Respect for the fragile equilibrium of the environment has been core to innovation and growth in many industries over the past few decades. The lighting industry is no exception, having great ecological potential and consistently pushing to the forefront the values of environmental responsibility and understanding
Now light source and lighting technologies are required to be energy efficient, recyclable and have a long life time, additional to being effective and having a low environmental impact during production, use and disposal.
Energy sources are limited and prices are constantly rising. Awareness of this makes it more and more important to attain greater light source efficiency and l energy consumption.
A few years ago, metal-halide lamps were the light source of choice but are now rapidly losing ground against LED technology.The key indicator of the efficiency of a light source is efficacy, from much light is emi8tted in lumens in relation to the power consumed in watts, resulting in an easily quantifiable 1m/W value. This is a core parameter for any lighting designer when designing a lighting system, especially in retail where lighting traditionally consumes very large amounts of energy. In this respect, LED provides its worth by offering efficacies far higher than those of conventional light sources.Currently, despite being far more efficient and providing very high quality light, LED technology has not yet replaced conventional technology, mainly due to the higher initial price. However, to gain a clear view of the situation we must look at the wider context as lower power consumption, reduced maintenance and long lifetimes makes this new technology very appealing by providing excellent return of investment.
Lighting fixtures designed for LED are able to capture and direct the light very effectively, exploiting the power saving potential of the technology to its fullest extent, wholly justifying the investment.
System efficacy refers to the effectiveness of the lighting fixture itself, how well it can direct the light whilst reducing losses on the surfaces of the optical system to a minimum. This is measured in much the same way as light source efficacy, with the light output of the luminaire in lumens divided by its overall power consumption resulting in a 1m/W value.
