The changes are illuminating!
Lighting is one of the absolutely biggest changes taking place in the electrical industry.
Government mandates eliminated many inefficient bulbs in the 90's and the federal Clean Energy Act of 2007 effectively bans incandescent bulbs that produce 310 to 2600 lumens of light by 2014. There are some exemptions.
Regular fluorescent ballasts replaced with electronic ballasts and T-8 bulbs reduce the electrical load by 50% while producing nearly the same lumens. Most office settings and retail stores have transitioned and are enjoying the cost savings, cooler operating temperatures, better color rendering, and longer bulb life. Four foot T-8's now come in 28 watt versions.
And over the horizon is LED lighting. We recently wired two homes incorporating LED lighting. WOW! Great light that consumes very little power. LED is the future.
We're seeing equally big changes in high output lighting. The above photo is one example of reducing the Tower City Veterans Memorial Association's electric bill by 50%. Now that's exciting!
Take a look at the overhead in the big box stores. Gone are the low and high bay lighting. In is the new High Output T-5 lighting that originated in Europe. Again, half the usage cost at nearly the same lighting level. AND if the store loses power, T-5 lamps do not need to cool down before they re-fire (like the old bay lighting systems).
Also we have experience in critical color matching environments. Consider the importance of correctly identifying and matching colors in a hair loss clinic or graphics design office.. or the right socks from your walk in closet.
You will not find many of these products at Lowe's or Home Depot.
No offense to these big guys, its just that a lot of this stuff hasn't trickled down to the everyday ordinary store. But any good electrical supply house should have these cutting edge products.
Call us for an evaluation of your lighting needs. We can retrofit many existing lighting systems including the replacement of the old yellowed, cracked lens with new bright clear lens making your "old" lights look new again.