Maintenance savings
In terms of maintenance, there are also ‘hidden’ costs involved with using traditional incandescent bulbs as they need to be replaced several times per year as they last approximately 2,000 hours. Therefore, a facility operating its lights for 12 hours a day might need to replace the bulbs every six to seven months. The problem is light bulbs never burn out at the same time and most facilities find they regularly have one or two bulbs going out, creating dark spots in the pool that are unsafe and unsightly. By using LED bulbs, regular outages and dark spots are virtually eliminated as they have a much longer lifespan.
This also eliminates facility staff having to continuously replace light bulbs as part of their routine maintenance schedule. Further, should an LED bulb need to be replaced, the time involved to perform this task is greatly reduced when compared to changing an incandescent bulb. The main reason for this is incandescent bulbs run much hotter than LED bulbs, which often causes the light fixture’s gasket to expand and contract, thus making it harder to remove and replace the gasket during bulb replacement. Therefore, when changing an incandescent bulb, labor has to be figured in for both bulb and gasket replacement.
Another reason why maintenance costs are higher for a facility using incandescent bulbs is because it usually takes one service professional approximately 30 minutes to change each light safely and replace the bulb without the need to drain the pool. Also, depending on the maintenance crew’s experience, some aquatic facilities are obligated to hire an experienced service professional to perform the bulb replacements. Service companies typically charge $115 for the process.
| BRIGHTER LIGHT, IMPROVED VISIBILITY |
|---|
| Light-emitting diode (LED) pool lights produce a high colour temperature compared to incandescent pool lights. The ‘bluer’ LED light penetrates water better, giving higher brightness readings. Also, the dark-adapted human eye sees the higher colour temperature as brighter. A good example of this is high intensity discharge (HID) lights found on luxury/sports vehicles. These lights emit brighter light with a higher colour temperature (e.g. cool blue). |
LED rebate opportunities
In addition to lower monthly energy bills, many aquatic facilities are also taking advantage of rebates offered by utility companies should it convert from incandescent to LED lights. Many cities and provinces/states are offering sizable rebates to motivate more facilities to reduce energy consumption.
If more facility managers/operators took the time to document these potential savings as well as factor in the available rebates, which help to provide a quick ROI, the change to LED lighting would be a no-brainer.
Mike Fowler is the commercial marketing and sales manager for Pentair Water Commercial Pool and Aquatics in Sanford, N.C. He has been with Pentair since 1992, starting his career in the technical services department at Purex Pool Products. Fowler has held many managerial roles within the company, including marketing, accounting and products. He can be reached via e-mail at mike.fowler@pentair.com.
