Aelux had the opportunity to take part in LIGHTFAIR® International (LFI), the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference, which experienced its most phenomenal West Coast show last month. The 2010 show and conference, which took place in Las Vegas, ended with a record-breaking number of 22,000 registered attendees—increasing attendance by 10% from LFI 2008 in Las Vegas and making it the largest in LFI’s West Coast history.
This year, LFI debuted a new pavilion on the trade show floor, the Building Integration Pavilion, which featured companies with enterprise system technologies used to maximize and create energy efficient buildings and showcased many of these successful projects. In addition, nearly 100 industry experts presented 72 sessions, addressing topics that covered lighting fundamentals, software, applications, controls and solutions, as well as design innovation, sustainability, energy-efficiency, product updates and case studies.
Aelux’s technical team spent several days reviewing the latest new technologies being offered by hundreds of new and established manufacturers. LEDs were the hot product line with dozens of new companies competing for what they billed as the future of lighting.
There is no doubt that within the next 5 to 10 years there will be LED solutions for every lighting environment; but we are just not there yet. LEDs are excellent for decorative and retail applications and even a few very high-end commercial uses. However, for the conventional industrial/commercial/institutional marketplaces, the efficiency delivered by the LEDs when combined with their high cost simply does not provide the high ROIs our customers have come to expect. There is one notable exception. We found some very interesting LED solutions for outdoor/garage lighting, and we are working closely with a couple of potential suppliers to see if we can offer outdoor solutions that will insure both quality and real value.
We were impressed with the developments of a couple notable manufacturers of induction lighting, and see a place in the high bay and outdoor space for this technology now. To be sure, the first cost is still higher than fluorescents, but the benefits of producing the same light output from a single lamp (as opposed to 3,4,6 or 8 lamps for linear T8/T5HO fluorescents) has caught the attention of several of our clients. Coupled with up to 100,000-hour lamp life, the ROI on these systems can rival fluorescents when accounting for total cost of ownership.
In the meantime, the fluorescent manufactures have not been idle. There are new higher efficiency lower wattage T-8s and T-5s that will make our fluorescent retrofits even more efficient and produce even higher returns.
It is without a doubt that “LIGHTFAIR International continues to evolve as the premier event for the lighting industry and as the world’s largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference,” says Rochelle Burt, managing director of LIGHTFAIR International.
Aelux understands that the lighting industry is more dynamic than ever, and you can be certain that we will always be in the forefront of bringing our customers the best values possible. Contact an Aelux representative to learn how your business can achieve the highest ROI with a lighting retrofit project.