to DC power immediately and keep the tunnel lit as if nothing has happened.
Another advantage induction lighting has over metal halide is lumen maintenance. Most significantly, at 40% of service life, metal halide’s light output and efficacy experience severe degradation. A 400W metal halide lamp, for example, may initially produce 36,000 lumens but just 25,000 at 40% of life, a 30% decline. Therefore, unless the lamps are periodically group-relamped, a large system’s “average” performance over time is much lower than its initial ratings. Tests on the 400W SOLARA ILS on the other side, retains 82% output after 20,000 hours (that’s already more than the rated hours on metal halides) and still puts out 70% of initial lumens after 60,000 hours. You would have replaced at least 6 metal halide bulbs by then and the last bulb will be running at 50% output.
How does induction light compare with LED?
LED is a very interesting product, as most of the distributors and customers we are working with have LED technology as part of their business, so we have had many discussions with them about how the two lighting technologies work together and against each other.
The basics:
- LED works great with wattages under 25W – it is efficient and long life and simple to integrate, but at higher wattages where you
start packing 20+ to even 200 LED’s together, the system efficiency deteriorates, heats goes wild, and the life expectancy of the
PCB, well, you know the story. - Induction lighting comes in cheaper and more effective above 40W (at the moment, as LED technology continues to improve), the life expectancy is as long as LED in theory, and realistically 60000 hours on the lamp, 35000 hours on the ballast. Therefore we provide a 5 year warranty on our lamps and a 2 or 3 year warranty on our ballasts, these warranties carry a free replacement of the defective unit.
- Induction lighting is currently around 65-92 lumens per watt – the variance largely due to the application, wattage and powder
mixture. The difference is, this is a actual reading inside a lighting sphere versus laboratory measurements of single naked LED’s –
this is one of the largest arguments in LED marketing as they are produced by semiconductor manufacturers and do not conform to
traditional lighting standards.
Most of our customers – especially system integrators of power management systems and green energy saving consultants – find that combining LED with Induction lighting provides their customers the best available energy efficient solution that exists in today’s market. Both are long lasting and energy efficient, with more room for improvement, and can be managed easily. By managed easily I mean
- Both technologies can be controlled via DALI or other gears – both are dimmable (SOLARA ILS is a dimmable induction lamp) at the system wattage level so that real energy savings is achieved.
- Both technologies are relatively cooler sources of lighting – SOLARA ILS operates at 60-80 degrees Celsius, similar to that of a T4
tube. This greatly reduces the load on a facility’s HVAC running costs. - SOLARA ILS has a power factor of 99% and THD of 5% or less – clean power, less resistance, cheaper wiring infrastructure (often
ignored) and less aging of the wiring. - Both technologies have a much longer service life – making maintenance less frequent. This is a great win for those integrators
operating a performance based contract with a maintenance subcontract. - Lastly, you can finally find reputable companies in both technologies in terms of designing, engineering and manufacturing because both technologies are maturing rapidly. OPTILED, for instance, is one of our customer’s favorite, and they also OEM for Philips. Our customers like to compliment their lighting products with our induction lighting systems because both companies are dedicated to engineering the whole product rather than just producing the lighting source. Even the largest lighting companies in the world will deny accountability and warranties when you paired their lights with 3rd party fixtures. Sadly, neither Philips or Osram produces induction light fixtures.
We all know that LED’s are currently not considered for general lighting purposes because of its limited brightness and poor color rendering, but this is compensated by its high reliability and high color temperature. It is still a common mistake that many people make thinking that higher color temperature, say 6000k, means higher brightness.
LED however, does have the same theoretical lifespan of 100,000 plus hours as induction light, given that the integrated chip does not fail before the diode. Many LED manufacturers neglect to fit a decent high temperature IC or integrate some kind of heat dissipation device and it’s common for Chinese LED lights and fixtures to fail after only 1,000 hours.
Induction light on the other hand, offers the same stability and lifespan as LEDs but is available in much higher wattages and brightness that it can truly replace incandescent and discharge lamps as the next revolutionary lighting source. In the end, both are emerging technologies and are getting as much attention and improvements as the other so you can expect these problems to be corrected in the near future.
What about T5?
The T5 is a very effective fluorescent light because it tops 100 lumens per watt whereas the SOLARA ILS generates between 80 and 85 lumens per watt. The only problem is T5 is not available in higher wattages – you can generally find a T5 tube up to 58W, but there is a German manufacturer that produces a 90W T5 at a relatively high price. When you are limited to small wattages, you have no choice but to use multiple tubes together to increase the total lumens output, hence increasing your material costs in terms of additional inventory and lighting fixtures.
What are the advantages of switching?
There are several advantages to using induction lights. The extremely long rated life for one and energy saving for another. But the 4 most important advantages for Amko's SOLARA lights are the savings from a ridiculously extended service life, the highest wattage outputs (up to 400 watts) amongst induction lighting systems, proprietary heat dissipation designs, and dimmable electronic ballasts.
The costs associated with servicing a lamp, say street lamp, include the replacement bulbs, the service crew, and the economic losses incurred when a lamp is out or produces too little light as it approaches the end of its service life (i.e. a store sign that won't lit, a dark corner at the shop floor, losing business to a new competitor with a bright and clean environment, and lastly, accidents). What's more are the costs of warehousing that inventory, the logistic costs, the overhead costs of keeping a relatively large service crew such as training, insurance, salaries, etc. Using a lamp with a longer service lifespan means you can maintain a smaller crew and waste less time on organizing regular maintenances and the associated logistics. It gives management more flexibility and quick operations.
The higher wattage lamps make replacement for high-bay metal halide solutions even more convincing. Higher wattage means higher ceilings, more coverage area (paired with the right fixtures), and more upfront savings on installation. Currently, Amko SOLARA is the first and only manufacturer in the world to produce and sell a 400 watt induction lamp - and this is one of the key reasons we are getting such great feedback from customers because they have been waiting so long for big players like Osram, GE and Philips to make induction lighting more applicable in industrial settings, public sectors, and commercial usages.
Speaking of application, proper heat dissipation and ingenious design is also another key. For long, lighting companies have relied on fixture manufacturers to integrate their product and deal with the "real world" problems such as dust, maintenance and heat dissipation. We thought that the issue was in the light and the ballast itself.
So working with some of Taiwan's best CPU/GPU heat sink manufacturers, we cooperatively developed individual heat dissipation solutions for various parts in our product from the outer casing to copper heat pipes. Customers are already saying that it's gonna be a homerun!
Last but not least, Amko SOLARA is an induction system that is dimmable - we have developed a method to linearly dim the light down to 30% (down to 50% in an array for stability reasons). You can integrate building systems and smart artificial intelligence controls such as photo sensors to control these lamps. At your office for instance, you can set the lamps to 50% during the morning, where lots of sunlight is coming through the windows, and at 100% after the sun sets. At night when nobody is in the office, you can have the light at just 50% if you building has a light ordinance requirement.
We've been showing these features during exhibitions in Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Milan, London, Guangzhou, New York, Las Vegas and soon in Frankfurt. People really like what they saw.