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Halogen Processing Bulb Replacements No Longer Easy to Find

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Scott Kloetzer

In process industries ranging from industrial, chemical, food/beverage or pharmaceuticals, it’s essential that products are processed in the safest environment possible in order to

comply with a wide variety of regulations.  Lighting plays a critical role to safety, of course.  In order to see critical processes inside your tanks and vessels, you need the most reliable lighting available. And reliability certainly begins with availability – if you can’t find new halogen bulbs to replace your existing halogens, it’s lights out for your process.

For many processors, they’re realizing that as halogens are being phased out, replacement bulbs are no longer readily available from stock and becoming harder to find. It’s time to upgrade before they are completely phased out and you’re left in the dark.

The Battle of the Bulb

Environmental concerns over the halogen bulb have been argued at length during the past several years.  Europe has already banned them in order to cut down on the CO2 emissions, although the bulbs themselves don’t directly create CO2.  The emissions are actually created when the light bulb consumes energy.

After a years-long legal process ending on November 13, 2019, The California Energy Commission voted to ban the sale of light bulbs they deemed inefficient starting on January 1, 2020. Several other states across the US have followed suit. In fact, they are quickly being eliminated in many parts of the world.

Although they cost less initially, over time halogens end up being more expensive than other options due to their short life and highly inefficient energy usage. Halogens’ high use of energy in turns leads to more power generation and ultimately a larger overall carbon footprint. From a regulatory perspective as well as sustainability, halogens have become a thing of the past. This applies not only to overhead light replacement programs, but to process vessel halogen lights as well.

 

 

 

From Elimination to Illumination

Fortunately, explosion-proof and non-ex process LED lights are on hand to replace hard-to-find halogens. Energy-efficient vessel LED lights last longer and use less electricity than halogen lights. In fact, LED lights use 80% less energy than halogen lights.

On average, an LED bulb lasts up to 50,000 hours while a halogen bulb only lasts 2,000 to 3,000 hours.  LEDs can also handle the vibrations common to harsh environments and put out almost no heat.

You can program your LED light to give you a much wider range of color options than a halogen light. This allows you to illuminate your tank with bright white light — in the 5000 to 6000K range to make it easy to observe your process clearly and better inspect the internal vessel surface.

Replacing your halogen lights with LED lights is a great way to go green and has become a key component of corporate sustainability initiatives. It’s not only good for the planet, but it’s also something that your customers and stakeholders will appreciate.

Many LJ Star process customers have begun programs to replace halogen lights with LED lights gradually, at their convenience. This strategy is much easier than having to replace all lighting at your facility all at once.

 

We’ll Help You See Things in a Whole New Light

LJ Star offers a wide variety of LED lights for every application, even in the most hazardous conditions.

LumiStar® 1000, 2000 and 3000 non-explosive LED lights offer unprecedented illumination of vessels — up to four times brighter than a typical halogen luminaire. The LumiStar LED series are in fact the brightest LEDs available on the market.  The LumiStar1000 conforms to UL Standard 2108

We also offer explosion-proof sight glass lights that are environmentally sealed and designed not to supply a spark or overheat. Several of our products meet either UL or ATEX requirements for specific types of hazardous environments, along with ETL requirements.

LumiStar365UV® LED Luminaire Series USL13/33

As the world’s brightest compact sight glass UV-LED Luminaire, the LumiStar365UV® luminaire is capable of providing ASME BPE standard UV output with a fraction of the size and power needs, offering unprecedented UV-LED illumination.

Lumiglas® LED Ex-Light, Series 55-EX

The Lumiglas® Luminaire Series ASL55-EX/ESL55-EX is an LED Luminaire for sight glass lighting. Learn how this LED can reduce energy and maintenance costs in explosion proof environments.

Available in a stainless or aluminum housing the Series 55-EX is ATEX approved for Gas Zones 1 and 2 and Dust Zones 21 and 22.

Lumiglas Explosion-Proof Light Model USL08LED-EX

Provides a clear performance upgrade to one of the industry’s most widely used explosion-proof lights, providing powerful and reliable lighting for even the most hazardous locations.

The highly engineered design is now enhanced with efficient new LED performance, delivering as much as a 10X longer service life, precisely tuned color temperatures and half the energy consumption of comparable halogen models.

The USL08LED-EX is UL 844 Listed Class I, Div 1&2, Groups C&D: Div 2, Groups A&B

 

Don’t Be Left in the Dark – It’s Time to Upgrade

The time to act is now.  If you wait too long, you may experience delays in shipping or availability for the right LED lighting for your process application.  Not sure where to start?  Talk to one of our dedicated customer service representatives now.

Visit ljstar.com to learn more about our LEDs lights and get other resources on sight glasses, lights and clamp solutions for critical process observation applications. Thanks to our higher-quality and brighter lighting, you’ll look better.