In the last three years, Fall River-based Philips Lightolier has increased its LED products to 20 percent of the company's sales, making it a leader in renewable lighting technology.
Zia Eftekhar, chairman of Philips Lighting North America, said it's the world's largest lighting company and credits the success in the LED market to a commitment to research and development of green and renewable product innovation.
"I think a combination of making sense financially and supporting a commitment to sustainability gives you a better product. Energy efficiency is paramount," Eftekhar said.
That's why Philips Lightolier, a division of Philips Lighting North America, is poised to complete the largest lighting retrofit project in New York City recently, Eftekhar said.
The international accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP contracted Philips Lightolier to provide customized LED fixtures and control systems to replace all the lighting in its 32-floor, 650,000-square-foot office space located near Times Square.
The retrofit, according to Ernst & Young, will save the company about $1 million annually and reduce lighting energy consumption by 54 percent and maintenance cost by 50 percent. The building supports about 5,800 employees and used 6.2 million kilowatt-hours a year before the energy-efficient lighting was installed.
LED stands for light-emitting diode, a semiconductor device that converts electricity to light by using the movement of electrons. The life of a LED is more than 20 years and uses 25 percent less energy to manufacture compared to conventional lighting products, Eftekhar said.
"I like to say that you can install an LED light when you're a newlywed and it's still there when your child graduates from college," Eftekhar said.
The company already manufactures more efficient conventional light sources and produces incandescent bulbs that are 25 to 33 percent more energy efficient, he said.
Lightolier´s 300,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility at 631 Airport Road employs more than 250 people, and houses a 5,000-square-foot laboratory. The company is completely vertically integrated, Eftekhar said, manufacturing everything from the tiny chips used to illuminate LEDs to lighting hardware for products like track lighting that it invented in the 1960s.
With more than 3,000 catalogue items, products range from regular light bulbs and fixtures to sophisticated LED systems and lighting control, Eftekhar said. Much of the inventory is made in the Fall River facility.
The company's 108-year history allows for successful brand positioning on the worldwide market and will continue innovations in research and development and "a heavy commitment to technology and application," Eftekhar said.
Lightolier's researchers are currently working on exploring how light affects people with Alzheimer's disease or children with attention deficit disorders and developing more efficient streetlight technology, Eftekhar said.
As far as LED product growth, the company predicts that by the end of the decade its energy efficient products will reach well over 50 percent of its sales.
"There is a lot of room with existing technology to go into areas we never thought of," Eftekhar said.
Zia Eftekhar, chairman of Philips Lighting North America, holds one of the company's LED light fixtures at the Lightolier divison of Philips in Fall River.
