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Most
companies are in some business other than lighting and the
exact number and type of bulbs that they have fall under the
radar of everyday concerns. It's the aggregate effect of
all those bulbs in the form of a monthly utility bill that
hits home and usually drives the initial interest in
switching to LED lights. There's one time that it make
sense to really understand the bulb make-up in a business or
residence and that's when running your LED light quote.
This process is know as the lighting inventory and it's
basically a tally of types and numbers of bulbs. Let's walk
through how to conduct your lighting inventory and some
basic terminology that will help us provide the most
accurate LED lighting quote.
In most
cases, a change to LED lighting is a direct bulb to bulb
conversion. Start with 100 bulbs (either incandescent, CFL,
or fluorescent) and end with 100 bulbs of the low wattage,
long-lasting LED flavor. Let's look at the information
needed through our LED light quote.
The
categories you'll see in the
LED
light quote are Type, Location, Wattage,
Bulbs per Fixture, and Total Quanity. There are multiple
lines and we want to put each type of bulb on one line to
make things cleaner. Let's look at the categories.
First you have Type and this refers to your current bulb
type. Light bulbs have a nomenclature to describe all the
different shapes, types, and sockets. You can check our our
Bulb Type page for images of the most common bulb types and
names. You may list something like PAR38 or GU11 in the
"Type" area. If you're unsure, you can always shoot us a
picture of the bulb or email us a question. We'd be happy
to help with this. Make sure to include if the bulbs are
dimmable as this affects the pricing. You have a PAR38 or
PAR38 dimmable which are priced differently.
The
next category, Location is more for your internal uses.
We'll package them accordingly and this will help you at the
time of installation. Keep in mind that non-dimmable bulbs
should not be put in a dimmable socket as it can damage it.
Wattage is our third category. The wattage is usually
printed right on the bulb and it helps us quote an
equivalent bulb since we can translate wattage into lumens
or amount of light that a bulb produces. If you have a 60
watt incandescent light, we know that a 3 watt LED will
provide the same (if not more) light. Accuracy is really
important here to make sure you have comparable light
production (at a much lower wattage) and recommend exact
amounts.
Bulbs per fixture is generally only needed for strip or
fluorescent lightings since a fixture may have 4 bulbs or it
may have 2 bulbs. This also comes into play with the
direct bulb to bulb comment we made above. It's not
unreasonable to get the same amount of light production form
2 LED strips as you would get from 4 fluorescent strips
which furthers increases your savings. You can also leave
this category blank and just stick a straight bulb to bulb
comparison.
Finally, there is total Quantity for a particular bulb.
Remember to list different types of bulbs and different
wattage bulbs on separate lines for a more accurate quote.
For example PAR38 90 watt would be on one line while PAR38
60 watt would be on another so we can more exactly match
your lighting needs unless of course, you would rather the
lights all have the same brightness in a given space.
Please
let us know if you have any questions on running your LED
lighting inventory so we can get the quote to you as soon as
possible.
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