Lighting Science L-Bar is the Perfect Drop-in Replacement for Fluorescents

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Lighting Science, the manufacturer of the durable lightbulb, aka the Durabulb that also just happens to be powered by LEDs, has released another innovative LED lighting product that aims to replace standard 4′ x 2′ fluorescent light enclosures, called the L-Bar.

What is the L-Bar?

The L-Bar looks much like a single 4′ fluorescent tube would look if mounted directly to the ceiling but amazingly, the L-Bar puts out 4,500 lumens, which Lighting Science believes is sufficient to replace a traditional 4′ x 2′ fluorescent troffer.

The L-Bar is revolutionary on just about every level — it comes in at half the price of both legacy fluorescent lighting installations and traditional LED replacement solutions while also putting out an impressive 150 lumens per watt. This makes the L-Bar an attractive option for new construction as well as for energy efficiency retrofit projects.

Small & Light = Easy Installation

The L-Bar doesn’t just bring sexy data sheet specs with it, but it also packs all this performance into a slender package, weighing in at just 19 ounces, which is a testament to the fact that it also uses ~95% less material to make than a standard 4′ x 2′ fluorescent lighting troffer.

This svelte form factor also makes installation a breeze compared to traditional fluorescents which typically weigh around 25 pounds. That isn’t a showstopper when carrying something at ground level but installing a 25 pound awkward metal tank overhead can be cumbersome and takes longer to install than these diminutive L-Bars that barely tip the scales in comparison at a mere 19 ounces.

I put this to the test with the L-Bar and found that the removal of a traditional 4-ft x 2-ft fluorescent light troffer was cumbersome and nearly required two people.

Conversely, installing the L-Bar was a very simple matter and simply required mounting 3 small brackets to which the L-Bar clips into. Installation was no issue as the L-Bar is featherlight in comparison to the troffer I had just removed.

Not content to let the L-Bar be lost amongst the vast sea of LED offerings for legacy fluorescent retrofits, the Lighting Science team built the L-Bar to be wet-rated, which opens up new installation locations for it including parking garages, stairwells, and public areas in addition to the more traditional medical facilities, schools, and retail shops where legacy fluorescent installations reign supreme.

See the Light

To size this up, I put the L-Bar to the test in a real-life scenario in my garage, replacing an existing fluorescent troffer. As I noted above, installing the L-Bar really was much easier than removing the existing fluorescent troffer due to its lower size and weight. After wiring it up, I flicked on the power and after a brief delay, the little tube blasted to life.

The extremely bright, cool LED light poured out of the unassuming fixture in what looked like a flood from heaven. The fixture is so bright, it’s hard to look at considering how concentrated the light source is, and makes it easy to see that it puts out as much or more light than many fluorescent enclosures.

In my small garage, the L-Bar is a clear winner in terms of light delivered in the space, and it’s not hard imagining that improvement translating to a larger space like an open office. The fact that the same light, or even a bit more, which was previously coming from 2 or 4 fluorescent bulbs was now coming from something the size of a single bulb was somehow irrelevant.

Given the affordable price, easy installation and long life expectation of the LED-powered L-Bar, it’s no wonder installers are flocking to it in droves for installations both new and old. It is an impressive piece of technology that serves as the new benchmark for LED fixture light output in a beautifully efficient package.

The L-Bar is not only a great fit for home garages and offices, but given the wet rating it carries, it can be installed in parking garages, exterior corridors, small businesses and even in more creative lighting installations.

The seemingly familiar form factor of the L-Bar stands out in stark contrast to traditional lighting solutions as all the light, and the entire shape of it, is contained in the form factor of a single fluorescent bulb.

That gives interior designers, installers and businesses new freedom in how they think about and implement lighting in their spaces. I don’t get excited about many products but LED lighting solutions — especially ones that improve on traditional lights in just about every way and make great candidates for fluorescent enclosure retrofits — represent easy cost savings on materials, lower installation costs, and energy efficiency improvements we should all be getting behind, as Scott documented so well.

In Summary

Lighting Science’s entire LS Earth Series of products (including the L-Bar) aim to develop and deliver high quality lighting solutions that make more efficient use of the materials that go into them, require less packaging, are easier to recycle AND save energy.

By all these measures (and maybe a few more that aren’t in the Lighting Science mission statement), the L-Bar is a beaming success and truly raises the bar for fluorescent-equivalent LED lighting.

Pete Rumsey, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Lighting Science puts a pretty nice bow on it:

“This is the type of LED solution that people have been waiting for to finally make the switch from traditional fluorescents. The L-Bar costs 50 percent less than both traditional LED and legacy fluorescent solutions while providing 150 lumens per watt. That’s pretty incredible performance for a lamp weighing in at a mere 19 ounces.”

For more information about the L-Bar, check out the official product page for all the juicy details or head straight to Amazon to pick a few up. I know I’m going to be looking for more opportunities to install these over the next few months.

Disclaimer: Lighting Science provided the L-Bar at no cost for review purposes, however, we were under no obligation to write anything, positive or negative about it.

Sources: Lighting Science and the Business Wire Press Release 

Images Credit: Lighting Science