LED’s are on the cutting edge of Green Technologies. It seems that every manufacturer of lamps has a new line of LED lamps (light bulbs) and LED Luminaries (light fixtures). The marketing of these products is geared toward the fact that these lamps use a fraction of the power that even fluorescent lamps use, and the lamp life is extraordinary. However, these technologies are still fairly new, and standards are still being worked on. Before you go out and spend a small fortune to replace all or your existing lamps with an LED equivalent, you need to educate yourself about the issues that you can face.

Although the LED itself has an incredible life expectancy, the drivers that power them may not last as long, especially if they are going to be used outside in the extreme heat of Phoenix. It is very important to employ the services of a designer that is aware of not only the advantages, but also the disadvantages of LED’s. Harmon Electric and Harmon Solar have recently partnered with a company who is very knowledgeable about LED’s and is very willing to do a site visit and discuss ALL of the options available in LED technology, and whether or not LED is the way to go, or if there is another option that will be better.

Jason
Estimator

Want to save some money on your monthly electric bill? Change out your standard incandescent light bulbs with more efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (known industry wide as CFL’s). It’s a simple and quick way to reduce your lighting costs, but is it “Greener”?

CFL’s are more efficient, and therefore use less power than a standard incandescent light bulb, and they also last a lot longer. On the surface of the issue you would think that reducing power used is definitely “Greener”, but what do you do with the CFL’s when they do finally burn out? If you just throw them away like a standard incandescent lamp, you are not helping the environment at all.

When fluorescent lamps (not just CFL’s but also linear fluorescent lamps) are manufactured a small drop of mercury is put into the lamp, and is vaporized into a gas when the light is turned on. Most of the gasses in these lamps are inert and do no damage to the environment; however mercury is VERY bad for the environment. It seeps into the ground, and can enter the water table. This can lead to mercury in the water we drink, and the food we eat.

So what are we to do? Fortunately it is becoming easier and easier to dispose of these lamps properly. Building Material Retailers like Home Depot and Lowes sell a box that you can put your old CFL’s in and ship them to a company that will do this for a very reasonable charge the (shipping is covered in the cost of the box).

Commercial business owners, discuss these issues with the contractor who replaces your lamps. Documentation of proper disposal is available, and may actually be in the case of a lighting retrofit project in order to receive rebates and compensation.

The more people learn about “Green Technologies” the better off our environment will be, just make sure that you don’t help in one way (saving energy), and hurt in another (polluting).

Jason
Estimator