Workers at the Penn State Berkey Creamery used to have difficulties locating the ice cream containers they needed inside the hardener freezer, one of the shadow-cast freezer rooms at the 15,000-square foot facility. But that all changed once officials with the university creamery decided to have LED lights installed.
 
Five induction lights from the 27-foot high hardener room freezer ceilings were replaced with three of THE EDGE canopy lights from BetaLED achieving better illumination and using 256 fewer watts. Workers can now maneuver easily around the freezers and quickly identify the container labels.
 
“The new lights are terrific. They strike instantly, provide more lumens than our old induction lights, will last for years and are cost effective,” said Thomas Palchak, manager of the Penn State Creamery. “They are superb and we are planning to replace all of the metal halide lights in our processing room with LED luminaires from BetaLED.”
 
Not only are these areas safer, the change will produce significant energy and cost savings. Additionally, as the temperature drops, the THE EDGE LED luminaires inherently produce more light and last longer, further reducing maintenance.
 
Additional power savings are achieved from turning off the fixtures when not in use. Workers left the previous induction lights on continuously because they took so long to warm up to full brightness. The BetaLED luminaires light immediately, eliminating the need to have them on all the time.
 
Facts about the Installation:

• Three fixtures in the adjacent 14-foot high blast freezer were also replaced with three BetaLED canopy lights, saving an additional 171 watts while achieving better light levels. The visible results were dramatic. The shadow-cast freezer rooms are now filled with a uniform, brilliant white light.

• With fewer light fixtures, additional energy savings are achieved. The combination of using fewer fixtures for shorter periods of time provides the creamery with a lower energy bill and significantly reduced maintenance expense.

• In this cold storage operating condition of minus 35˚F and minus 25˚F, these LED lights are estimated to operate an average 10 hours per day, five days per week, and only depreciate less than five percent of their initial output over ten years.

• The refrigeration system has less of a heat load from the elimination of induction lights that were burned continuously, further saving on energy costs.

Did you know?
When you’re walking into a massive cold storage facility, you really don’t want to wait for the lights to turn on. One of the perks of LED lighting, however, is that they illuminate instantly, as soon as you flip the switch.

LED performance inherently increases in cold temperatures because the technology enables the luminaires to function better and last longer in colder environments. Traditional light sources generate more heat than LEDs, causing the refrigeration system to work harder to remove the heat.

Also, lower temperatures typically reduce the efficacy of some traditional light sources (i.e. fluorescent). Therefore, more power is required to generate the desired illumination creating an increased heat load on the refrigeration system.

In cold storage freezers like the Penn State Creamery where rapid blast chilling is done at minus 35˚F and hardening and storage at minus 25˚F, energy use is significantly reduced while efficiency and lumen maintenance are extended beyond the advantages already achieved by LED technology in these areas.