The plant manager of a multi-building manufacturing facility had the maintenance department replace the existing lighting system in one building with all LED. The energy savings, despite being significant, were only one factor in this decision. The primary rationale behind this was to eliminate re-lamping, since that often interfered with production.
Unfortunately, the system has experienced light source failure several times since being installed. The luminaires are expensive, but the work of replacing them has thus far able to fit into lunch breaks. However, the temporary lighting loss has caused some mistakes and the plant manager has identified a luminaires where loss of light would present a safety issue.
Can you solve these failures?
Are those maintenance electricians really qualified electricians? In many plants, they are not. If you can’t verify that these electricians completed a proper apprenticeship program, begin by inspecting the branch circuit wiring.
LEDs are solid-state devices that operate on 5V or less. Greater voltages will burn them up. The LED system has basically a computer power supply. It’s a switching power supply, and that means there will be undesirable current generated.
This might be what’s killing those LEDs, if that current is circulating through the DC power circuit. The power supply has a “grounding” (bonding) connection; ensure there’s a continuous metallic path (bonding) back to the source.
