Sick of "green" this and "green" that everywhere you look? I can even imagine the hard-core save the earth hippies cringing as the corporate world profits from the green craze. But there has been one corner of this new green world that's intrigued me over the last few months.
Being a security guy, lighting is as important to me as a comb is to a barber. And being from the Research Triangle Park (RTP) of North Carolina, I'm extremely happy to see the success of the LED technology innovators - CREE. In this frightening economy, it's impressive to see the kind of growth these guys are achieving. So the natural progression here is for me to start thinking about the benefits of LED lighting in security applications right? Absofrigginglutely.
On the surface, it's easy to see how using LED technology has long term budgetary benefits over other options. And "being green" is feather everyone wants in their cap. But as you dig a little deeper, there may even be some more logistical and security-operational benefits.
Seeing as how it takes a lot less juice to power LED lights, you open up a whole other level of options when you're talking sustained and durable lighting. I'm even seeing some solutions packaged to sell now. (I don't have any first hand experience with the linked solution, just using it as an example).
Problem: When the power goes out - your lights go out. It's fairly normal to have emergency lighting inside your facilities but not your outdoor spaces. I may be off base here, but it's been my experience that asking your facilities management department to put your outdoor lighting on generator back-up is like asking your HR department to insure pets. It can be done, but it's going to cost someone a lot of money.
But what if your outdoor lights backed themselves up? I don't feel we are ready to have 100% solar power running our outdoor lighting. But I do feel that switching to LEDs help you keep them lit when the power goes down.
I'd like to hear any experiences out there with backing up outdoor lighting, or using LEDs outdoors. Along with my concerns about 100% solar lighting - I also have concerns about how effective LED lighting is for this kind of use (we all do).
