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Largest Metal Can Supplier in North America Completes Lighting Retrofit at Three Facilities
Advantages of Pulse Start Metal Halide Bulbs
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 October 2010
Largest Metal Can Supplier in North America Completes Lighting Retrofit at Three Facilities

Silgan Containers, the largest metal food can supplier in North America, recently partnered with Premier Lighting to provide energy-saving lighting retrofits at three of their facilities.  Premier Lighting began the lighting retrofit process with an in-depth lighting energy analysis of these facilities in late 2009 to help Silgan determine if they were feasible for 2010.  The results of the studies were astounding, so Silgan budgeted for the projects to be done over the course of several months in 2010.

The first facility completed was a 300,000 square foot warehouse.  This facility stores thousands of metal cans stacked almost 40 feet high.  Depending on the time of the year the warehouse is often completely full with only aisle ways between rows of product.  They had 400 watt high pressure sodium fixtures that were on 3,600 hours per year.  Highbay6lampThe lighting retrofit replaced each 400 watt fixture (draws 460 watts each) with a 6 Lamp T8 fixture that draws 217 watts each.  In addition a majority of the fixtures were installed with motion sensors as many of the areas are only used for storage so there is no need to keep the lights on all the time.  The lighting retrofit resulted in 20% increased light levels, an energy savings of over $15,000/year and a payback of 18 months.

The second facility completed is a manufacturing facility.  The fixtures were a 400 watt metal halide (drawing 455 watts per fixture) and they were replaced with a 6 lamp T8 fixture (217 watts) as well.  There were a few areas that implemented the use of a sensor as well, but for the most part the facility is in use in all areas throughout the day so the addition of a sensor was not necessary throughout.  The lighting retrofit at this facility resulted in a 40% light level increase, an energy savings of over $32,500/year and a payback of 10 months.

The last facility completed was a mixture of the first two facilities, manufacturing and warehouse.  This facility also had 400 watt metal halides and they were replaced with a 6 lamp T8 fixture.  The manufacturing area is in use most of the day in all areas so the use of a sensor was not necessary, but the warehouse portion is similar to the first facility so the use of sensors was incorporated in those fixtures.  The results of this lighting retrofit included a 30% light level increase, an energy savings of over $37,500/year and a payback of 15 months.

In all Silgan saved over $85,000/year in energy costs and improved their light levels significantly.  In addition the new lights turn on/off instantly (the old fixtures had a 10 minute warm-up time), the new components last longer than the old fixtures (reduced ongoing maintenance costs) and they were able to take advantage of the EPACT tax deduction at each facility which improved their payback even more.

This is just one example of the many companies Premier Lighting has partnered with recently in providing turn-key energy saving lighting retrofits.  If you would like to take advantage of a free energy analysis of your current lighting system, send us an email .

Advantages of Pulse Start Metal Halide Bulbs
Longer Operating Hours, Energy Efficient, Better Color Retention

Traditionally,  higher wattage metal halide light bulbs (175, 250, 400, 1,000 and 1,500 watt) used probe start technology, which uses three electrodes - a starter electrode and two operating electrodes - in the arc tube to start the light bulb. Probe start metal halides have some inherent disadvantages, such as high lumen depreciation over the life of the light bulb due to tungsten sputtering off of the electrodes and blackening the arc tube wall.  In addition the warm-up period can be as long as five minutes, depending upon light bulb type. If power is interrupted, even briefly, the light bulb's arc will extinguish, and the light bulb needs time to cool down before the arc can be re-started, in a typical probe start metal halide, this could be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. This is a concern in some lighting applications where prolonged lighting interruption could create manufacturing shut-down or a safety issue.

Pulse start technology, in part, was developed in response to; The Energy Independence & Security Act 2007 (EISA) a federal law, approved on December 19, 2007.  A portion of this law mandates the efficiency of metal halide ballasts from 150W - 500W and are manufactured (or import) for sale in the United States on or after January 1, 2009. Therefore, probe start metal halide bulbs are being phased out in the manufacturing of fixtures that utilize metal halide bulbs.


pulsestartMHTo achieve the required mandates, pulse start metal halide light bulbs do not have a starter probe electrode. Instead they have a high-voltage igniter that works with the ballast to start the light bulb using a series of high-voltage pulses (typically 3 to 5 kilovolts). To change from a probe start metal halide bulb to a pulse start metal halide bulb a new ballast kit would be required to match the wattage of the pulse start metal halide bulb.

The high pulses of voltage allow the light bulb to warm-up and reach full lumen output faster than probe start light bulbs and reduce hot restrike time; a pulse start metal halide light bulb needs only 5-7 minutes to restrike.  Using an igniter also reduces the tungsten sputtering by heating up the electrodes faster during start-up; resulting in less lumen depreciation caused by tungsten blackening and because the tungsten remains on the electrodes longer, the life of the pulse start light bulb is longer than the probe start metal halide light bulb.

The results were a pulse start metal halide bulb with improved lumens per watt and 10,000 more operating hours for Pulse Start bulbs.  Below is an example of the improved lumens for a 400 watt bulb:

Probe Start 400w Metal Halide

23,000 Initial Lumens

@ 57.5 Lumens/watt

 

Pulse Start 400w Metal Halide

35,000 Initial Lumens

12,000 more Lumens

@ 87.5 Lumens/watt

 

To save energy and still maintain or exceed existing light levels,

the following bulbs could be used in place of a 400 watt bulb.

 

Pulse Start 350w Metal Halide

29,000 Initial Lumens

6,000 more Lumens

@ 82.9 Lumens/watt

 

Pulse Start 320w Metal Halide

26,000 Initial Lumens

3,000 more lumens

@ 81.3 Lumens/watt

Another difference between probe start metal halide bulbs and pulse start metal halide bulbs is the degree of color shift.  Probe start light bulbs have a color shift of plus or minus 300K, whereas pulse start light bulbs have a color shift of plus or minus 100K, which can still be considered a noticeable difference yet, better than probe start light bulbs.  Also, some metal halide manufacturers now produce a bulb at 5,000K, with a whiter, more natural light which allows a lower wattage bulb to have the perception of more light and can be used where color is important like retail and body shop painting applications


Contact Premier Lighting for more information or to order pulse start metal halide bulbs and ballast kits.
Helpfull Hints
Spiral Installing CFL's

When installing and removing Spiral CFL's use the base of the spiral to install or remove the bulb into the socket.  This will avoid any damage to the spiral by loosening or breaking the spiral from the base which could cause premature failure and exposure to the chemicals contained in the spiral bulb.
 

 
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Premier Lighting stocks a complete line of commercial-grade fluorescent, halogen, HID, incandescent and LED lamps, ballasts, controls and sensors for all your daily supply needs, along with commercial-grade fixtures and replacement lenses for those special projects. 

If you would like to have a custom on-line order form specific to the lighting products you purcahse on a regular basis please contact us at Premier Lighting and request your own personalized custom order form.
 
 
Premier Lighting, Inc.
Toll Free: 800.536.4255
St. Paul/Minneapolis: 651.490.0886
 
 
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