Tag Archives: Color temperature

LED Lighting Adds Beauty, Consistency and Value

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Ashley Furniture HomeStoreMy friends have been looking at me in a funny way for the last 7 plus years.  You see, I’m in the lighting business, so every place I enter, the first thing I do is look up.  It’s a habit now that seems to drive my wife crazy.  I’m curious how the lighting looks, if all of the color temperatures match, if they have the correct lighting levels, etc.  Until I started doing this, I didn’t realize how unbelievably hard it seems to be to make a clean, beautiful lighting plan work.

If you are the owner of a franchise location (or more than one), you know the importance of keeping the image of the brands you represent consistent.  With traditional lighting technology, the color temperature, hours of life and energy usage vary based on the technology you use, how old the fixtures are, etc.  That means if you open your first location one year and a second two years later, you may not be able to match the lighting between them.  What can you do to make everything the same?

Moving into LED Lighting Solutions is the key.  With the manufacturers we work with (including Philips, Cree, Toshiba, Lighting Science Group and others) we can give you a consistent lighting look across all of your locations.  Every lamp will match, the output will be the same and we can easily take the lighting you have now, convert it to LED and save you between 50 and 75 percent of your energy cost on lighting.  Add in the benefits of long life (50,000+ hours), long warranties (up to 10 years) and absolutely color consistency and you can see that LED is ideal for operators of franchise locations.  The lighting is a huge part of making your product, both the storefront and your merchandise, look the same in the best possible manner.

Hurricane Grill & WingsEvery day that you wait to move into LED is a day of savings lost.  There is absolutely no reason to wait, especially with our LouMan Money program.  Get in touch with us today to explore how LED Source can make your business shine like never before (and for a lot less money out of your pocket each month).  Our experience with brands such as Massage Envy, Starbucks, Marriott, City Furniture, Hurricane Grill & Wings and others, has taught us a lot about how to work with a franchisee and franchisor to make it happen.  LED Source, being North America’s only LED lighting franchisor, also provides us special insight into the importance of respecting both the unit owners and the corporate higher-ups.

For more information on LED Source and our franchise opportunity please call us at 866.900.4533 or www.LEDsource.com

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LED Lighting for Museums and Galleries

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As a fellow LED Source® employee, some of my favorite clients to retrofit to LED are museums and galleries. The difference with what we do is that we continually strive to work with manufacturers and products that achieve the highest standards for color temperature, which is very important to the art world.

People who spend a lot of time in museums and galleries have become very accustomed to viewing art under halogen lights. Halogen has a color temperature somewhere between 2700K and 3000K, but it definitely adds warmth (yellow) to the light. Particularly as it is used with a dimmer, halogen light turns more amber and orange (warmer) as it is dimmed. With LED, control over the color temperature of the light becomes much more precise. LEDs hold its color temperature even though lamps can be dimmed to around 5% of their light output. Finally, low light does not mean orange light!

Because people are “used to” the warmth of halogen, they sometimes don’t initially react well to the CRI accuracy of a true 3000K minus the yellow/orange of the halogen. However, particularly in a setting where bases, walls and cases are white and crisp, such as in a modern art setting, the 3000K look stunning. It isn’t usually a goal here to make the walls and bases look yellow, after all, they are white and should look white even when lit. 3000K are just warm enough, but just white enough to keep whites crisp and make colors vivid and true.

However, for more traditional museums where walls are colored and there is a lot of wood and gold (on frames, accents, etc.), staying closer to the 2700K temperature helps to retain the warmth and the traditional appearance that we love.

With traditional lighting, galleries have often appeared rather dim because of the need to reduce the damage to the art over time owing to the UV and heat generated by halogen. To counter the damage from simply lighting the art, museums have had to use UV filters and very low light settings on their antiquities, to prevent fading and heat damage, especially to fragile pieces such as papers and textiles. With LED it is now possible to light such fragile art a bit brighter than the traditional standards owing to the fact that LEDs do not emit UV and will not cause heat damage to the art. With LED, UV and heat concerns are a thing of the past, allowing art to be well lit without risking damage.

The most important thing about correctly lighting art spaces is to test a variety of LED lamps in the setting itself. Seeing is believing. When the color temperatures and beam angles are compared side-by-side on the actual art, it usually becomes very clear what looks best. Avoiding “hot spots,” glare, and light that is too white or intense is crucial. Because LEDs appear brighter to our eyes — even though the foot-candle readings on the light meter are the same or less — it may take a bit of testing to settle on exactly the right lamps (wattage, lumens, colors, beam angles, etc.) for any given setting. Don’t give up, though. LED is definitely the best choice for the art world. This is where a consulting someone who is really well versed with how to work with LED products can be invaluable as you make the switch.

So — let there be LIGHT!! Thanks to beautiful LEDs, art can be seen as it was truly intended to be! Please feel free to contact me if I can help you light the art in your world!

Leigh Ann Fulkerson is the Senior Sales Consultant at LED Source® in Lawrence, Kansas. She can be reached by calling 866.900.4533

For more information contact the LED lighting experts at LED Source®.

Using LED Lighting To Display Art

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When considering LED lighting, most people think of one benefit: saving money.  And it’s true, LED lighting will save you the most money of any lighting technology over it’s life, but there are many other benefits to LEDs that people don’t realize.  LED lighting has come a long way from their origins back in 1962 when they came in any color, as long as it was red.

LED Lighting by LED SourceOne of the ancillary benefits of LED lighting that often gets overlooked is the fact that LED lights do not produce harmful UV rays or heat.  If you’re a museum, art house or even a homeowner that displays precious objects, this alone could be enough to move you in to LEDs.  Your fabrics won’t fade from the light shining on it, artwork will stay as crisp and clean as the day it was hung and even old papers will not degrade from the LEDs lighting it. And not heating up the air around these objects is going to reduce the wear on them as well.  Imagine the cost savings on restorations to fine art or furniture you’ll preserve not exposing it to a harsher lighting fixture (that darn money-saving thing just won’t stop popping up!)

LED Lighting by LED SourceAnother benefit that LEDs provide is a wide range of color temperatures and beam spreads.  In the past, LEDs looked blue to people. Now, they come in a myriad of color temperatures from 2700K to 6500K and more in white lighting.  That provides you with a broader brush to “paint” walls, areas and other objects with the exact light required.  You’ll also be able to achieve brighter, crisper whites for task lighting and office settings, and warmer lighting for residential applications and cozier spaces.  All of these options are available because of the versatility of LED lighting.  The possibilities of what can be done with LED lamps and fixtures these days are unparalleled.

LED Lighting by LED SourceAlso, because of the high CRI (color rendering index) available in LED lighting, the true colors of objects are displayed.  It means that all of the colors will be faithfully reproduced, just as the artist or designer originally intended.  This may just be a fancy way of saying that things will look like they should, but that’s something you can’t discount when you’ve worked hard to put together an amazing room design or are showcasing works of art.

Saving money is top of mind for most people when choosing a lighting solution.  It’s no secret that LED lights provide the best return on investment in lighting, but as we’ve discussed that’s not the only thing that makes LEDs superior to other lighting products.  There are so many hidden benefits that you should not ignore when thinking about the switch to LEDs!

LED Source® is the nation’s leading supplier of high quality and name brand LED lighting. Speak with one of our LED lighting experts for your next project. Call 866.900.4LED or visit www.LEDsource.com.

Plan Ahead For Your LED Lighting Project

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As LEDs are becoming more prominent in the marketplace. Manufacturers and distributors are working hard to make them more readily available. LEDs are still not considered a commodity product and many times people are surprised by the potential challenges in obtaining them.

LED lamps and related products are largely built over seas. The constant growing demand sometimes results in longer lead times and additional freight costs.  When items are not readily available, we must consider why and how long it will take to get them. These items are typically transported via ship to the US, whether it is for stock at the manufacturer or directly to a distributor, but this transit time can take up to eight weeks or longer. There is sometimes an option to fly items in, but with rising oil prices this option is becoming more and more expensive.

One thing to consider is that many products have a great number of variations such as length, housing color, and color temperature. It is challenging for companies to know exactly what to stock. If waiting for a backordered item to become available is not going to work, it is always a good idea to look into an alternative option.  Simply asking if the out of stock item is available in another option can eliminate a larger problem.

Another thing to keep in mind is that typically the more generic a product is, the easier it is to get. You will rarely see a problem with availability for Par Lights, but larger and more specialty items can be difficult to get immediate delivery on.

To elaborate a bit on delivery, it is important for people to realize that every company has same day shipping deadlines. If a product is readily available, please be sure to find out when you need to place an order by to get same day shipping. Suppliers will do everything that they can to help in these situations, but sometimes these things are simply out of our hands.

That being said, companies are doing everything they can to stock and supply LED products.  While stock levels are improving, please remember to do your part and plan ahead! It is unfortunate when a project is held up because of availability issues, so customers and suppliers need to work together to avoid this.

For more information on LED lighting, visit the LED lighting Experts at www.LEDsource.com