Any room, area, facility, or outdoors space you need to illuminate should be done so with quality lighting. The benefits of quality lights far surpass going cheap on your lighting fixtures just to save a few dollars. The importance of quality such as metal halide have a rather short lifespan compared to it’s competing technology, LED. LED gymnasium lights, and just LED lighting in general, prove to have a much longer lifespan. This lifespan can be 2-3 and sometimes even 4 times longer than other light sources such as metal halide.

This can allow for less frequent purchasing of new lights to replace old and burnt out ones, which will allow you to better realize a better ROI by investing in LED over metal halide or other similar technologies. This also indirectly reduces your maintenance costs by lowering the amount of time you have to pay someone to switch out burnt out bulbs. This can allow you to reduce your maintenance costs related to your lighting for gym areas by 2-3 times, which will just add on to the benefits that LED can bring to your facility.

While saving money through lighting efficiency, longer life spans, and less maintenance costs is great; it shouldn’t be achieved while decreasing the quality of light produced in your facility by your lighting system. Luckily, LED products allow for proper lighting in a wide range of applications, even your gymnasium. This allows you to create exceptionally safe areas that will keep visitors aware of all there surroundings.

Did you know that LED lights that are efficient called the DLC (DesignLights Consortium). This is an organization that qualifies commercial lighting products based on it’s quality and efficiency. There are both standard and premium qualifications, and premium typically yields higher rebates and thus higher ROI over standard qualified products. Although both are still good and are always recommended for any industrial lighting purchase because being qualified is better than not at all. Without being qualified, we recommend you stay far away from any light that isn’t DLC qualified for various reasons including it not being verified to be a “good” product.

If it isn’t clear by now, the answer is obvious. LED can, will, and should be bringing your gymnasium area all of the benefits that the technology offers.

From efficient, to quality and rebates; there is almost no reason why you should choose other gym lighting technologies over LED gym lights.

More importantly regarding safety of all visitors; LEDs will ensure your areas are properly illuminated with a wealthy amount of light, and won’t be under lit. Also since LEDs will never buzz nor flicker, you will never face that annoying issue that other technologies will do, not even near the end of it’s lifespan. And as you know, buzzing or flickering lights can cause annoyance and less focus, which is never good for a gymnasium environment.

Conclusion

There you have it, what quality LED lights can and will do for your gym. LEDs are also a great option for all of your other lighting needs, such as school rooms, hallways, write in to one of our professionals for some answers.

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Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions for Aging Eyes

As people get older there is more time to really enjoy the homes they have built for themselves. The kids have grown and moved away, and being physically comfortable has, perhaps, become more important than it once was.  Knowing that aging eyes need a better kind of light and more of it to be comfortable, remodeling the lighting in your home improves comfort threefold.

“Baby boomers are finding that they need three to four times as much light and that glare is hard on the eyes,” says Norm Brown, CLC, of Norburn Lighting & Bath Centre in Burnaby, B.C., and a consultant for the American Lighting Association (ALA). “Fluorescent light bulbs are easier to see by than regular light bulbs. LED lights are being used more for their reduced glare, as well as Halogen, for their white light quality. You can choose energy-efficient bulbs in many styles for redecorating your whole house.”

Capitol Lighting offers ceiling, wall-mounted and portable fixtures, and recessed and track lighting in energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs as well as light-emitting diode (LED) lights to help aging eyes. Shop from thousands of fluorescent lights and energy efficient lighting solutions when remodeling your home’’s lighting at 1800lighting.com today! Aging eyes can see more clearly with energy efficient lighting solutions from Capitol Lighting.

Did you know roughly 1/4 of your electricity bill is used specifically for lighting? With recent changes in lighting technology, we now have the ability to control the costs of our electricity consumption more effectively. Choosing the right light bulbs for your home or business may be confusing with all the different options we have today, so we’ve listed the three most common types in hopes to shed some light on the issue.

Incandescent Bulbs

Incandescent bulbs, the oldest and most common bulbs on the market, are relatively inefficient compared to other bulbs. They work by connecting an electric current that travels through a wire filament, heating up the filament until it illuminates. Unfortunately, up to 90% of the actual energy it consumes produces heat. The cost of each bulb is the lowest compared to other bulb types, but their lifespan is also the shortest, as they only last up to 2 years (based off 3 hours of use / day). With the passing of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, manufacturers are working to produce more efficient incandescent bulbs that produce up to 25% less energy.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)

Distinctive by their bold designs, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are the most energy and cost effective bulb type on the market today. An electric current is driven through a tube containing argon, and a small amount of mercury vapor that triggers the actual illumination. CFLs use up to 75% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, cutting overall electricity costs significantly without producing excess heat. Their lifespan can be pushed up to 9 years, and technically pay for themselves after just 9 months of use, costing less than half as incandesces bulbs for the same amount of light.

Note: research has shown that CFL’s work best when left on for long periods of time, but lose efficiency when turned on and off regularly.  Because of this, it may be best not to use CFL light bulbs in areas like closets where the lights are usually just flipped on then off.

Light Emitting Diodes (LED)

Making an appearance in electronics starting in 1962, Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), are rapidly taking the lighting industry by storm with its highly effective technology. By connecting a diode to an electrical current, electrodes are triggered within the diode, forcing them to release photons, which we see as light. The up-front costs of LEDs are higher compared to other bulb-types, but ultimately they last up to 25% longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. Manufacturing has increased drastically in recent years, and companies are expected to offer more affordability in the near future. By reducing energy consumption by up to 80%, LEDs pave a direct path to lower electricity bills.