LED Troffers
LED Terminology – Kelvin, CRI, and Luminous Flux
LED Lighting Terminology
Color Temperature and Color Rendering (Kelvin and CRI): There are two standard measurements for the color characteristics of light: “color rendering index” (CRI), a term used to describe the extent to which an artificial light source is able to render the true color of objects as seen by natural outdoor sunlight which has a CRI of 100, and “color temperature”, which expresses the color appearance of the light itself.
Color Rendering Index (CRI): Incandescent is used as the base reference of 100 CRI. Compact fluorescent lamps are graded at 82-86 CRI, which is considered high quality color rendering. CRI is a more important consideration for retail lighting design than it is for office lighting. Any CRI rating of 80 or above is considered high and indicates that the source has good color properties. Incandescent lamps and daylight have a CRI of 100, the highest possible CRI. The higher the CRI of the light source, the “truer” it renders color. At M-Lite we strive to manufacture our LED lighting at 80 CRI or better.
Color Temperature (Kelvin): Refers to the way color groups are perceived – the psychological impact of lighting. Color temperature is how cool or warm the light source appears. The color temperature of a light source is a numerical measurement of its color appearance. This temperature is based on the principle that any object will emit light if it is heated to a high enough temperature and that the color of that light will shift in a predictable manner as the temperature is increased. This system is based on the color changes of a black metal as it is heated from a cold black to a white hot state. As the temperature increases, the color would shift gradually from red to orange to yellow to white and finally to a blue white. Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin (K). Colors and light sources from the red/orange/yellow side of the spectrum are described as warm (incandescents) and those toward the blue end are referred to as cool (natural daylight). The sun, for example, rises at approximately 1800 Kelvin and changes from red to orange to yellow and to white as it rises to over 5000 Kelvin at high noon. It then goes back down the scale as it sets.
Luminous Flux – the flow of light measured in lumens. With light bulbs, it provides an estimate of the apparent amount of light the bulb will produce. Depending on the application, much of an incandescent’s light is wasted because it’s emitted in every direction. LEDs on the other hand, put out directional light, sending all of the light exactly where it’s needed. This is why an LED producing 500 lumens might be equivalent to an incandescent producing 900 lumens.
Lumens measure how much light you are getting from a bulb. The more lumens means it’s a brighter light; fewer lumens means it’s a dimmer light.
Lumens produced is just one factor of the performance of a light, and sometimes it is misleading. To understand how to fully evaluate the LED product, we need to look the overall system efficiency, optical control, thermal management of the LEDs.
Another factor that can also be very misleading is the life of an LED lights, the life time is defined by how long will the light last before the fixture reaches 20 percent lumen depreciation.
For example, most of the time an LED Light has a life time of 50,000 hours, it does not mean that after 50,000 hours, the LED lighting product will not work at all. It will still be working, but the Lumens it emitts is factored at 20% less than when it was first used.
For more LED Lighting Facts, visit our website at http://www.m-lites.com
LED Lighting Retrofit install Video
Through proven leadership, M-Lite remains in the forefront of the design, engineering, manufacturing, and distribution of LED lighting technology.
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Unique in design with maximum capacity of lightning
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Significantly less energy consumption than fluorescent lamps
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Most cost effective LED technology in the marketplace
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Maintenance free, UL approved, and easy to install
In less than 10 minutes you can reduce your fixtures consumption with our LED lighting technology. Enjoy better lighting, while saving money with our easy to install retrofit kit from M-Lites.com
Chicago Warehouse; LED Lighting Retrofit case study
Instant energy savings with our LED lighting solutions
Chicago Building owners are at the forefront of leading the nation with Green Certified Buildings, or LEED Certified buildings. LED lighting upgrades, and retrofits are now playing a big part in that success story, and is one of the easiest upgrades for building owners to improve on to become Green Building Certified. LED lighting upgrades also assists with building owners becoming more compliant as new legislation is introduced over the next year by local, state, and federal agencies. At M-Lite Solution we enjoy providing the latest LED technology to help building owners become more energy efficient.
By improving the standards of LED lighting with M-Lite’s patented designs, we provide this Chicago Warehouse with brighter lighting, we create a cooler work atmosphere for their employees, and provide a maintenance free product for years to come that uses a fraction of the watts compared to less efficient florescent fixtures, and we do it without the mercury, neon, or UV Rays. Environmental sustainability starts with us making a change to better lighting, and M-Lite Solution is a premier provider of LED Technology World Wide.
M-Lite will not only save you a significant amount on your energy consumption, but we will also provide you with superior illumination. M-Lite’s patented LED design will produce a brighter light, and a more Human Centric Blue Light (when 4000 to 5000 kelvin color is selected) that stimulates the mind to become more tasked focused, so that your staff can work at a higher level visual acuity, and out preform others that are working in dull yellow light designed in the 1950’s.
Cost of Waiting
To justify our Chicago Warehouse clients LED retrofit investment, we measure their return, and provide them with peace of mind, by offering a comprehensive Client Impact Analysis that measures, and quantifies the end results of our Energy Efficient LED Lighting upgrade based upon pre-process measurements, and information provided by the end users staff.
The overall goal is the complete success of our Chicago Warehouse’s LED Lighting upgrade. To that end, we have outlined an anticipated Return on Investment (ROI) in our analysis. This analysis provides a baseline of expectations and the framework for our clients decision-making process prior to beginning their LED retrofit. The “Cost of Waiting” graph aides in the decision making process, which normally factors energy, HVAC, and maintenance savings unless otherwise stated.
Energy Reduction and “The LED Retrofit Pay Back”
From the charts below, you can see our Chicago Warehouse has an energy cost savings of 73%. Of course the real real reason many of us look at these reports is to see what the pay back period is. Our Chicago Warehouse operates 90% of its fixtures 24/7, which isn’t common for most commercial buildings, or warehouses. The pay back on our Chicago Warehouse is less than 10 months, and it is of little wonder why informed building owners are making the switch to LED technology in cities like Chicago all over the world.
The Environmental Impact
Because incandescent, florescent, and metal halides consume more energy, they are responsible for a greater amount of pollution associated with electricity generation, including the release of trace amounts of neon, mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the surrounding environment while you work under them. Do you really want children, or you peers exposed to these toxic outdated lighting products? Refer to the chart below for how much of an impact one Chicago Warehouse can make.
Our Motto: “The Earth is green, and it is everyone’s responsibility to watch over it.”
At M-Lite Solution we are passionate about assisting building owners like our Chicago Warehouse reduce greenhouse gases. Our patented LED lighting technology is among the most energy efficient lighting solutions offered on the market. M-Lite does this by keeping things simple, we provide brighter light that last, and uses less energy, but don’t take our word for it, see our client testimonials online at www.M-Lites.com.
If you are a building owner, maintenance worker, a student, or just someone that wants to become an energy champion, and wants to save on energy, contact us at (630)290-1319.
Together we can make the world green, one fixture at a time.
Office supply company in Elgin converts showroom to LED Lighting
Rieke Office Interiors : A Green building making the jump to LED
Rieke Office Interiors (ROI) is Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council
LEED®, the “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” Green Building Rating System, is the nationally accepted standard for green buildings developed by the USGBC membership. Full details from the US Green Building Council website. Contact an ROI sales representative for more information about breakthroughs in building science, technology and operations that are available to designers, builders and owners who want to build green and maximize both economic and environmental performance.
The Environment- We care!!
ROI recycles all of its paper, cardboard, plastic stretch film, wood scrap, wood dust and metal. Annually, this is the equivalent of 12 semi-trailers that is being kept out of land fills. So making the switch to LED lighting is a welcomed change for ROI.
To justify our clients investment, we measure the return, and provide our clients with peace of mind, we always provide a comprehensive Client Impact Analysis report that measures, and quantifies the end results of our Energy Efficient LED Lighting upgrade based upon pre-process measurements and information provided by our clients team.
M-Lite Solutions overall goal is the complete success of every LED Lighting upgrade. To that end, we have outlined an anticipated Return on Investment (ROI) in our Analysis. This analysis provides a base line for our clients expectations and the framework for their decision-making.
Cost of Waiting
Retrofitting 57 fixtures to LED Light bars is not a huge undertaking. Our reward comes in many ways. Reike office interiors saves $2000 a year with our upgrade, and together we reduce green house gases along the way. M-Lites gets to show off our LED products to hundreds of commercial building owners, and help them save too.
For more information please email us at Sales@M-Lites.com
The science of sustainability solutions blog post by TheGuardian
Below is a link to a Great Post on: Too big to save: why commercial buildings resist energy efficiency from the guardian.
Below is our comment to the Article:
Creating change in business for commercial buildings like this can be partially done by public awareness, but it will really come down to government agencies establishing more green laws that force building owners into making their buildings more energy efficient.
You see, I am an Inventor, I make my own patented and UL approved LED lighting for schools, and other commercial properties. I have a lot of frustration when I walk into a building with old inefficient lighting that is consuming more energy than needed, and my inventions can reduce their lighting cost by 60 to 80 percent per fixture.
It further bothers me when I have over 10 Billion Dollars of performance leasing funds to fund these types of projects. I have recently offered our services to many city, and state government agencies to do free building case studies to show how we can put money back into the our building owners pockets by converting to better lighting.
The biggest objection I hear is that it is fantastic that we will save all this money, but we don’t have the money to pay for it. That is why, I provide performance based leasing options to all types of organizations, whom qualify, and are seeking to reduce their own energy use.
New, more efficient LED Lighting should lower energy bills, and maintenance cost, and with our performance based leasing programs being calculated so that they can be offset by these anticipated savings, the leasing option is designed to pay for itself. Excuse has been removed!
The savings assessment is undertaken by Eco Lighting Designs (ESCO), and your staff while the equipment lease is provided by M-Lite Solutions. So when I hear we don’t have the funds to pay for it, you haven’t tried us yet.
I welcome the challenge to make every building in our country more energy efficient, so if you are your buildings Champion or LEED coordinator contact me at dave.rozek@m-lites.com
LED Project Funding
Investment in energy-efficient LED Lighting makes sound business, and good environmental sense, especially with the Energy Efficiency Lease options provided by M-Lite Solution LLC.
M-Lite Solution is offering performance based leasing options to all types of organizations, whom qualify, and are seeking to reduce their own energy use. New, more efficient LED Lighting should lower energy bills, and maintenance cost with the performance based leasing payments being calculated so that they can be offset by these anticipated savings, the leasing option is designed to pay for itself. The our savings assessment is undertaken by Eco Lighting Designs (ESCO), and your staff while the equipment lease is provided by M-Lite Solutions.
In the above example M-Lite has provided a performance based equipment lease payment option that is $325.00 lower than the estimated savings.
The LED retrofit was for 360 fixtures for a school that uses it lights for approximately 2000 hours a year, and the initial cost of the project included installation. If this was a building that consumed energy 24/7 the energy savings would have been much higher. Please take in consideration that each building has different efficiency measures, and payments do vary depending on the exact terms of our Energy Efficiency Lease.
For further information on any of our products or services, please contact us at:
sales@m-lites.com
(630)290-1319 (ask for Dave)
LED Retrofit Project at Chicago Motor Cars
140 1×4 troffers upgraded to our LED Retrofit Kit
Our project at Chicago Motor Cars was very cut and dry. Owner Frank Sacco wanted a green showroom regardless of the Return on Investment (ROI). He wanted great lighting for his exotic, luxury, and vintage sports cars that are hand-picked by some of the nation’s top buyers. The lighting quality at Chicago Motor Cars must be exceptional, and M-Lite Solution was ready to make it happen with one of our LED retrofit kits.
We had a few different lighting solutions for Chicago Motor Cars, but our 1×4 LED retrofit panel fit the clients request perfectly. Chicago Motor Cars current troffers consumed 94 watts per fixture. Each troffer put out a yellow colored light with the standard humming noise that would prevent a small child from napping. Our 1×4 LED retrofit kit only consumes 34 watts, will push out 34oo lumens in a pure white light without any light flicker, or that annoying humming sound.
To justify the investment of Chicago Motor Cars, we measure the return, and we create a comprehensive Client Impact Analysis that measures and quantifies the end results of our Energy Efficient LED Lighting upgrade. This is based upon pre-process measurements, and information gathered by us and the team at Chicago Motor Cars. Below is a chart that shows the “Cost of Waiting” report.
Reducing green house gases is a big concern of Mr.Sacco’s, and he was happy to see how doing a small job like his Chicago Motor Cars west showroom would reduce their fixtures green house gases production by more than 63 percent. This is comparable to saving 3,283 trees or 8 acres of trees planted.
Chicago Motor Cars is one of many commercial propriety owners in Illinois that are making the change to more efficient LED lighting, which is why Illinois leads the nation in “Green Buildings”. However, small jobs like this one do not have a fast rate of return due to the limited hours of operation compared to a factory that uses their lighting 24/7. Chicago Motor Cars will see a return on investment in less than 16 months of the LED lighting retrofit.
Of course this was not a large project of ours, and the larger the project, the more the energy usage would yield, thus a higher rate of return. Our overall goal of reducing our clients energy usage was attained by reaching a 64 percent reduction. (see chart below)
So next time you look at all the lights in your office, school, or warehouse ask yourself how much you could be saving with an LED retrofit by M-Lite Solution. For questions, and details regarding this energy-saving post, please contact Dave Rozek at dave.rozek@m-lites.com.
How can 371 LED Retrofitted fixtures save one school $70,000 over 5 years
LED Lighting Project: Elementary School in Mississippi
One of the most rewarding things one can do is to bring a smile to a classroom of elementary students faces. We did just that in the Mississippi school system last fall, and we look forward to repeating that process of making children smile in a few thousand more classrooms this year in 2014.
Of course giving kids better lighting in their classroom is a huge personal reward for us at M-Lite Solution LLC, but the school district gained much more than just happy students from their LED Retrofit, and LED Troffer upgrades. (see chart below)
Monthly savings (cost of waiting) chart
To justify our school projects investment, we measure the return, and provided them with peace of mind by doing a comprehensive Client Impact Analysis that measures and quantifies the end results of our Energy Efficient LED Lighting upgrade based upon pre-process measurements and information provided by the school.
Our overall goal is the complete success of every LED Lighting upgrade for our projects, and their decision makers. To that end, we have outlined an anticipated ROI (Return on Investment) on our chart above, and below. This chart above provides a baseline for our expectations and framework for this projects.
Environmental Impact
Not only do we get smiles, and provide our clients with a positive return on investment, but we also get to reduce our planets greenhouse gases by lowering energy consumption with our Led products. It’s a Win-Win for all.
For questions regarding our energy savings products please contact Dave Rozek at 630.290.1319
or email me at Dave.Rozek@M-Lites.com
Cost savings can improve your bottom line!
Can your bottom line use a boost?
Cost savings from a lighting component upgrade project are derived from both savings in energy usage and also savings on future maintenance costs in both the capital expenditure on replacement lamps in addition to the man hour costs involved in making the replacements.
Component upgrading is the term used to describe the process of replacing lamps and tubes in your business premises with new LED retrofit products or LED troffers. The LED lighting upgrades are undertaken to reduce lighting energy costs, maintenance costs, and associated carbon footprint.
Uniquely, We provide a comprehensive and complete commercial component upgrade service, migrating our clients from their existing lighting to high specification, low cost LED retrofit kits, light bars, or troffers to significantly reduce both energy and maintenance costs as well as making a substantial reduction to their carbon footprint.
We have designed and manufactured a complete range of high specification LED products to meet the requirements of any commercial component upgrade project.
We are able to undertake commercial component upgrade projects for all sectors of business and industry as well as meeting any, and all local, and federal government requirements.
Typically, based our projects completed to date, energy cost savings alone fall between 50% and 90% of current lighting energy spend giving a project pay back time of between 6 to 36 months (at typical current energy costs).
To find out what a lighting component upgrade or lighting retrofit for your business will save you please request a survey at
(630) 290-1319, and we will produce you a comprehensive report at NO CHARGE.
LED Retrofit Project at Hawthorn Ridge Apartments: Case Study
Case Study: Commercial troffer component upgrade to LED Retrofit
Hawthorne Ridge Apartments: Woodridge, IL. (Small Retrofit Project)
Component upgrade of 70 fixtures in common areas: 1 x 4 Florescent Troffer to 1 x 4 LED Retrofit Kit (pictured above)
When we reduce a fixtures power consumption by 50 to 80 percent, and we provided the consumer a maintenance free retrofitted fixture it does make you ask yourself, why hasn’t everyone done this yet? At M-Lite, we have often found that the most common reason why the change has not occurred is because the product has not been demonstrated properly as to how it can be cost effective, and pay for itself.
So let’s see how a little investment can become a huge cash savings over a short period of time.
The actual return on investment (ROI) depends on a few efficiency measures below:
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How many hours are the lights in use
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What type of fixture are we upgrading to LED
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How many are we upgrading to LED
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What is the cost per kilowatt hour from the current electrical provider
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How much does it cost to maintain the current fixture annually
The MR14 retrofit kits are the perfect component upgrade for most commercial Troffers that are 1×4 in size. These 1×4 Troffers normally have a 2 fluorescent tubes, and ballast system. Depending upon the age, and type they will consume between 68 to 120 watts. Our MR14 LED retrofit kit consumes 34 watts, so worst case scenario it will reduce the fixtures power consumption by 50 percent.
As you can see from above the “Cost of Waiting” chart, it illustrates how it will cost Hawthorn Ridge apartments almost $900 a month not to retrofit. This is huge for such a small project, and considering HUD will give this apartment complex help with the majority of cost is another plus that we did not even factor in on our project proposal.
Another benefit that this project had was that the install was done by the maintenance staff at Hawthorn Ridge, which is one of the reasons why they will have a return on investment in less than 7 months. Since all projects are different we will customize our reports to factor in your variables, but in the case of this project, the cost of an electrical contractor to do the install would of still hit a return on investment in less than 12 months.
Overall, the goal is to save money, and investing in an LED Retrofit project can do just that. Hawthorn Ridge figures this will allow them to cut energy cost, and generate additional funds for other building upgrades in the future.
For further questions on this case study, please contact Dave Rozek at 630.290.1319
M-Lite Solutions 