High Productivity and Safety Start with Your Warehouse & Distribution Center Lighting

Thanks to the rise of online stores (e-commerce), distribution centers that cater to this industry are busier than ever. They take orders from online store owners, and ship the products directly to the stores’ customers. This means that a high volume of goods are shipped every day in the form of small orders. Pulling this off efficiently is essential to staying competitive, and many of these warehouses try to cope by using sophisticated productivity technology.

However, if you manage such an operation, you shouldn’t overlook the basics, such as warehouse lighting. Your lighting affects productivity in a number of ways. Poor lighting causes more product picking errors from the inventory shelves. This means that the wrong products are shipped to customers, which result in costly product returns and lost customers.

Poor lighting also leads to eyestrain and worker fatigue. This is particularly the case when using dim and flickering fluorescent lights. Worker fatigue hurts you in two ways. First, tired workers are less productive, which means your operation’s efficiency suffers. Second, tired workers make more mistakes, which compounds the product picking error problem.

Poor lighting also increases accidents, especially in warehouses bustling with activity. Busy people sharing dimly lit aisles with busy forklifts are accidents waiting to happen. Inefficient lighting also puts out a lot of waste heat. This extra heat can make your warehouse unbearable during the summer months, which will require expensive air conditioning to keep your workers productive.

Many companies are solving their warehouse & distribution center lighting problems with LED lighting. Its bright and uniformly distributed output solves the visibility and eye fatigue problem. Unlike fluorescent lighting, it doesn’t flicker. LED lights are also energy efficient. Lighting converts electricity into heat and light. Efficient lighting turns more of that electricity into light, and less into heat. This reduced heat output means you can keep your workers cool with less air conditioning in the summer. This results in less energy consumption by your air conditioners and your lighting. Another benefit is reduced maintenance costs thanks to the longer life of LED lighting.

In conclusion, LED lighting increases the efficiency of your distribution center, and saves money on energy consumption and maintenance. Before spending a fortune on sophisticated productivity technology, try using better lighting first.

New Lighting Technology for Energy-Efficiency

To achieve better illumination, industrial, manufacturing, and commercial sites are retrofitting old metal halide and high-pressure sodium lighting systems with next generation LED lighting. In the process, those sites are realizing substantial energy-efficiency benefits from those LED lighting systems.

An LED lighting system can generate the same or better luminosity as a traditional lighting systems while consuming less than half the electrical energy as a traditional system might require. The costs of retrofitting a traditional industrial or commercial lighting system with an LED system will be recouped in twelve to eighteen months after installation solely from reduced energy utilization. Next generation LED systems can operate for up to 50,000 hours continuously, and in some cases for more than 100,000 hours. This reduces maintenance and replacement costs as well.

Newer LED systems have also responded to the criticisms of degrading luminosity that had affected the first generation of LED’s. LED manufacturers have developed heat sink technology and other systems that reduce the thermal load on LED luminaires. Reduced thermal loads extend the life and performance of LED’s and keep fixtures operating at peak performance for several years.

Industrial and commercial sites that retrofit with LED systems will also experience secondary energy efficiency benefits from improved employee safety and performance. LED lighting is closer to natural lighting than traditional illumination systems. Employees are better able to distinguish fine detail and contrasting features in objects under LED light. These improvements lead to reduced employee fatigue and better overall operational efficiency.

 

Protect Your Customers, Protect Your Business

You want to protect your business, and you also want your customers to feel safe.  How can you accomplish that with a minimum of expense?  Parking lot lighting can go a long way toward all these ends when done properly.

Protect Your Business

Outside lights are a big deterrent to criminals.  The LAPD lists outdoor lighting as a way to protect your business, and the city of Charleston, SC calls lighting the “most cost-effective deterrent to crime.”  If the police are telling everyone that lighting is one of the best ways to keep criminals at bay, shouldn’t we listen?

Keep Your Customers Safe

Safety and security are not the same.  According to FacilitiesNet, Safety requires light to see tripping hazards, while security requires lighting that allows people to see faces, etc.  Both under-lighting and over-lighting increase certain risks.  That’s why it’s important to have a professional examine your space and work out the safest plan with a company that has nearly 10 years of experience.

Don’t Spend Too Much

Lighting is one of the least expensive options you have for adding security to your business.  Compared to a security company or lots of locks and bars on the windows, lighting is quite an appealing choice.  But what about running all those lights?  We use LED lights, which drastically cuts your costs.  Suddenly, you don’t have to worry about your wallet when it comes to lighting.

There are so many reasons to invest in outdoor lighting for your parking lot, we can only list a few here.

Will Giant Wind Turbines Provide Tomorrow’s Clean Energy?

Wind power is one of the biggest sources of clean energy in the world today. And while wind power has seen steady growth over the years as the technology has advanced, a new proposal might be able to blow away our expectations of just how much power we can generate from our wind.

Blades Bigger Than Two Football Fields?

According to the LA times, a research team that’s drawn members from four universities and two national laboratories is putting its heads together to design the biggest wind turbine we have ever seen. The initial designs, which have been tested in digital simulations, have blades that are 652.2 feet in length, and the towers supporting them 1,574 feet tall… which is a little over a third of a mile in height. Not only that, but the turbines will have two blades each, and the blades will be segmented in such a way as to catch the biggest amount of wind possible.

The term for this design is extreme scale, and it’s certainly an appropriate one.

How Much Power Will These Flower Towers Generate?

The goal of this massive wind turbine is, of course, to generate more power from a single structure. A single one of these huge turbines could generate as much as 50 megawatts of power, which is the size of a small power plant. To put that in perspective, that’s 20 times as much power as the current, average wind turbine.

That seems like a pretty snazzy goal, but the research for one of these titanic towers is just stepping out of the realm of the theoretical, and into the realm of the physical. The team has until 2019 to build a 1/10 scale model of a completed windmill, and to test it, in order to be able to move forward with the project. They’re just now getting started on this proof of concept, but as of this moment everything looks like it’s progressing smoothly. Whether that will continue to be the case, or the project will see an unfortunate wind change, remains to be seen.

Are Fossil Fuels Going Green Too?

You can’t turn on the TV, or read a news blog, without hearing about how the world is going green. Solar power is off like a rocket, wind energy is increasingly popular, and reliable green solutions like anaerobic digesters and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) are becoming more widely used. Fossil fuels aren’t giving up the fight, though. In fact, according to Vox, Net Power is working with a variety of big names in energy to prove that we can burn fossil fuels without releasing any greenhouse gas emissions.

How Does That Work?

When you think of a typical fossil fuel power plant, it’s a pretty basic setup. A fuel like coal or natural gas is burned to heat water, the water turns into steam, and the steam turns the turbines. The steam is then cooled somewhere else, and that’s when the greenhouse gases like CO2 are expelled into the atmosphere. In order to make that kind of design safe, a company would have to build a secondary plant whose sole purpose is capturing the steam, and filtering out all of the unwanted materials so they aren’t released into the atmosphere. That represents a huge drain on power, efficiency, and costs.

But what if you could build a greener plant, without the need for a secondary processing plant to catch and trap the emissions? That’s what Net Power is currently doing in North Carolina. It just broke ground on a 50 megawatt power plant that will act as a proof-of-concept to show that it’s possible to generate electricity on a large-scale by using natural gas, but without the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

The reason Net Power’s plant should be able to accomplish this feat, while also maintaining as much as 59 percent efficiency, is its unique design. It uses pure oxygen instead of air, a liquid turbine instead of a steam one, and it keeps the CO2 in liquid form, where it can be easily contained. Additionally, these plants use smaller components, and take up a lot less space.

But They’re Still Burning Fossil Fuels

The important point not to lose sight of is that Net Power’s plants still use fossil fuels. Yes, they’re more efficient, and they’re trapping their emissions so they won’t harm the atmosphere, but unless we suddenly find something we can do with all that liquid CO2, then they’re just delaying the inevitable need for green power.

Which is why the technology should be looked at as a transitional one.

If inefficient power plants belching emissions into the atmosphere could be streamlined, and remade into more environmentally friendly power plants, then it would be a step in the right direction. Not only that, but they would buy time for green resources to step up and take the burden from fossil fuels. Rather than going cold turkey from natural gas and coal, the world would be using a kind of fossil fuel patch to step down its needs. Something that these more advanced designs could provide, if we use them as stepping-stones between where we are, and where we need to be.

The benefits of converting your business to LED lighting

For any business, the initial benefit of conducting LED lighting is the long-term cost savings. Yes, bulb-for-bulb, LED lighting does have a higher initial cost compared to incandescent lighting. However, over the course of an LED light’s lifespan, the real-life costs are a mere fifth of incandescent lighting.

Beyond the obvious cost savings aspect, there are three reasons why a business should consider upgrading their lighting to LED.

  1. Typically, LED lighting does not require equipment upgrades or replacement. Most incandescent bulbs have a direct equivalent LED replacement. Changing the bulbs in your offices, signs, security lighting and accent lighting is fairly effortless and should not incorporate additional costs beyond that of the bulbs.
  2. Incandescent bulbs have an expected lifespan of 2,000 hours compared to 50,000 hours for an LED. For a business, this longer lifespan equates to cost savings in the form of less required maintenance and reduced on-site storage of replacement bulbs. Additionally, lighting for signs and security will be more dependable. LED bulbs are also harder to break than incandescent and fluorescent lighting
  3. From an aesthetic standpoint, LED lighting provides a business with an array of options. Because the bulbs last longer and are more dependable, signs will not flicker and interior lighting will provide a more comfortable and secure feeling for employees and customers. LED lighting also comes in a variety of colors that can be designed to accommodate company colors, to create ambiance, or to fit a specific need. Available colors cover the spectrum and can easily be controlled via preprogramming or by a mobile app.

Depending on your business’ needs, LED lighting is available in an array of styles and applications.

Going Green Uncouples Economic Prosperity From Fossil Fuels

The recent explosion of green energy around the world has been busting a lot of myths over the past few years. The myth that green energy could never exist on an industrial scale was common for years, for example. But now there are at least four states in America who are getting all their power from renewable resources, and there are half a dozen states catching up to them. Green technology was always going to be prohibitively expensive, the common wisdom said, but the prices have all but tunneled into the ground as the market for green energy has surged, and demand has risen.

Perhaps the biggest myth that’s been held up about why we shouldn’t consider going green, though, is that it will hurt our economy to do so. After all, in a time where the whole world is coming out of a recession, is this the time to take such risky behavior?

Well, yes, as it turns out.

World Economy Grows Without Corresponding Greenhouse Gas Increase

For 200 years, any growth in the economy came with a growth in emissions. It makes sense, because when all major industries and electricity are powered by fossil fuels, a bigger economy that needs more energy means that more fossil fuels are being burned. However, when fossil fuels aren’t the only source of energy available, there’s no reason to use them to drive the economy.

Put another way, correlation does not prove causation.

Which is important to note, because for two years now world emissions have remained relatively stable, but the economy has increased, according to Quartz. This is due, in large part, to how so many countries have embraced green energy on an industrial scale. Additionally, since green energy remains a growing part of the economy, many countries are continuing to invest in it as a way to create new jobs, and provide necessary services to their citizens.

Is it possible to go green without compromising our lifestyles? It’s hard to say, but we do know that it’s possible to do it without driving our economy off a cliff.

Oregon Takes Clean Energy Forward By Planning a Coal Ban

The current clean energy climate has taken a lot of shots at coal. Coal-fire power plants have become less popular all over the world, and every nation from India, to China, to the United States is trying to cut down on its use of coal. However, very few nations have taken the crucial step of making a plan to phase-out coal use entirely. In the U.S., where fossil fuels still cast quite a long shadow, the idea of making a law forbidding the use of coal for energy use is bold, to say the least.

Oregon, though, has taken that step, according to IFL Science.

No More Coal After 2035?

As of time of writing, a law has passed through the state’s legislature that would phase out coal use for power generation by the year 2035. The law would also require that at least 50 percent of the state’s power come from renewable resources. At time of writing, the bill is awaiting the governor’s signature to become a law.

That law might not seem like it would have much of an impact, given that Oregon only has a single coal-fired power plant, but it imports a lot of its power from surrounding states as well. Montana, Utah, and Wyoming, as the three states responsible for most of Oregon’s imported, coal-based energy, might see their production from coal take a hit as well. What ripples that will send into other states, and how it will affect those states’ energy policies, remain to be seen.

 

Community-Oriented Clean Energy in New York City?

Something unusual is happening down on President Street in Brooklyn. Solar panels have been set up, and attached to a bank of computers. These computers monitor how much energy is generated, and how much is used, but they also give residents the ability to decide what happens to their own power. They can choose to sell every bit of excess energy to maximize their own profits, or they choose to donate power they don’t need, sending it to a low-income portion of the power grid. This experiment, using energy in a block chain setup, has major implications according to New Scientist.

A Different Kind of Clean Energy Revolution?

Green energy is a booming industry, and with governments working hand-in-hand with businesses, every year sees more solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy replacing old-fashioned fossil fuels. But the setup for homeowners has always been the same. You can set up solar panels that power your home, or which feed the grid, but you always have to go through your local utility. With this new block chain setup, that may not be the case in the future.

The idea is that people who produce power get to decide how it’s used, creating a microgrid that uses all the local energy. Given that these grids are considered more secure, and that they aren’t really affected by problems at the utility headquarters, there are a lot of people pushing for wider adoption. Lower overhead, fewer billing costs, and homeowners get to decide what to do with their own clean energy.

The U.S. Could Seriously Go Green By 2030 With 78% Renewable Energy

We’ve heard a lot about the U.S.’s attempts to go green. We know, for example, that the solar power industry has been growing at an increased rate. We also know that renewable energy capacity both locally and across the world is higher than it’s ever been before. However, it’s hard to take all the individual pieces of information, and fit them into a big puzzle. Especially if you’re trying to answer the big question, which is “when will the United States run on renewable energy?”

Sometime around 2030, assuming the numbers from the University of Colorado are accurate.

Will 78 Percent of Our Power Come From Renewables?

One of the biggest problems with green energy has been that it’s intermittent. Sometimes the sun shines brightly, and sometimes the wind blows strong, but sometimes the opposite is true. Given the size of the United States, though, there’s always going to be sun shining, wind blowing, and water flowing. So the key is to install capacity that scales with the weather patterns in the U.S.

What are the benefits, aside from cutting carbon emissions and slowing (or potentially reversing) global warming? Well, by installing enough green energy to meet our needs (or a little over 3/4 of our needs), we would see steadier energy costs which are unaffected by the costs of fossil fuels. We’d see more economic growth, and more jobs in green energy fields. We’d also eliminate our need to import fuels from other countries, making the U.S. self-reliant for its own power needs.

All good goals, and cutting emissions will be the cherry on top. But there’s still a long way to go in the next 14 years, and the decisions we make economically and politically are going to be the ones that determine if we fall short, meet, or surpass the numbers Colorado has laid on the table.