Parking Lot Lights-LED's and Reducing Energy Costs

They are an often overlooked but integral part of our island community's landscapes.  There is no question that parking lots influence how we live, work, and play. They also require a substantial amount of energy and money to operate. A trend is growing across the globe and one that is seeing some traction in Guam-business owners are recognizing the potential of light-emitting diode (LED) technology in parking lot lighting. 

The reasons are simple: to save energy, reduce maintenance costs, and improve environmental sustainability.

LEDs have been shown to save energy in limited applications, but are they ready for wide-scale adoption in parking lots? 

The U.S. Department of Energy continues to ask this question as well as property owners and entrepreneurs alike.

Researchers and trade organizations have joined forces to develop a set of criteria retailers could follow to implement LED parking lot lighting and realize energy savings and reliability. Whether it is a parking lot in Atlanta or Agana, a LED Site Lighting Specification developed in cooperation with the U.S Department of Energy provides information about both luminaire, or light fixture, performance and how the site should be lighted. For instance, the Specification outlines how lighting needs vary across the different parts of the parking lot. The Specification optimizes the performance of sites, satisfying more than pure lighting needs. Business concerns such as site aesthetics, branding, and customer safety also come into play.

Additionally, the Specification recognizes the potential risks businesses face in adopting new technologies, including reliability and maintenance costs. To address these, the Specification requires that manufacturers guarantee product performance with a five-year minimum warranty for LED luminaires.

The LED Site Lighting Performance Specification provides requirements for lighting the site as well as the luminaires. Here are a few key details of the specification:

• Both power density and illuminance requirements are by lighting zone (LZ); different amounts of light (illuminance) are needed for different parts of the parking lot, and different environments need more or less light (and thus use power differently).
• Luminaires should follow the backlight, uplight, and glare (BUG) rating requirements in IESNA TM-15.
• Luminaires should carry at least a five-year warranty covering the luminaire, finish, and power supply.
• Testing requirements are identified on manufacturers cut sheets or specification sheets.

LED technology has advanced into new categories of “white light” applications, including parking lot lighting, where early indications suggest a high-quality light and long life. At present, however, tested products are available from a limited number of suppliers, performance in the later years of the product’s life-time can only be estimated, and LED luminaires are relatively expensive on a first-cost basis. Nonetheless, there are many benefits for LED lighting in parking lots.

Need an LED parking lot light solution for your facility? Check out our website at www.get-guam.com or give GET, LLC a call at 671-797-0789.  We are a provider of Independence LED Lighting and Deco Lighting Inc. products-Made in America!!!

Memorial Day 2015

GET,LLC would like to remind you that even though numerous communities had been independently celebrating Memorial Day for years, the federal government declared Waterloo, N.Y. the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo first celebrated the holiday on May 5, 1866. 

We take time to remember those who died in defense of our freedom and ask each of you to do the same to honor the role the past and current members of the United States Armed Forces have played in our lives and their important contributions to freedom and democracy. 

Metal and Education-The Future

As we near the end of the school year all across the islands of Micronesia, the thought of the future has been a running theme at graduations and commencements from Majuro to Palau .  A man who has a keen eye into the future and one of the smartest men in the construction industry, Fabral Vice President and General Manager Kit Emert wrote in his Blog earlier this year of the importance of building a sustainable environment for our children and young adults to learn, thrive and grow.  

While the metal industry's top executive noted that while each of us makes our own judgment on the state of education in America, we all must be supportive of learning within the building structures we present to them.  Emert points out that metal exterior enclosure systems provide an ideal solution for educational buildings and school athletic facilities. 

But why? 

"There are numerous reasons, but at the forefront is the fact that metal is truly sustainable as it provides materials containing high percentages of recycled content and that are wholly recyclable," wrote Emert. "Metal is economical in use as compared to other cladding materials. In addition, metal provides for efficient building enclosure, possible job site fabrication for long-length roofing panel systems, wall panel systems that blend well with other types of building products, metal can be incorporated with energy management products and metal cladding is ideal for retrofit applications." 

The 30 year metal construction professional added that metal systems can be designed for abuse resistance in high-traffic use or damage-prone areas. Emert opined that metal can be fabricated, colorized and designed to fit the architectural, functional and environmental needs of an educational building and enhance the learning process.

"Metal exterior enclosure systems have been successfully and beautifully utilized on countless schools across the US," wrote Emert. "Think metal exterior enclosure systems for education and in education-Metal is the sustainable direction for your building design and for our future."

With the rising cost of construction and increasing awareness of sustainable building practices across the Pacific, such a notion to move towards metal should not be left out of the design charrettes and master planning by government educators and island engineers alike through the summer break and beyond.

To find out more about how GET, LLC, through our metal building partners can help with your next steel building or aluminum roofing project, give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information.