Since Lind Equipment launched its LED Jobsite in 2015, its customers have collectively saved 157 million kilowatt hours of energy.
The Markham, Ontario-based lighting company’s system provides all temporary lighting for a construction site, from light towers to room lighting to crane lighting.
The LED Jobsite is capable of reducing lighting-related energy consumption by up to 90 per cent, and the system is now being used by several major construction firms throughout North America.
The 157 million kilowatt hours of electricity they’ve saved, equates to enough power to run 16,000 homes for a year, or the CO2 equivalent of taking 23,000 cars off the road.
“That number continues to go up and up as they go,” said Lind Equipment President Brian Astl.
“This is not a small impact this is a big impact from a bunch of small lights.”
Clean50
Last year, the LED Jobsite won Canada’s 2018 Clean50 award, for advancing sustainability and clean capitalism in Canada.
As Lind celebrates its 70th year in business, Astl said the company has had a heavy focus on investing in LED research and development.
“We’re focused on innovating, not just for the sake of innovating, but to drive value for our customers,” he said.
“Over our 70 years in business, we’ve evolved as the technology has evolved.”
The LED Jobsite is comprised of several lighting options, including a crane/pit light, LED high bay, large area low bay, small area low bay, modular string lights and light towers.
“The idea is they can work together as a whole suite to light up a jobsite in any way you need to,” Astl said. “We have different purpose-built lights for different scenarios.”
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The Beacon series of 800-watt LED light towers is able to produce the same amount of light as four 1,000-watt metal halide bulbs.
“These light towers are the first towers ever built by a lighting company rather than a generator company,” Astl said. “What we’ve created is something completely different in the industry.”
The light tower can be run off an external power source, and two towers can run off a single 15A circuit. The Beacon is also equipped with an external fuel tank inside the cabinet, which supplements the run time of a 2,000 watt generator for about 45 hours.
At World of Concrete, Lind introduced a vertical mast version of the tower to compliment the existing horizontal light tower.
“You can fit two of them in the back of a pickup truck,” Astl said.
“You can plug two of them into your outlets at home and not blow a circuit. It’s also half the cost of the traditional towers.”
Beacon 360 Spark
When construction moves inside of a structure, Lind has developed the Beacon 360 Spark, which is used in place of traditional string lights.
Astl explained bulb string lights will often get caught between walls as construction advances, and cut down and thrown away when the project is complete. On larger construction sites, contractors may have an employee dedicated to solely changing string lights.
“They’re really disposable products that take a lot of time and energy to maintain,” he said.
The Beacon 360 Spark lights daisy chain together and include triple taps to route lighting in multiple directions. The Spark also easily detaches from its power cord.
“You can basically use them like light Legos,” Astl said.
As well, six Spark lights are able to replace 30 metres of string lights, while generating the same output.
“And you’re never replacing the bulb because there’s no bulb in it. It will run for five years if you run it 24/seven,” Astl said.
“You’re reducing labour time, your reducing energy usage and you’re making it easier to reuse the lights later on.”
Furthermore, how the lights are used evolved along with the jobsite.
“While you may want to hang these lights during the initial construction, you’re able to take them down and put them on a tripod. Now they become portable area lights,” Astl said.
In downtown Edmonton, PCL Construction used the LED Jobsite system while constructing several buildings involved in the Ice District, a $2.5 billion mixed use sports and entertainment district situated on 10 hectares of land.
“PCL used our lights in the first building, saved them all, and reused them in the next two buildings,” Astl said.
Lind Equipment evolution
LED light quality has improved as the technology has advance. The first LED lights generated a harsh blue light that was difficult to incorporate into a working environment.
“At first, they weren’t efficient enough to get the same amount of light as the traditional bulb products,” Astl said. “So, you had a lot of scepticism when LEDs came out; they weren’t bright enough and harsh on the eyes.”
Lind Equipment held off on releasing an LED light tower, until the technology matched the output of traditional bulbs.
“As we’ve become in tune with using LED technology to create better lights, we’ve created a better colour that your eyes are used to,” he said.
“And we can now say they throw the same amount of light.”
