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Best Practices for Automotive Dealership Lighting
High-Intensity Discharge (HID) vs. Fluorescent Lamps

High-Intensity Discharge (HID) vs. Fluorescent Lamps

Three reasons companies are making the switch to fluorescent lamps

More and more facilities are upgrading to fluorescent lamps from HID as they provide comparable levels of light compared to other types of lamps and require half the amount of energy to operate.

1. Utility Rebates
Many energy utility companies are rewarding businesses for lighting upgrades by offering rebate incentives. Often, the value of the rebate program offsets the labor cost of retrofitting current fixtures, resulting in payback in as little as 16 months. Additionally, the 2005 Energy Policy Act may allow for tax deductions on energy efficient lighting upgrades.

2. Occupancy Sensors Save
Adding a motion sensor to fluorescent lighting will further increase annual energy savings through a 25 percent (or lower) power draw in the low setting compared to the requisite 50 percent power draw with HID systems.

HIDs don’t work well with occupancy sensors since the lamps cannot be restarted immediately after cooling and typically require at least 15 minutes to warm up. There are certain ballast models that allow for dimming of lamps to 50 percent if a sensor identifies the room as unoccupied. The drawback is its lack of energy efficiency as power is always flowing to the unit whether the light is dimmed or fully illuminated. Our Energy Savings Brochure illustrates the differences between fixtures with and without occupancy sensors.

3. More Lumen Output
Fluorescents retain as much as 95 percent of their initial lumen output at 40 percent of rated life whereas HID lamp lumens can be anywhere from 60 to 85 percent of initial at 40 percent of rated lamp life. Most importantly, fluorescents can offer up to a 50 percent energy savings compared to HID and last two-to-three times longer.

Though the benefits of upgrading are viable, be cautious that fluorescent lamps are indeed the right choice for your application. If you need help selecting the right fixture for your project, call our Application Engineers at (800) 236-7000. Also, discover how much energy you'll save by switching to fluorescent in using our Payback Calculator.