Urban Energy Group

Are High CRI LED Lamps Worth the Higher Cost?

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Consider the last time you were walking around downtown Seattle. You pass one of the giant skyscapers on your right hand side and do a double take. You gaze into the lobby and think, wow what an exceptional piece of artwork!  Entering a space with vibrant splashes of color can instantaneously transform a visitor’s mood. Many of us appreciate artwork but we rarely come to understand the technical complexity that goes into creating all the vibrant murals that hang across town.

Light quality is critical for the painting industry. Color matching is especially important. LEDs with a high CRI factor offer superior benefits over fluorescent lighting for the following reasons:

  1. To see paint color without tinting effects
  2. Mimic natural light for accurate color matching
  3. Seeing texture

In February, Urban Energy Group partnered with Hauge & Hassain, Inc., a Ballard based business with over 50 years of experience installing murals, cork boards, and wallcovering products for corporate customers, high end residential homes, and vessels in the Puget Sound region.

Hauge & Hassain, Inc. was searching for results beyond energy savings. They needed better lighting in their shop and their paint booth to improve their color matching process. We found them a solution that would save money and would enhance their quality control process. We upgraded all their 32W fluorescent bulbs with 14W high CRI LED lamps and replaced their 400W metal halide high bay fixtures with 165W LED highbays. We even installed a few high CRI lamps in one of the technicians office so he can conduct quality control and respond to customer’s email at the same time. Now that’s efficiency!

Project Highlights

  • $3,162 saved/yr
  • 39,522 kWh saved/yr
  • 47% energy saved/yr
  • 42% incentivized by Seattle City Light

Finding solutions that save our customers money and optimize business operations excites us at Urban Energy Group…and it’s also pretty cool when Seattle City Light pays for almost half the project! Click here to see if your facility qualifies for better lighting.

 

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