2022 Hog Slat/Georgia Poultry Retail Product Catalog

269 ELECTRICAL Issues with Poultry House LED Lamps and Light Dimmers Poultry growers have seen remarkable energy savings from transitioning from incandescent to LED lamps. How- ever, recently there have been an increasing number of issues with erratic dimming, excessive lumen depreciation, and premature lamp failures. Evidence points to an incompatibility between LED lamps and the light dimmer as the main cause of these issues. Incandescent (left) and LED lamps center, with globe removed, and right). Figure 1. Incandescent (left) and LED lamps (center, with globe removed, and right). Figure 2. LED lamp with globe removed to show LED chips. lumen depreciation, erratic dimming performance, and premature total lamp failure have been reported on LED lamps that were only 2 to 3 years old ; in many cases, several years before the warranty ha d expired. Investigations have determined that multiple brands of LED lamps are affected , but the issues are particularly severe with inexpensive, omni-directional LEDs intended for household use and not designed for the more demanding and harsh chicken house environment. However, the issues are also present in high-quality, heavy- duty, directional LEDs specifically designed to withstand commercial poultry industry demands. In today’s chicken been returned by growers. Through with these vendors and distributors, we the premature lamp failure problem had creasing in recent months. ormal nor expected, and it led us to dig to what was going on. While we haven’t oblems, we now better understand much ng premature LED lamp failures and why osing brightness much more quickly than many other complicated issues, it is not using these problems. Apart of the issue art is the light dimmer, and a part is the tween the lamps and the dimmer. nt and LED Lamps son patented the incandescent light bulb n 1879. It becam one of the most world- tions ever conceived . It produces light rical current throug a high-resistanc nt. The result is about 80 percent heat and Newer LED lamps (Figure 1; center, with and right) produce light by switching es of light-emitting diodes. LED lamps y that includes drivers and light-emitting gure 2 ). Modern LED lamps are very parison to Edison’s incandescent lamps. descent lamps are much easier to dim. In mps are much more sophisticated and considerations for dimming and proper a decade, the entire world (poultry ed) has made a dramatic shift from mps to dimmable LED lamps. Despite pains along the way, the energy savings and al of LED technology made the frustration ver, within the poultry industry duri ng months, widespread problems with r apid Figure 1. Incandescent (left) and LED lamps (center, with globe and right). Figure 2. LED lamp with globe removed to show LED c lumen depreciation, erratic dimming erforman premature total lamp failure have been reported lamps that were only 2 to 3 years old; in many ca several years before the warranty had expired. Investigations have determined that multipl brands of LED lamps are affected , but the issue particularly severe with inexpensive, omni-direc LEDs intended for household use and not design more demanding and harsh chicken house envir However, the issues are also present in high-qua duty, directional LEDs specifically designed to w commercial poultry industry demands. In today’ house environment, the level of dimming and th variation in light levels required over the life of t demand that lamps and dimmers be compatible designed to work well with each other. While they are less expensive than high-grad agricultural LED lamps, household LED l amps d not hold up well in a poultry house envir onme Summary of Mississippi State University Extension publication, 3510 (POD-08-20) For the full article, go to http://extension.msstate.edu/ publications/issues-poultry- house-led-lamps-and-light- dimmers Reports from both the lab and the field tend to indicate that leading-edge dimmer technology and modern LED lamp technology are simply not compatible. However, it may be that poultry growers should consider switching to trailing-edge dimmer technology to alleviate incompatibility issues between LED lamps and leading-edge dimmers. LED lamp with globe removed to show LED chips. Leading-edge dimming technology tends to produce current spikes that are detrimental to LED chips in the lamps. Th damage to LED chips caused by these current spikes appears to be cumulative over tim and is rre- versible. It will eventually lead to accelerated lumen depreciation, strange and erratic dimming problems, and premature lamp failures. Leading-edge dimmers are, by far, the most common light dimmers in poultry houses today. However, trailing-edge dimmers are much more compatible with today’s LED technology. We will continue to follow this situation. No grow r wants to spend money needlessly, but neither do they want to deal with continuing di ing issues, excessive lumen depreciation, and premature bulb failures if a trailing-edge dimmer will stop the problem.