OUC can help you determine what type of lighting is best suited for your business:

Incandescent:

Incandescent bulbs produce light when an electric current passes through a filament and causes it to glow. Because they are less energy efficient than other light sources, they are best used for task lighting that demands high levels of brightness.

Since 2012, the U.S. Energy and Independence Act of 2007 required most incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light using less wattage.

Reflectorized incandescent bulbs have a reflective coating inside the bulb that directs the light in one direction rather than all around.

Tungsten-halogen incandescent bulbs produce a brighter and whiter light than other incandescent bulbs. They also have a longer life and provide more light per watt than standard incandescent bulbs, making them a more efficient choice. Halogen bulbs are available in two types: line voltage (120 watt) and low voltage (12 volt).

LEDs:

LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) produce light when voltage is applied to negatively charged semiconductors, causing electrons to combine and create a unit of light (photon). In simpler terms, an LED is a chemical chip embedded in a plastic capsule. Because they are small, several LEDs are sometimes combined to produce a single light bulb.

LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller size, and faster switching. Light-emitting diodes are now used in applications as diverse as aviation lighting, automotive headlamps, advertising, general lighting, traffic signals, and camera flashes. However, LEDs for general lighting require more precise current and heat management than compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.

Fluorescent - T5/T8/T12:

Fluorescent produce light when an electric arc passes between cathodes to excite mercury and other gases producing radiant energy, which is then converted to visible light by a phosphor coating.

They use 1/5 to 1/3 as much electricity as incandescent with comparable lumen ratings and last up to 20 times longer. Compact types are used in smaller, trimmer fixtures such as recessed down lights, wall sconces, close-to-ceiling fixtures, and track lights. Screw-in types can be used in place of incandescent in standard lamp sockets. They are available in a wide spectrum of color temperatures. Warm white tones best duplicate the color of incandescent.

Today's fluorescent bulbs come in a wide selection of sizes and can produce warm tones of light similar to those of incandescent. If your fixtures are on a dimming system, look for fluorescent bulbs labeled "dimmable." Because fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, it is important to dispose of them properly.

CFLs:

 (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) combine the energy efficiency of fluorescent lighting with the convenience and popularity of incandescent fixtures. CFLs fit most fixtures designed for incandescent bulbs and use about 75% less energy.

Although CFLs cost a bit more than comparable incandescent bulbs, they last 6–15 times as long (6,000–15,000 hours). See How Energy-Efficient Light bulbs Compare with Traditional Incandescent, and find out how CFLs work.

CFLs are most cost-effective and efficient in areas where lights are on for long periods of time. You'll experience a slower payback in areas where lights are turned on for short periods of time. Because CFLs do not need to be changed often, they are ideal for hard-to-reach areas.

HIDs:

High-Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs produce light when an arc passes between cathodes in a pressurized tube, causing metallic additives to vaporize. They have long lives and are extremely energy efficient. With the exception of metal halides, HID sources generally do not produce pleasing light colors. In residential settings, HIDs are most often used for outdoor security and area lighting.

There are four types of HIDs:

• Metal Halide lamps have high luminous efficacy of around 75 - 100 lumens per watt, which is about twice that of mercury vapor lights and 3 to 5 times that of incandescent lights and produce an intense white light. Lamp life is 6,000 to 15,000 hours. As one of the most efficient sources of high CRI white light, metal halides as of 2005 were the fastest growing segment of the lighting industry. They are used for wide area overhead lighting of commercial, industrial, and public spaces, such as parking lots, sports arenas, factories, and retail stores.


• Low-Pressure Sodium is a gas-discharge lamp that uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure. Low-pressure sodium lamps are highly efficient electrical light sources, but their yellow light restricts applications to outdoor lighting such as street lamps.


• High-Pressure Sodium lamps have a broader spectrum of light than the low pressure, but still poorer color rendering than other types of lamps. Sodium-vapor lamps cause less light pollution than mercury-vapor lamps.


• Mercury Vapor lamps are more energy efficient than incandescent and most fluorescent lights, with luminous efficacies of 35 to 65 lumens per watt. Their other advantages are a long bulb lifetime in the range of 24,000 hours and a high intensity, clear white light output. For these reasons, they are used for large area overhead lighting, such as in factories, warehouses, and sports arenas as well as for streetlights. Clear mercury lamps produce white light with a bluish-green tint due to mercury's combination of spectral lines This is not flattering to human skin color, so such lamps are typically not used in retail environments.

– Source: American Lighting Association

Lighting Control System:

is an intelligent network based lighting control solution that incorporates communication between various system inputs and outputs related to lighting control with the use of one or more central computing devices. Lighting control systems are widely used on both indoor and outdoor lighting of commercial, industrial, and residential spaces. Lighting control systems serve to provide the right amount of light where and when it is needed.

Lighting control systems are employed to maximize the energy savings from the lighting system, satisfy building codes, or comply with green building and energy conservation programs. Lighting control systems are often referred to under the term Smart Lighting.

The major advantage of a lighting control system over stand-alone lighting controls or conventional manual switching is the ability to control individual lights or groups of lights from a single user interface device. This ability to control multiple light sources from a user device allows complex lighting scenes to be created. A room may have multiple scenes pre-set, each one created for different activities in the room. A major benefit of lighting control systems is reduced energy consumption. Longer lamp life is also gained when dimming and switching off lights when not in use. Wireless lighting control systems provide additional benefits including reduced installation costs and increased flexibility over where switches and sensors may be placed.

Lighting control systems typically provide the ability to automatically adjust a lighting device's output based on:

• Chronological time (time of day)
• Astronomical time (sunrise/sunset)
• Occupancy using occupancy sensors
• Daylight availability using photocells
• Alarm conditions
• Program logic (combination of events)

– Source: Lighting Controls Handbook, Fairmont Press