Synergy Lighting is Florida’s West Coast Leading Supplier of Sylvania Brand Light Bulbs and Ballasts. As an appreciation to our customers, Synergy Lighting is offering 15% off regular price of any Sylvania Brand Light Bulbs including Incandescent, Halogen, Compact Fluorescent, Fluorescent, Metal Halide and HID Lamps, sealed beam, medical and dental lamps as well as stage and studio. Sylvania’s new LED lamps are paving a new frontier in energy saving lighting by offering up to 60,000 hour life and energy savings of up to 85%.
Sylvania Light Bulbs & Ballasts In Stock For Immediate Delivery
Synergy Lighting carries over 5000 items in stock for immediate free delivery to commercial customers in Sarasota, Bradenton, Clearwater, FT Myers, Naples, Tampa and surrounding areas.
Consumers will soon no longer have to travel to the car dealership to find a Hybrid. Starting in 2011, GE Lighting brings hybrid technology to the lighting world in the form of a unique, new incandescent-shaped light bulb that combines the instant brightness of halogen technology with the energy efficiency and longer rated life of compact fluorescent (CFL) technology.
One of the biggest complaints with CFL light bulbs is the 2 minute delay for lamps to reach peek brightness. GE Lighting feels that this new Hybrid Halogen-CFL is the futures cure. The halogen capsule inside GE’s new hybrid halogen-CFL bulb comes on instantly, allowing the bulb to operate noticeably brighter in less than a half a second. The capsule shuts off once the CFL comes to full brightness. The initial product launch will bring U.S. and Canadian consumers GE Reveal® and GE Energy Smart® Soft White varieties that offer significantly greater instant brightness than current covered CFLs, while preserving the energy efficiency and long life attributes that have elevated CFLs as a lighting staple in many households.
GE scientists engineered the bulb to operate with an exceptionally low level of mercury: 1 mg. Currently available CFLs range from 1.5 mg to 3.5 mg. The hybrid halogen-CFL bulbs will be RoHS compliant and offer eight times the life of incandescent bulbs (8,000 hours vs. 1,000 hours). Less frequent replacement due to longer light bulb life can reduce landfill waste.
First to launch will be 15-watt and 20-watt hybrid halogen-CFL bulbs that are considered viable replacements for 60-watt and 75-watt incandescent bulbs, respectively. Retail pricing and specific distribution availability will be announced in the coming months.
With the passing of the amended Energy Independence and securities Act (D.O.E. 2012 law), the phasing out of incandescent and halogen lamps is in full swing. One of the latest businesses to make this change is Yoder’s Amish Gift Shop in Sarasota, Florida. When we first approached the Owner Anna, about making this change, she was reluctant to accept the change because of a fear that switching from incandescent or halogen wouldn’t look as good as using a compact fluorescent product in this charming gift store. However the new law and the energy savings were quite enticing for Anna, and with the Federal Government chipping in on the replacement cost. Switching was a no brainer, if it would look as good!
Synergy Lighting Offers Top Brands
Synergy Lighting recommended a specific brand of Compact Fluorescent Lamps manufactured by TCP and Halco, which are both major manufacturers of compact fluorescent light bulbs in the U.S. who lamps meet the Energy Star standards for Quality, Life, Color, and Safety. These low energy, environmentally friendly products were changed out by staff when the Owner Anna was out on business, and was as easy as unscrewing the old bulbs and screwing in the new ones.
Of particular interest is the phone call Synergy Lighting received after the light bulbs had been changed. It started with Anna asking when the light bulbs would be delivered. Just as we predicted, the change was so perfect, that even Anna didn’t realize that she was using fluorescent energy savers until we told her it had already been done!
In retail most business owners take careful planning into the walls, the floors, and how products are displayed. But often we find that smaller business neglect to recognize the need for good lighting. Often times business owners tell us that by the time they get the store up and running that a good lighting system is not in the budget. Great lighting doesn’t have to come from any large expense. This is a misconception and due to lack of knowledge.
Great Lighting Is Not Expensive
Great lighting can be created by simply selecting a fairly inexpensive light bulb that is appropriate for the type of products being displayed, or sold. Factors to consider are the primary colors of merchandise, reflectance of walls and floors as well as natural day lighting coming in through windows. When we look at a situation such as a Mattress Store, the primary color is white. Therefore having light bulbs that give the truest tone of white coloring, the mattresses will look whiter and brighter.
There Is No Excuse For Bad Lighting
On a visit to another local mattress store, the sales person informed us that they did not want bright white light bulbs in their ceiling because they did not want customers to lay down and stare into a bright light. However retail logic tells us that customers are not concerned with what is in the ceiling, just how great the product they are interested in buying appears. So when Land Of Sleep decided to purchase natural White Light Bulbs from Synergy Lighting, they did exactly what any great mattress store should do. Make their product look amazing!
Making The Change Is Easy
The change over to Natural White Lighting for this mattress retailer was inexpensive and resulted in a 40% energy savings over traditional 4 lamp fluorescent fixtures. No new fixtures or large expenses was needed, just a simple change of light bulbs to do the trick! Not only was the change a dramatic effect, but it paid for itself from the energy savings. Now when customers come in to view a mattress, the product looks stunning, sales are increased and when laying down to try the matress out, customers can close their eyes and picture themselves in mattress heaven!
With the economical crunch over the past few years and the ever growing popularity of going green, converting hid to CFL has become a growing trend. By simply by passing the HID ballast and screwing in a Compact Fluorescent Lamp, business have discovered that the S/P Ratio (Scotopic to Photopic Lumens) is great enough to be a viable option, providing adequate light.
Drawbacks of Retrofitting HID To CFL
As great of an option as this procedure is, many customers have found that the line voltage supplied to their HID fixtures is greater than 120 Volts, typically 208, 240 or 277 volt. In these cases, customer find themselves either not being able to find a CFL bulb in those voltages, with the exception of the TCP 277V spiral, or that the fixtures are too small to fit an equal wattage CFL bulb. For customers with 208, 240 volt system, the only option has been to pay large expenditures in order to convert electric panels, and rewire to accommodate lower voltages.
Litetronics New High Wattage CFL System Makes Retrofitting Affordable
Litetronics, a leading producer of innovative CFL products has introduced its full line of HID to CFL retrofit kits. These kits include a non-ballasted CFL high wattage lamp for easy screw in the socket installation with a remote multi-volt ballast capable of 120, 208, 240 or 277 Volt systems. Because these new CFL lamps are non-ballasted, the have a much smaller MOL (Maximum Overall Length), and can fit into virtually any HID fixture from wall packs, parking lot lights, high bays and parking garage canopy lights.
Benefits Include:
10,000-hour life
85 CRI, 5000k natural white
65 Up to 150 watts
Excellent lumen maintenance
Advanced Amalgam maintains optimal lumens
Instant start and instant restrike
Reduced color shift compared to metal halide
External ballast reduces lamp replacement costs
Litetronics high watt compact fluorescent lamps (CFL’s) are designed to replace HID lamps in high bay applications for energy savings and higher ROI. They off er high 85 CRI for excellent color rendition, and they promise reliable operation with instant start and instant re-strike. Unlike HID lamps, Litetronics high watt CFLs have no color shift over time, and they have lower glare and higher lumen maintenance. With a lower system cost than HID, Litetronics high watt CFL’s are the best solution for high and low bay lighting.
Litetronics high watt CFL’s utilize an external ballast, which offers better heat management than self-ballasted high wattage CFL’s. When the lamp and ballast are together in a self-ballasted lamp, heat builds up in a condensed area, which leads to premature failures. Separating the lamp and ballast allows for better heat management, which translates into maximum life and lumen maintenance. The external ballast also reduces lamp replacement costs compared to self-ballasted CFLs because you only need to replace the lamp at end of life instead of the lamp and ballast. This means that Litetronics high watt CFL’s are more cost-effective and provide higher ROI than alternative high bay CFL lighting. Litetronics high watt CFL’s also have a smaller MOL than competing lamps, which provides better optics out of the fixture. For superior high bay lighting, Litetronics high watt CFL’s are the fi rst choice.
Every now and again we are surprised with innovative new products that come to market. One product that doesn’t let us down with design and innovation is the New 10 Watt IPAR-38 Dimmable LED from MSI. This product offers a variety of features not found in any other product thus far, and carries a complete 5 year factory warranty which is 2 years more than any other competitor, and comes at a very affordable price with up to 90% energy savings. The dimming range and power band ring control for light output was smooth and precise. Compared to other LED Par 38 light bulbs, we had to share this with our customers. The MSI IPAR-38 is currently available for immediate rush delivery. [Video below]
Powerband™ Technology
This proprietary feature allows the flexibility of producing light outputs based on 10 watts, 12 watts or 16 watts, with a simple twist of the band. This will create lumen outputs of 550 lumens, 650 lumens or 800 lumens respectively. Now you can optimize your lighting design both in terms of light output as well as light energy savings, and all with one unique bulb!
Proprietary Intelligent Communication (PIC)
This patent pending feature allows the bulb to communicate via a sophisticated electronic light wave pattern, information such as, manufacturing information, installation information, hours of use and wattage settings. This is especially important due to the extremely long bulb life, but also can play a key role in overall energy evaluation, maintenance and design.
Efficiency
Led technology saves up to 80% of the light energy cost of current 75 watt Halogen bulbs. In addition, the iPAR-38 unique construction provides the Center Beam power that truly creates a lighting experience previously unattainable in this technology.
Reliability Designed and built with the highest level of components available today, including industry leading CREE LED’s, this UL approved product is produced in a world class manufacturing environment to the highest level of quality standards to assure a minimum of 50,000 hour bulb life, more than 20 times the life of standard Halogen bulbs.
Thermal Management
A hidden advantage of this bulb is its highly efficient thermal management system. With operating temperatures at 50% less than Halogen bulbs, this bulb not only saves on lighting energy costs, but also reduces air conditioning costs due to the drastic heat reduction. Validated testing has conclusively proven that for every 1 watt of light energy saved, a 1/2 watt of secondary air conditioning savings is also achieved.
Worldwide Installation
The iPAR-38 LED bulb has been designed with a universal voltage power supply of 85 volts to 265 volts with an on board power management system allowing this product to be installed in virtually any country in the world!
Dimmability
Another key advantage of the iPAR-38 program is its ability to dim throughout the power range with virtually any dimmer on the market today!
Beam color and angles
Designed for accent lighting applications the iPAR-38 is available in both 2700 and 3000 Kelvin and comes in a variety of beam angles including a 10 degree spot, a 16 degree wide spot and a 22.5 degree narrow flood. In addition, each bulb optic has been designed to provide superior beam conformation, peripheral lighting and intense Center Beam saturation to create a truly superior high powered accent light as well as room filling lighting coverage.
The transformation of the lighting industry to LED (Light emitting Diodes) is growing more and more popular. Customers often ask if there are fluorescent light bulb replacements with LED. In years past the answer was yes, and followed by pure disappointment for those who purchased these lamps. However with the Superior Life T8 LED lamp, disappointment is far from our professional vocabulary.
The Superior Life LED T8 lamp is an efficient way to light sockets once traditionally reserved for linear fluorescent tubes. They consume up to 80% less energy, thereby significantly reducing operating costs. The superior life hours of this lamp makes it ideal for hard to reach places, reducing maintenance.
• 50,000 hour operation
• No ballasts required
• Warm or Natural White
• Mercury Free
• No UV
• No Projected Heat
Recently one of our customers retrofitted their entire operation to LED Superior Life T8 Lamps, you can decide for yourself if these new LED’s do the job with pure satisfaction!
Switching to LED lighting is something most people are seemingly interested in. However, when the typical cost of an LED light bulb is learned, that urgency begins to take a back seat to the urgency to hold tight on spending. The initial cost of most LED light bulbs is very high compared to the cost of an incandescent bulb. In the LED light bulb world, all things must be treated equally. This means you spend a little, you save a little, spend a lot and save a lot. Sometimes in switching to LED lighting, we recommend that customers start with spending a little and saving a little to get used to the benefits of LED’s in commercial and residential use.
One of the most common types of incandescent light bulb used in both residential and commercial lighting is chandelier (B-Type) lamps. These type lamps are typically found in the 25 Watt and 40 Watt lamps and rarely found without multiple lamps per fixture such as a multi-point chandelier. Although we individually don’t look at these lamps as using much electricity, when you add up all the bulbs on an 8 point chandelier, it can add up to 500 Watts which in itself is very significant. Let’s look at a new product that can drastically reduce this consumption.
The new LDCT3WH30K is a 3 Watt LED Chandelier Torpedo style lamp made by TCP. The lamp offers one of the smallest packages that most closely resembles the size and shape of an incandescent B-Type lamp while delivering maximum light output from a tower of SMD LED’scentered in the envelope. The tower array allows for 360° illumination while a circle of SMD LED’s on the top of the tower array direct light upwards as well. This arrangement of LED’s allow the lamp to perfectly illuminate chandelier lamp shades that can easily clip on to the lamps outer housing. If used bare in a chandelier, the lamp closely replicates the light output of an incandescent, and would hardly be noticeable to anyone who wasn’t looking for it to be different. Because of the very small Solid State electronics placed within the base of the LCDT3WH30K, dimming is no problem for this LED bulb. Heat output is also drastically reduced by the LDCT3WH30K LED light bulb.
The TCP LED lamp delivery a consistant 3000K which is the color that most correctly resembles a halogen bulb, so incandescent users may see a slightly whiter output from the lamp, but seems to not be so different as to pull a negative review from customers. This difference in color creates a cleaner and just as bright feel for any chandelier, pendant or wall sconce. Now the biggest benefit of the 3 Watt LED lamp is that it can replace up to a 40 Watt Incandescent without any noticeable light loss. In an example of an 8 pt. chandelier, energy waste is reduced from 500 Watts per fixture to only 24 Watts, for a total savings of 476 Watts.
Here is how that breaks down into savings:
Comparison
40 Watt Incandescent
3 Watt LED Chandelier
Average cost per bulb
$.39
$18.39
Hours used per year
3850
3850
Hour life of bulb
1500
30,000
Energy cost per year (.13 pkw)
$22.76
$1.70
Product life in years
4 months
7 Years
7 year Energy Cost
$159.32
$11.90
Replacements required
21
n/a
Time to change bulb
10 minutes
10 minutes
Labor Cost ($12.00 per hour)
$42.00
$2.00
Total Life Cycle Cost
$209.51
$32.29
Calculations @ 12 hours use per day at $.13 p/kwh
Total Savings for switching 1 bulb to LED: $177.22!
The TCP LED chandelier bulb is available in with both candelabra and medium base, as well as Clear and Frosted versions as well as a Crystal Cut Clear and Frosted for a more decorative design. For more information on LED Lighitng or LED Light Bulbs, view our website or call Synergy Lighting for a free consultation.
Often we talk to customers about Scotopically Rich Lighting, and for those who have never heard the term before it can be a little confusing. Manufacturers have performed studies for year on the photopic lumens that are produced by a light source such as a light bulb. The photopic lumens are a measurement of brightness by a lumen meter. This measurement can be translated by how light is percieved the cones in the human eye. These light meters completely ignore the effect of rod activated vision (scotopic). As a result, lighting practice accepted this single sensitivity function because it was erroneously assumed that the more light sensitive rods only functioned at very dim light levels.
How the eye perceives light
Light arrives at our eye from all portions of an illuminated space. At the back of the eye there is a light sensitive membrane called the retina which contains millions of very tiny light receptors. These receptors convert light into electrified signals that are sent to the vision centers of the brain. The retina contains two major categories of light receptors (photoreceptors) called the cones and rods because of their geometric shapes. The central part of the retina, the fovea, contains only cones. In the rest of the retina there are both rods and cones, with the number of rods dominating the cones by about 10 to 1.
Scientists have recently discovered that the rods in the human eye can perform in dim light levels as well as interior lighting levels of those commonly found in office environments and stores. These rods are sensitive to light sources that emit bluish-white color tones like those found in higher kelvin temperature fluorescent light bulbs. Vision specialists put both functions of the rods and the cones together to measure a complete value of light sensitivity know as a Scotopic/Photopic (S/P) Ratio. The S/P Ratio of most fluorescent and incandescent lamps is very low. For example, a Warm White Bulb has an S/P Ratio of 1:14 while a full spectrum 5000K lamp lamp such as an Ultra 50 or Skybrite has a ration of 2:47. These number can be hard to understand, so lets look at it in a more simple light.
Lamps that are in the yellow kelvin temperature range 2700-4200 use primarily the cones in the eye. The pupil becomes enlarged to allow more light to enter the eye, and therefore causing more muscles in the eye to work harder to provide visual clarity. Lamps in the 5000 Kelvin range allow the rods to work better, which in turn constricts the pupil and allows for easier visual clarity which is a scotopic response. In otherwords, thwo light sources can have the same photopic lumens, but the lamps with higher scotopic values will apear to the eye as being percieved brighter. This scotopic response reduces visual fatigue, increase reading ability and reduces “disability glare”, especially in the electronic office.
Scotopically Rich Lighting Redues Fatigue and Glare
Disability glare is defined by the Illuminating Engineering Society as “glare resulting in reduced visual performance and visibility.” It is often accompanied by discomfort. Disability glare occurs as a result of “light scatter” in the eye. Light scatter is caused by imperfections in the optical media of the eye (the cornea & lens). These imperfections are common to some degree in everyone, and become more severe with age. The imperfections in the optical media cause a scattering of light rays coming from the non task area, causing undesirable light to fall on the central part of the retina (the fovea) where the task is focused. This causes a background haze of useless light on the central retina (the fovea) and reduces retinal contrast. Because the fovea contains only cones, just the photopic content of the ambient or general light is responsible for disability glare. Because people of age suffer from other conditions such as macular degeneration and cataracts, one must understand that the visible spectrum of light becomes diminished. In the case of a retail store or office, a customer may only see 60% of the visible light produced, therefore the increase of both photopic and scotopic light levels can be increasingly important to reduce glare and visual fatigue thus increasing productivity and sales.
There is no feeling like that of sitting down to eat at a good restaurant with good service. From the time we walk in the door capturing a sweet aroma of fresh grilled entrees, to the time we are seated by a pleasant and smiling hostess, we are in store for a treat. One would only assume that the decor has been well designed, the menu carefully selected and the service well performed. This is what we all expect of a restaurant.
The Importance Of Lighting
With the high risk associated with restaurants, it is absolutely vital to provide not only good food and service to clientele, but it is crucial that the clients leave feeling good about the decision to eat in a particular establishment. This goes to every last detail from plate garnishment to easy to understand menus. However the most often overlooked item is lighting. Restaurants often have multiple types of lighting fixtures to help create the overall atmosphere and design image. According to the American Lighting Association restaurants should have no less than (2) levels of light consisting of task and accent lighting, with a high recommendation of dimmable light bulbs and systems. By using multiple lighting fixture types a design image can create brilliant displays of decor, and architecture while providing a primary focus on the dining table. The dining table is where light balance becomes crucial for a restaurant. If a table is poorly lit, food can appear dull and unappealing despite flavor and presentation. Meanwhile over illuminated tables can be too bright and distract from a pleasant dining experience.
Well Balanced Lighting Affects Return Visits
All to often in restaurants we find that there is a difference in lighting over tables versus booth seating areas. This may consist of recessed cans or track over table tops and pendant lighting over booths and bar areas. When serving customers in a restaurant, you must ensure that every customer has the ability to receive the same levels of service, and pleasant experience no matter the seating area. Because different seating areas have different styles of fixtures, a restaurateur must ensure that the light delivered to the table is well balanced and equal from either fixture type. Recently while dining in an Applebees restaurant I was seated at a table top which sat under track lighting. Installed in the track was a 50 Watt Halogen Spot Light. The light was so focused on the table that it created glare and a hot spot on the table, while across the isle were booths that had pendant lights with bottom globes. The booths had only a fraction of the light provided to our table, and no relative hot spots. In this scenario, my dining experience was in the hot seat while diners seated in booths could barely see the food on their plates.
Balancing light levels to ensure a consistent and pleasing dining experience is crucial to the subconscious emotions that a customer will experience. In the case of Applebees, a lower wattage narrow flood should have been installed over tables, while a higher wattage lamp should have been installed over booths. In the photo above you will notice a hot spot in the bar area to the lower right of the image. This is a hot spot created by poor lamp selection. The result of this “seat yourself” restaurant was that the table with the hot spot remained empty throughout the course of our meal, where other tables with well balanced lighting sat to capacity.
Every now and again we are surprised with innovative new products that come to market. One product that doesn’t let us down with design and innovation is the New 10 Watt IPAR-38 Dimmable 
Designed and built with the highest level of components available today, including industry leading CREE LED’s, this UL approved product is produced in a world class manufacturing environment to the highest level of quality standards to assure a minimum of 50,000 hour bulb life, more than 20 times the life of standard Halogen bulbs.
The transformation of the lighting industry to 
