By Brian Astl, President, Lind Equipment
Productivity—the efficiency with which inputs are converted to outputs—is a critical consideration on every construction project. A 2017 report, Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, published by the McKinsey Global Institute (the business and economics research arm of McKinsey), stated, “globally, labor-productivity growth in construction has averaged only 1 percent a year over the past two decades, compared with growth of 2.8 percent for the total world economy and 3.6 percent in the case of manufacturing.” The report further pointed out that if the construction sector were to make similar productivity gains, it would add an estimated $1.6 trillion to the global economy.
Many factors are holding the industry back, but the report cited one area of critical importance. Improving efficiency in onsite project execution, including minimizing waste and increasing the time spent on upfront planning, is one of the key routes to higher productivity. Both time and materials are wasted on the jobsite due to low levels of collaboration between project stakeholders. One factor to consider, to reduce waste and improve efficiency, is to look at how portable LED lighting can increase productivity.
Maximizing worksite necessities
As an example, lighting is a necessary but often overlooked component of an overall project, and it provides a good illustration of how inefficiencies can be ignored and perpetuated by an ongoing lack of collaboration. A typical jobsite may use a variety of different types of bulb-based portable temporary lighting, which may be labor intensive to install and maintain. Often, jobsite lighting may need to be repositioned as the project progresses, which is difficult to do with stringlights or tower lights. Bulbs may need to be replaced often—so often, in fact, that it is necessary to maintain a stock of replacement bulbs and assign someone to replace broken or burned-out bulbs throughout the day. This translates into excessive labor as well as materials costs.
LED portable lighting increases productivity in numerous ways, including the obvious ones of longer lifespan and greater energy efficiency. Purpose-built LED lighting requires fewer circuits, eliminates the need for hard wiring/junction boxes and is easy to move as the job evolves. Labor is reduced not just during installation, but during the job and at take-down.
Another factor to consider is that a hot bulb making contact with skin can result in a significant burn. If any flammable material is near a bulb, there’s the potential for a fire. Quality LEDs do not bring these dangers to the jobsite since they generate very little heat, which means your workplace is safer.
Traditional vs. LED jobsite lighting
LED lighting can be deployed in different ways to replace current lighting equipment and provide jobsites with new options to consider. Currently, there are LED flood lights that can replace the traditional 500W quartz halogen lights. New 360° LED lights are available that can replace floodlights, wobble-type lights and stringlights. And there are LED light towers that now have the same light output as traditional metal halide light towers.
It’s important to examine the best type of lighting available for a job, as inefficient lighting systems will have excessive external costs: They waste significant amounts of energy through heat and the emitting of non-directional light.
For example, a metal halide bulb starts off very bright and then quickly drops its lumens output. It is not uncommon to lose as much as 20 percent brightness in the first six months alone. Even if a metal halide light is listed at 36,000 lumens, within six months it can be below 30,000 lumens. The life of a metal halide bulb is around 15,000 – 20,000 hours. At its half-life, around 8,000-10,000 hours, lumen depreciation is already at 50 percent. Yet the metal halide bulb still consumes 400+ watts, even though it’s half as bright. Using a light that quickly loses the necessary lumens results in decreased productivity and more frequent bulb replacement.
Common uses for metal halide bulbs are 1,000W for site lighting or 400W for high bay lighting. It is more efficient to replace these bulbs with purpose-built LED jobsite lighting, such as those specified for use on cranes, pits and large areas. The purpose-built jobsite lighting for site lighting provides an 80 percent energy reduction while providing better light and dispersion. And there’s the caveat of no bulbs to change, increasing site productivity.
An alternative is also available for metal halide bulbs for high bay lighting, and that is purpose-built LED high bay lighting. This type of fixture provides 15,250 lumens to illuminate 3,000 square feet when mounted at a ceiling height of 20 feet. It only takes 120W to provide 15,250 lumens. One of the advantages of this purpose-built LED lighting is that it can run 15 lights on the same 120V 15A circuit, compared to only three lights with traditional 400W metal halide high bays.
Another factor to note with metal halide bulbs is that they can be slow to start and slow to reach full brightness, particularly in cold weather. LED lighting doesn’t have this limitation and immediately turns on to full brightness, even in cold weather.
Metal halide bulbs use a massive amount of energy, and the bulbs often break or burn out on the jobsite. Light towers, such as those containing two or four 1000-watt metal halide lamps, are powered by large generators. The cost of purchasing or renting a generator is significant, plus it must be kept fueled and running. Manpower is necessary operate and maintain generator lights.
There is a clear environmental benefit to LED lights, because they use dramatically less energy. But they have many other less-obvious advantages that directly affect workers’ productivity. Lighting manufacturers have in recent years recognized that task lighting provides a superior alternative to other lighting options. Purpose-built LED lighting maximizes the directional character of LED lighting, which means that lighting can be focused where it is needed most.
There are other ways to deploy LED lighting that can provide a jobsite with new flexibility and efficiency. Purpose-built LED light towers today are much more energy efficient, compact and lightweight. They can produce the same amount of useable light while consuming 80 percent less energy than previous options. Some models can be lifted onto the back of a pick-up truck for easy transportation and then easily moved around the site by hand. It’s no longer necessary to have employees manage the time-consuming task of towing a light tower to the jobsite behind a truck and bringing it off-site for refueling and repairs. These benefits all result in less wasted time and increased productivity. Some advanced purpose-built lighting is also designed with the option to be daisy-chained together to allow for easy setup and then effortless redesign as a job progresses.
Things to consider when buying
To truly increase productivity and get your best return on investment, purchase quality LED products. You may not be surprised to learn that there are varying degrees of durability associated with LED lighting.
LED retrofit bulbs, which twist into existing bulb-based sockets, are the least durable and are typically for indoor-only use where they will not be subject to physical impact. While these are inexpensive, they need to be replaced more often.
Select a purpose-built LED light with a strong outer housing and a truly weatherproof construction. An all-in-one structure does not require bulb replacement and provides a life of 50,000 hours. The best lights can be used in wet areas as opposed to damp areas, because you never know what your equipment will be exposed to on a job site.
Collaborating with the developer on lighting creates a competitive advantage for the contractor and ensures the client that value is being considered wherever possible. Typically, the responsibility of purchasing the lighting falls with the contractor on site. Choosing quality LED lighting shows that the contractor cares about the impact on the planet, energy savings and avoiding unnecessary labor costs caused by maintaining bulb-based lighting. Even though bulb-based lighting is cheaper up front, it will end up costing the project much more in the end with increased labor, materials and energy costs.
Some portable LED lighting manufacturers provide free lighting layout services. Take advantage of this offering to have an accurate bill of materials for the lights your project needs, along with a layout plan that factors in items such locations of power sources, best installation points and number of lights per circuit. This pre-planning saves significant time during installation and reduces the chance of not having the right lighting equipment on site.
Also, when bidding on new jobs, this information can provide a competitive advantage. Once you have an accurate bill of materials for the lighting, you can easily calculate the estimated energy savings to include in your project bid.
Conclusion
With cheaply made, non-durable lighting solutions so commonplace, statistics show that currently only about 20 percent of lighting lasts long enough to use on another job. The longer lifespan of LED purpose-built lighting and lower total cost of ownership creates the opportunity for contractors to reuse lights from project to project and consider their lighting equipment as an asset. High-quality LED lighting provides better light coverage—and a better-lit environment can improve overall workmanship and productivity. Long-term savings in materials costs, along with labor savings at all project stages—installation, during the job, and at take-down—can be dramatically reduced, with savings being passed along to project owners.
About the Author
Brian Astl is president of Lind Equipment, home of The LED Jobsite, Williamsville, N.Y., and Markham, Ontario, Canada. He can be reached at BAstl@lindequipment.net or 877.475.5463 x 224. Astl holds an MBA from Harvard and is a recipient of the Clean50 award, which offers recognition to Canada’s leaders in sustainability.
About Lind and The LED Jobsite
For almost 70 years, Lind Equipment has manufactured portable lighting and electrical equipment for the toughest jobsites. Established as leaders in LED construction lighting, Lind Equipment uses groundbreaking engineering to keep prices affordable for the contractor while increasing quality in durability and functionality. For more information, contact 877-475-LIND, info@lindequipment.net, or go to www.ledjobsite.com.
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