Like any workspace, industrial buildings require well-planned lighting systems to support various activities. High bay lighting needs to meet the demands of uniformly illuminating spaces with high ceilings while minimizing energy and maintenance costs.
Technological advances in LED lighting fixtures provide longer-lasting light and cost-saving advantages when compared to high intensity discharge (HID) or fluorescent lighting technologies, making it a great option for areas with high ceilings. This paper addresses the return on investment (ROI) an energy-efficient LED high bay lighting system can provide an industrial building.
Transitioning from HID to LED Lighting Technology
The use of HID lighting is extremely common for high bay applications, but it leaves facility managers with two challenges: excessive energy consumption and expensive lighting maintenance. Both of these issues directly affect the bottom line. While fluorescent and HID lighting technologies have matured, LED continues to develop and act as a solution to these challenges.
LED technology uses small light chips known as light-emitting diodes that become illuminated by the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material. Unlike HID or fluorescent lamps, this advanced technology has the ability to distribute light evenly over a wide area by pointing the light where it is needed rather than dispersing it. With LEDs, facility managers can better utilize light distribution and limit the number of fixtures required to light a space. Ongoing energy consumption costs can be minimized when fewer fixtures are being used.

The Quick Payback of LED High Bay Lighting
LED high bay lighting has become a feasible option for warehouses and manufacturing facilities due to technological advances that provide long-lasting light and cost-saving advantages. With the Energy Information Association’s estimate of more than 10 billion square feet of warehouse space in the United States, that’s a lot of space to equip with high bay lighting. Thousands of warehouses in the United
States have already installed LED lighting, and adoption continues to grow due to recent drops in fixture pricing and technology improvements. Both reduced pricing and technology improvements lead to savings that can add up to a short ROI. choosing energy-efficient lighting that doesn’t contain toxic materials speak for themselves. LEDs eliminate the need to pay for recycling of bulbs, tubes and ballasts, as well as the overhead associated with handling toxic materials.
FEWER maintenance costs
+
REDUCED recycling costs
+
LESS electricity used
Reduced maintenance costs have always been an attractive benefit of LED lighting. With some rated lifetimes exceeding
100,000 hours, LED lighting fixtures have diminished maintenance needs compared to HID high bay lighting.
Maintenance costs for HID lighting can quickly add up when considering materials, labor and equipment, including boom lifts and scissor lifts that may cost hundreds of dollars to rent.
In addition, environmental regulations call for bulbs to be carefully disposed of. According to Environment Health and Safety Online, disposal costs range from 75 cents to
$2.50 per compact fluorescent or HID lamp. When you multiply that by the number of lamps it takes to illuminate a warehouse or manufacturing facility, the cost savings of
When LED first entered the market, the majority of ROI was due to reduced maintenance costs. Today, reduced energy consumption costs also contribute to ROI. Traditional lighting consumes 38 percent of the total energy used in a typical warehouse and, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting can comprise up to 75 percent of such a facility’s energy expenditures when maintenance is factored in with energy costs. The latest LED high bay solutions are reducing energy consumption by 30 to 65 percent, but the amount of energy saved by installing LED high bay lighting depends on the type of LED chosen.
Energy Savings by LED Lighting Solution
Industrial LED lighting solutions can have varied savings opportunities, performance and lifetime characteristics, so it’s important to understand how each category of LEDs can impact your facility.
Basic LED lighting fixtures incorporate energy-efficient
LEDs for illumination, but they are functionally equivalent to HID-based fixtures. Dimming might be an option that is sold separately, but it needs to be manually configured light by light. After initial installation of basic LED fixtures, lighting use is fixed and the only control available is an on/off switch or a circuit breaker. Because lighting control is limited, energy consumption savings are on the lower end of the 30 to 65 percent spectrum. Attaining greater savings is possible when basic LED lighting fixtures are equipped with daylight sensors. These sensors achieve greater energy efficiency by turning lights on and off.
Energy efficiency is enhanced through intelligent LED lighting systems that integrate sensors and are wirelessly networked while providing a software management and reporting interface. Intelligent LED lighting systems take advantage of the capabilities of LEDs to maximize energy savings while providing control and flexibility over how lighting is used.
These intelligent lighting solutions can deliver energy savings of 80 to 90 percent over legacy systems.
GE LED lighting control systems can deliver

Ene rgy Incentive Rebates Make LEDs Affordable
LED high bay lighting can reduce energy and maintenance costs—but not cost a fortune. Energy incentive rebates are available from many local utility providers and can range from $100 to $400 per LED fixture, depending on funding availability and burn hours. To take advantage of these incentives, an on-site lighting audit needs to be performed.
A local utility company, lighting manufacturer or distributor will perform the lighting audit and review maintenance and utility bills from the previous 12 months. They will also collect data such as lighting dimensions, fixture quantities, lamp wattage and photos of areas being reviewed. When the audit is completed, facility managers will receive an optimized lighting layout, recommended products and a list of next steps.
Many local utility providers offer
$100 to $400 per fixture.
The future looks bright for LED lighting technology as the U.S.
Department of Energy estimates that solid state, LED-based lights can potentially help save 1,488 terra watts of electricity valued at $120 billion between 2010 and 2030. With further
LED technological advancements still to come, the ROI of LED high bay lighting will continue to improve as well.
For more information on energy-efficient lighting solutions for your facility, contact an expert with GE Lighting at gelighting.com/contact.
© GE 2015 VERT033 1/9/15