U.S. Power Vision, LLC

From the Community of Manufacturing, Design and Contracting Teams of U.S. Power Vision, LLC

Fabulous Lighting Mave

ACTION-ORIENTED PEARLS OF WISDOM FOR INDUSTRIAL MANAGERS AND CONTRACTORS
www.USPowerVision.com • 1963 Park Avenue • Twin Lake, Michigan 49457 • RMotsch@USPowerVision.com

Warranties Don’t Cover Everything

Dear Reader:

Here’s a shocker: the Rated Life of an LED is not necessarily the same as the manufacturer’s warranty.

In addition to Lumen Maintenance and Rated Life metrics, the lighting system buyer should fully understand what the warranty covers – and to what specific point in a fixture’s life the warranty is in effect.

Some warranties are expressed in terms of time, for example, 5 or 10 years; others are expressed in terms of hours of operation, perhaps 50,000 or 100,000 hours.

Equating one to the other for warranty purposes is critical, as a 24/7 operation will get to 100,000 hours of burn time more quickly than an operation with a single shift. On the other hand, a warranty expressed in time (5 or 10 years) is the same for either type of business conditions.

Most manufacturer’s warranties cover product only – not the labor required to change a fixture out in the event of a claim. While this may not be a ‘big deal’ to some – although clearly there is a cost involved – imagine the difficulty involved in replacing a fixture at 45’H above a furnace. This can become significant quickly.

And with an eye toward logistics, what if the manufacturer mandates that it inspects the failed fixture before sending a new one? You get the idea.

We recommend a couple of things:

1. At minimum, thoroughly discuss with your manufacturer’s rep what the warranty consists of, what it covers and over what period of either static time or operating hours. Get it on paper; and

2. Depending on the degree of difficulty in changing out a fixture at some point in the future, consider an extended warranty. 3rd party warranties can cover not only labor, but are at times available to extend the warranty period as well. Regency Lighting offers some great advice on this topic here: When to Consider an Extended LED Lighting Warranty.

By the way, it’s not uncommon at all for a fixture’s occupancy sensor to be warranted for a different period of time than the fixture it’s been installed in. The sensitivity of a sensor to heat, for example, may be greater than the fixture. Or vibration (air movement) might come into play.

U.S. Power is an industrial energy services company that specializes in the reduction of energy consumption across a broad array of manufacturing and food processing facilities located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. In addition, the company publishes a useful curation of lighting-oriented information from the marketplace, and consolidates it into this concise, twice per month letter known as The Fabulous Lighting Maven, distributed to Facilities Managers throughout the nation.

While the company prides itself in its diversity, it owns and operates a niche lighting contracting firm as well, known as U.S. Power Vision, LLC. With a core business in and around industrial LED lighting, it keeps itself and its clients at the cutting edge of illuminating technologies, all aimed at providing – from the eyes to the fingertips – exceptional illumination, superb control and intuitive simplicity.

The Maven publishes these pearls weekly, or more frequently if we feel like it, because we believe America is already great, and poised to be even greater if we commit to doing our part towards cooling the planet. Publisher Ron Motsch can be reached at (616) 570-9319.

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