HID Lighting (metal halide / high pressure sodium) has been the primary light source for outdoor applications until recently. LED is now the go-to choice for new construction, so what do you do with your existing HID outdoor light fixtures? The answer is to retrofit them to LED or replace them with a new LED fixture. As with all lighting projects, each situation is unique so it’s important to understand what your goals are.

If your fixtures are in decent shape and your main goal is to save energy and reduce maintenance costs, then a retrofit is probably your best bet. If your fixtures are in rough shape and/or not providing you with adequate lighting, then a new fixture is best. Here is an overview of things to consider for each option.

Retrofit HID with LED

There are many options available for retrofitting HID fixtures to LED, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that it is often times difficult to find an LED retrofit option that provides similar light levels while being able to fit into the existing fixture. With that in mind, the first step is to determine what you currently have installed and to measure how much room you have in your existing fixture. Another item to factor in is voltage. Outdoor lighting can range from 120 to 480 volt, and once you get above 277 volt the retrofit options are limited. The last item to consider is color. High Pressure Sodium lamps provide a yellow/orange color and Metal Halide provides a whiter color. There are more white LED retrofit options than yellow for outdoor LED retrofits, so knowing what color you want is important up front. Once you have all these factors analyzed, you can determine what options there are available for your application. Depending on the situation, we are often seeing paybacks of less than 3 years on retrofitting HID outdoor light fixtures to LED retrofits.

New LED Fixtures

Going with a new fixture is always the best bet as they last longer, run more efficiently, and provide more light than retrofit options. The reason for this is because the fixture is built for LED vs. a retrofit where you are installing an LED in a fixture that was built for an HID light source. There are more options available for new LED fixtures than LED retrofits, from LED Wallpacks to LED Canopy Fixtures and LED Pole Lights. So there isn’t as much concern with what you currently have. What you do want to note is how the current fixture is mounted and more importantly how much light you need. The mounting helps make sure ease of install when you get the new fixture, and it is a fairly easy process to run a photometric report for new fixtures to ensure you get adequate light levels. Depending on the situation, we are often seeing paybacks of less than 5 years on replacing HID outdoor light fixtures to LED fixtures.

With our mission being to provide our customers with the optimal and practical lighting solution, we often times provide retrofit products for this application. But the best long term solution is a new LED fixture.

Premier Lighting

Our mission at Premier Lighting is to provide our customers with the optimal and practical lighting system. No matter what the industry – hospitality, health care, educational, retail, industrial – we can deliver solutions to every vertical market. We understand the needs of your organization and have served others like you in the past. If you are interested in the optimal lighting solution for your facility, contact us today to get started!