A Luminaire Comparison Method

Abstract

Underground coal mining lighting is regulated in the United States. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is responsible for enforcing these regulations and for issuing approvals for electrical devices and machines. Companies submit standard test and evaluation (ST&E) documentation to MSHA when seeking approval on a machine with mounted lighting. Subsequent machine modifications, such as changing the type of light lamp from incandescent to light-emitting diode (LED), will require an update to an existing ST&E acceptance via the Revised Approval Modification Program (RAMP). Lighting technology has changed significantly over the years, where older technologies such as incandescent and fluorescent are being replaced by light-emitting diode (LED) technology that can use 75% less energy and have a useful life of 25 times that of an incandescent lamp. Today, there are thousands of obsolete compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) used in underground coal mines. Replacing the CFL with an LED lamp requires RAMP documentation for each ST&E and would require MSHA to review virtually thousands of RAMPS that would require an exorbitant amount of resources for those submitting the RAMPs and would create a backlog that would take MSHA potentially years to process. This problem is addressed by the Luminaire Comparison Method (LCM) that determines if the luminous intensity from a luminaire with a replacement lamp meets or exceeds the luminous intensity of the luminaire with a legacy lamp. If it does, then the replacement lamp is determined as equivalent and can be used in place of the legacy lamp. One RAMP can then replace multiple RAMPs that would be required without the method. Due to this advantage, the LCM is in use today. One company is working on 718 ST& E’s that will utilize the LCM. The company estimates it will save over $700,000 USD, and another company has already saved about $200,000 USD. It is projected that the LCM will save millions of dollars.