Rentokil was the first company to make use of LEDs in their Lumnia range of insect light traps (ILT). However, what is it that makes LED bulbs so much better in ILT’s than traditional fluorescent bulbs – not only for the environment, but also for your pocket?
LED insect light traps vs fluorescents
Flies are an ongoing threat to food businesses that need contamination-free environments. Every business needs an effective fly control solution that is suitable for their specific environment – whether that’s a large food processing facility or a small café, and there are a range of factors to consider when choosing an insect light trap (ILT).
While traditional ILTs are effective at killing flies, LED ILTs have equally, if not better, efficacy and they offer a host of other benefits too, including sustainability and safety.
Sustainability:
- Energy savings
As anyone with LED bulbs at home knows, LED bulbs offer a significant energy saving over conventional light bulbs. This is also true for the conventional fluorescent bulbs used in ILTs. A typical LED strip used in an ILT uses only 10watts of power, compared to 60 – 90watts for units with fluorescent tubes. In their tests, Rentokil found that a Lumnia ILT with Lumnia LED lamps can save up to 70% of power compared to equivalent traps with fluorescent tubes, and the carbon footprint is reduced by 62%.
LED lamps also offer variable light output by reducing the power, allowing for even greater energy savings. It’s the contrast in light output to surroundings that’s important for attracting flies, so at night and in low light levels, the power and the output of the LED lamps can be reduced while still being effective.
Lumnia units also have day and night modes to further reduce the consumption of power when they’re least needed, allowing businesses to save more and lower their environmental footprint.
- Longer life
Standard fluorescent tubes used in ILT only last for about a year before needing replacing. During that time, the output of UV light drops to only half of the original brightness. LED lamps produce UV light for a minimum of three years and the brightness only drops to 70% of the original output. So not only do the LED lamps last three times longer than fluorescent tubes (saving on replacement costs), they also maintain a higher output of UV light over that period, thus staying effective for longer.
The UV output of LED lamps is about 80% greater than the conventional L3 fluorescent tubes used in ILTs. This means that even after three years of use the UV output of LEDs is equivalent to a new L3 fluorescent tube.
- Safer
No hazardous chemicals:
Fluorescent lamps require a number of hazardous chemicals in order to operate and are, therefore, a safety risk if mishandled. They contain low-pressure mercury vapour, which generates the light when an electric current passes through it, and other gases such as argon, xenon, neon or krypton to control this process. An LED lamp, on the other hand, has a tiny semiconductor wafer encased in plastic. There are no hazardous chemicals that can escape into the environment in normal use.
- No glass
A fluorescent tube consists of a fragile glass tube that contains the mercury vapour and the other components mentioned above. The glass tube can easily shatter if dropped or bumped, scattering the glass and the chemicals around the area in which food is handled.
LED lamps have no glass that can shatter and no hazardous chemicals that could be scattered in a food-handling area. In tests in which an LED ILT is dropped repeatedly, the lamps do not break, so they are perfectly safe for a food environment.
- Hygiene
With some traditional fly-traps, flies are zapped and fragments can escape into the environment, leading to contamination risks in food-handling areas. Lumnia units are designed to specifically overcome this by using powerful glue boards that capture flies and prevent the insect fragments from blowing out, thus, minimising the risk of cross-contamination, and making fly-control more hygienic.
When compared to traditional fly-traps, Lumnia LED ILTs are not only just as or more effective, they’re more energy efficient, which means more cost-effective, sustainable and hygienic. With their modern design, they’re aesthetically pleasing enough to go into front-of-house locations, too. To find out more about our Lumnia range of LED ILTs, contact Rentokil today.
