New energy efficient lighting options

I ran across a company last week called MaxLite. They had some extremely cool new lighting products that could be very applicable to the industrial and commercial electrical supplies market. I want to say upfront that I have not seen any of these products in a working environment, but I have seen the products work in a demo situation.

First, Maxlite has a high lumen CFL (compact fluorescent) for use as a field replacement for metal halide lamps all the way up to 400w (yes, 400w!). How it works is you replace the 175, 250, or 400w HID lamp with the high lumen CFL. The CFL typically seems to run about half the watts as the HID lamp. You bypass the HID ballast inside the ballast housing and, BAM, you have cut your watts in half without replacing the fixture. Seems to good to be true huh? It seems very intriguing but there are a few things to consider. First, the lamp life is rated around 10,000 hrs. This is pretty low compared to HID or the other option of replacing the entire fixture with 46,000hr T8's. Also the temperature rating is around 100 or 120 deg F which will be an issue in some areas and applications. They did a very nice design with an integral heatsink and cooling fan, but be sure to consider the worst case temperature when looking at this. I think this could be a viable option for some circumstances, just be sure to look at all the application angles. T8 and T5 linear high bays or even 320w metal halide with pulse start will probably be a better choice for most applications, but this could be a fit for some.

They also have some other neat products, LED PAR replacements, LED light bars and my favorite...... a 2x4 LED lay-in fixture. This is the first LED 2x4 I have personally seen that works. It is not a bunch of LED's formed to fit in T8 lamp sockets like some others have tried, it is an actual flat array of LED's. Also, the profile is very, very slim, which is great for retrofit applications. The light output seemed adequate and the color seemed fine too. The price is up there for the 2x4 and also the 2x2 (yes, they have a 2x2). They are probably selling in the field for around $600 for a 2x4. I'm not sure how many will be sold at that price, but it is an interesting option for those that are hooked on LED's. Be sure to check them out or call your local lighting distributor for info. Maxlite.com