Lighting Basics

Lighting plays a large role in livestock and poultry production performance. It is possible to reduce energy costs by making small changes to the lighting on your swine operation. A well designed, energy efficient lighting system can mean higher lighting levels, better bird performance and lower energy costs.

This Factsheet offers suggestions on how to change your lighting system to reduce energy costs by 15%-75%. It highlights different lighting systems such as incandescent, fluorescent, compact fluorescent, fluorescent tube lighting, high intensity discharge and Light Emitting Diode (LED). An example of the cost to change from an incandescent to a fluorescent light system is also included.

Light Levels

To know how to reduce energy costs it is important to understand the terms used to measure light.

Lumens - light output from a lamp is measured in the term 'lumens' (lm). For example, a 40 watt (W) incandescent light bulb produces about 13 lumens per watt or 13 lm/W.

This Factsheet offers suggestions on how to change your lighting system to reduce energy costs by 15%-75%. It highlights different lighting systems such as incandescent, fluorescent, compact fluorescent, fluorescent tube lighting, high intensity discharge and Light Emitting Diode (LED). An example of the cost to change from an incandescent to a fluorescent light system is also included.

Lux or Foot-Candle - the light level at the working surface is measured in lux or foot-candle (fc). [10 lux equals »1 fc] Typical light levels in animal pens and corner areas of barns can be less than 5 lux or ½ fc. Outside on a bright sunny day in mid summer the light level will be around 80,000 lux or 8,000 fc.

Average Rated Life - the average time it takes for 50% of light bulbs to fail.

Colour Rendering Indexes (CRI) - the measurement of the light sources ability to render colours the same way sunlight does.

When considering ways to reduce energy costs think about how to get the most light output per lamp size (lm/W). 

Light Types

Incandescent

With today's relatively high light-level requirements in barns and with lights on for longer periods, the old Edison style incandescent lamps are only about 5% efficient at converting energy to light. The rest is wasted as heat energy. Incandescent lights also attract flies and other insects, and are quickly coated with dirt that further reduces the amount of light available. Figure 2 shows examples of incandescent lights and the dirt problem. Incandescent lights also have a relatively short-rated life compared to other lighting types (see Table 1). For example, a 100 W, 1,000 hr (standard rated lamp) could be expected to last 63 days at 16 hr/day. Installing 'long life' lamps with a rated life of 5,000 hr, the bulb would last 312 days, but the actual light output is reduced by about 25% over the regular 1,000-hr lamp.

Fluorescent

Fluorescent light should be the main light source in new or renovated poultry production. Fluorescent light is very energy efficient compared to incandescent, has long life cycles (when correct fixtures are installed and adequate maintenance) and can provide good light quality for swine.

A few reasons to switch to fluorescent lighting from incandescent are listed here.

-Fluorescent lighting takes less energy to provide the desired level of light.

-Fluorescent tube lamps last 20,000 hr and cost about $2.00 each; incandescent lamps cost as little as $0.50/each and last from 1,000 (regular life) to 5,000 (long life) hours (anything over 2,000 hr is considered long life).

-Conversion from incandescent to fluorescent will reduce energy usage by up to 75%.

-Fluorescent typically has a payback time of less than 2 years. In some cases payback can be as soon as 4 months.

High Intensity Discharge (HID)

Where barn ceilings are more than 3.7 m-high (12 ft-high), for example, poultry barns and machinery sheds, consider more efficient high intensity discharge (HID) fixtures, including metal halide (MH) and high pressure sodium (HPS). They are easy to install and maintain and require fewer fixtures to provide the same level of light. 

Metal halide fixtures can be operated on either a regular or pulse start ballast. A pulse start ballast will save about 12.5% or 50 W on a 400 W metal halide fixture.

A study conducted in an Ontario commercial broiler facility comparing a dimmable HPS system to incandescent lights showed that the HPS system resulted in better bird performance, used less electricity and fewer costs, yielding improved profit per kilogram. Another key part of this study showed that the controller is a critical component and needs to be a good quality unit or dimming will not work well.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Light Emitting Diode or LED systems are not yet used in livestock and poultry production facilities yet. Research is required to ensure this technology will fit with agricultural applications. Energy efficiency of LED lamps can be very high (50 lumens/W) and life is much longer (up to 100,000 hr) than other light systems. If the technology can be adapted for barn environments, it is expected that LED lighting systems will provide large on-farm energy savings in the future.

LEDs come in various forms - spot, linear or strip and monochromatic colours. They can be dimmed.

The advantages of LEDs include:

-environmental friendly-energy efficient with 1/5th of the power consumption of incandescent lamps. LEDs contain no mercury and since they last longer there is less waste

-long life ‑ LEDs lasts up to 100,000 hr compared to the typical incandescent bulbs at 1,000 hr or 20,000 hr fluorescent lamps

-low maintenance cost

-miniaturization ‑ small size allows them to be used in areas not easily accessible

-high reliability ‑ LEDs are solid-state devices, without moving parts, glass or filament to break. They are robust and vibration proof

-directed light for increased system efficiency

-fully dimmable

-multicolour ‑ available in all colours

-high speed response ‑ immediate response, no preheat or starting time required.

Timing and Motion Sensors

Other considerations for energy efficient lighting systems include the use of timers, programmed to turn lights on/off to meet daily livestock needs and motion sensors in personnel areas such as hallways and entranceways.

Recent innovations include:

-A controller that will gradually turn light intensity up and down to simulate the sun. These controllers allow an operator to do this many times in a day.

-A controller that uses a photocell to change the light intensity as required from each row of lights. This is useful where a barn has translucent sidewall openings and can thus use the natural light as required and save substantial energy.

Swine

Lighting plays a significant role in reproductive and overall swine production performance. The cost of electricity for lighting is a small percentage of the cost of production for swine; however, it is possible to reduce energy costs, increase lighting levels and improve performance with a well-designed, energy efficient lighting system. A good lighting system should provide proper light levels economically with low maintenance costs.