Sometimes I have a rough time understanding where the value statement is for some of the deployment strategies.

For example, when I worked at a large NY carrier, our number one customer after the government was the power company. They did not like the thought of expanding the bill. I heard a friend had joined a company that used LED lighting and I had a rough time getting my head around the solution. In my head, I was used to the LEDs associated with the little red diode I used in electronic projects as a kid. I had not realized the brilliance LEDs can give off. Ultra efficient Light Emitting Diodes (News - Alert) translate almost all the energy they use into illumination.

The consumer can be swayed to spend for feel good reasons about the environment, the children’s future etcetera, but a corporate purchase has to have a money saving component.

Digital Lumens is a company that makes that claim at a number of levels. 

Digital Lumens focuses on where the costs are in the Enterprise in the distribution areas.  Warehouses represent more than 25 percent of the energy costs even though the need for lighting is less than the rest of the enterprise. 

Digital Lumens developed the Intelligent Lighting System which has an LED-based luminaire with three light bars. By aiming the lights the system provides better illumination with less watts. The lighting system has an onboard computer with an integrated occupancy sensor, a kWh odometer and wireless mesh networking capabilities. This provides flexibility in the layout of lighting patterns (grids) that can be controlled individually or as a group. The software in the system takes advantage of sensors to track available daylight, occupancy and zone requirements for the forklift. 

Digital Lumens systems on average provide a two year payback and have been shown to decrease energy use by 90 percent in some cases. This reduction means the system can also be used in places where lighting can give off heat that would interfere with refrigeration.

The result is that these systems are better for the ecology and the economy. I am not a particularly green oriented person, but if saves the green clearly the light has come on for me.

And that is not only the case for me, because the World Economic Forum has recognized them and we should expect to hear about them in the press …