3 Reasons Your Warehouse Should Ditch Metal-Halide Lights for LEDs

26 June 2019
 Categories: Construction & Contractors, Blog


For many years, metal-halide lights have been commonplace in warehouses. These HID bulbs provide a much higher light quality than their previous counterparts, and they run more efficiently too. However, while metal-halide lighting systems were a great choice at the time of their inception, there's now a far better warehouse lighting option on the market: LED bulbs. Here are three reasons why you should call an electrical installation company to refit your warehouse with LED lighting.

LED Lights Don't Need to Warm Up

If you've ever been in charge of getting your warehouse ready for a day of work, you're likely no stranger to the task of switching on all the lights well before any workers arrive. This is essential with metal-halide bulbs because they need a long time to warm up and operate at maximum efficiency—often 20 minutes or more. The warm-up time is not only a nuisance for warehouse managers—it's also a financial drain. If your warehouse operates every day of the year, switching lights on 20 minutes ahead of time means you're running lights unnecessarily for over 120 hours every year. The worst part is that metal halides burn more energy when they're warming up, using even more power than they do when they're at full capacity. LEDs, on the other hand, don't require any warm-up time at all. You can switch LED warehouse lights on and off whenever you need them, which eliminates the extra costs and considerations that warm-up times bring.

LED Lights Allow Adaptive Lighting

Even in the busiest warehouse, it's not uncommon for certain areas to spend several hours a day out of use. Of course, since metal halides require time to warm up and cannot be dimmed, this means you need to keep your whole warehouse fully lit at all times, which is a big drain on resources. With LED lighting, on the other hand, you can create a smart, adaptive lighting system that allows you to dim areas of your warehouse when they're not in use and increase the lights to full capacity instantly as and when needed. Your electrical installation company will be able to install the special dimming hardware for you.

LED Lights Have a Much Longer Lifespan

Since warehouses are big and require so many bulbs to stay lit, the time and monetary costs of replacing warehouse lighting can be very high. Metal-halide bulbs typically last up to 15000 hours. This means most warehouses will have to replace metal-halide bulbs every few years. Modern LED bulbs, however, have the longest lifespan out of all the available types of lighting. These lights can last up to 100,000 hours or more, lasting over a decade before needing to be replaced. They may require a higher cost up front, but you'll save on that over time in maintenance costs and the lost work hours bulb replacement causes.


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