It used to be that LED lighting was the future of commercial lighting. Its cutting-edge quality fused with unprecedented savings to the bottom line made it the ideal choice for any refrigerated and frozen food manufacturer and distributor.

Fast forward to today, and many of today’s cold food processors are searching for the key that unlocks energy savings.

That’s why Dialight, Farmingdale, N.J., for example, introduced upgrades to its Vigilant area light and high-bay fixtures. 

“Dialight is committed to reducing consumption, cost and environmental impact with LED lighting and controls for its customers,” says Rizwan Ahmad, vice president of technology. “LED systems can offer superior energy efficiency, reliability, longevity, improved light levels, visual clarity and ultimately cost savings from reduced or eliminated lighting related maintenance, certified lamp recycling, and of course, energy costs.”

Dialight’s area light is dubbed as the most flexible, functional and durable LED area light on the market for industrial and hazardous area applications. It delivers up to 143 lumens per watt, boasts new features such as 0-10V dimming and 80 CRI, qualifies for DLC Premium classification and comes equipped with an enhanced wide-optic design that improves lighting footprint, enabling one-for-two fixture replacements in conveyor and walkway applications.

The high-bay upgrades feature in-house-design power supply, next-generation LED technology and advanced optical design.

“Dialight’s controls system has built-in ADR (automated demand response) that companies can use to take advantage of utility provider incentives for participation in demand response programs by configuring their system to automatically adjust fixture output to lower consumption during peak demand with minimal impact on operations or productivity,” adds Ahmad. “The system uses the OpenADR 2.0 standard, allowing facilities to pre-negotiate load-shedding terms with utility providers and adjust lighting to Level I, II and III forced reduction demands automatically. For example, customers can choose to dim all lights by 20% to meet Level I demand, turn off every third light in a zone to meet Level II or shut down every light in an unoccupied area, if necessary, for Level III. The adjustments happen automatically, and configurations are completely customizable through the DACS dashboard to ensure forced demand response compliance with minimal impact on facility operations and production.”

In October 2017, Kenall Manufacturing introduced SenScape, a new sealed luminaire with high lumens, a low profile and excellent thermal management.

For its part, Kenall Manufacturing, Kenosha, Wis., made its SimpleSeal CSEDO, CSEDI, CSESI and CSESO and EnviroSeal FES series LED luminaires available with embedded occupancy sensors, which help manufacturers save additional energy by employing simple factory pre-set dimming to 30% at 20 minutes. 

“When occupancy is detected, the lights come up to 100%, which provides an extra safety and security factor as well,” according to Tim Stevens, product marketing manager.

In October 2017, Kenall introduced SenScape, a new sealed luminaire with high lumens, a low profile and excellent thermal management. 

“Industry-wide, individual diode costs have been trending down and lighting efficacies are improving. This allows solid state lighting manufacturers to use fewer LEDs, without sacrificing luminaire performance,” says Stevens. “More importantly, current LEDs are producing less heat—these two things together mean reduced energy cost in refrigerator/freezer spaces. Reduced heat output also means smaller LED thermal managements systems, which is another cost savings. Manufacturers that are looking to retrofit lighting or incorporate LED lighting into new, ground-up facilities should be very pleased with the longevity and reliability of LED, as well as the initial cost and energy savings gained by their use.”