Induction Vs LED
Induction Vs LED
Guys,
You have an excellent point and I am wondering who told the client about Induction... it is the best kept secret in the lighting world.
I will try not to be a sales man and abide by the rules of the forum. But I do have to warn I am prodigious but fair to LED. I have LED in my house but I am not trying to light a pasture with it. The ones over my sink rock!
Yall hit on the single best selling point of induction price. Induction especially retrofit kits are a fraction of the cost of LED. And now that we have a large selection of socket based retrofit kits the market growing exponentially.
I will try not to bore yall with history but it helps to understand the products and growth.
Induction has been around for many years as a lighting alternative to HID. Then comes along LED. Energy prices increase at the same time lighting was no longer seen as a fixed expense. Consumers get introduced to LED and the thousand dollar light fixture all the sudden the Phillips induction QL @ 800 bucks is a good deal!
Fast forward 4 yrs..LED is everywhere, it's sexy and the new thing...but they ain't giving it away. Consumers accept the costs and look to the future. The whole time Induction is sitting in the wings, growing and gaining acceptance globally. Products are improving and economies of scale kick in.
In the mean time the commercial market is getting to end of live on HID and wants to get in the LED market for all the right reasons. THEN the price knocks them right on their collective butt. The next question is always "What else do you have?"
The answer is Induction lighting; 60 to 100, 000 hours, UL approved, retrofit kits at a 1/3 of the cost of LED. If new fixtures @ 50%.
Add in several large suppliers of Induction products servicing the North American market gaining some real traction.
TODAY the single largest obstacle to induction acceptance has been overcome is putting round pegs in square holes and having a quick easy install that the customer can easily understand. Let me back up here a bit and lay some more history in ya.
First generation Induction was/are the circular, square, and ball QL type lights. now these are great designs and are more than tried and true designs and used everyday in new fixtures. But retrofitting current fixtures is a challenge to say the least.
Second generation Spherical high wattages with a e40/Mogul base sockets is now available. These are externally ballasted and can fit into most fixtures. Now we have a 200w e40 base kit with an external ballast and retrofitting the fixture is actually less labor than replacing existing parts. Just gut the fixture's electrical and install the 5 wire ballast. 2- going to the lamp and 3- on the business side.
Oh yeah still a 1/3 of the cost of LED.
Now don't get me wrong it is not all rainbows and unicorns. The market still has the same challenges as LED in many ways.
- Fly by night jack wagons selling stuff that just don't work or is not in stock.
- Supply lines are long and the electrical supply house depend on their vendors to stock product. See point above
- MANY under funded start ups or uneducated field reps over promising and under delivering.
The single largest challenge to Induction is education. Electrical supply house are fragmented, franchisees and like every other business having to do more with less so education is very limited to the troops in the trenches.
I would like to know who tried to talk you out of induction. I bet it was one of the electrical supply houses.
Sorry about the long post but once I get going... So Yes Induction is better than LED when you need cheap raw horse-power.
