What's a Corn Light: The Lighting Lowdown

Corn lights are LED light bulbs named for their resemblance to corn cobs. They may not sport the smooth styling of light bulbs of the past, but don't let their appearance put you off: these LED bulbs put out extremely bright light using very little wattage, and they run for as much as six times longer than the older bulbs you're used to, which means many fewer lamp replacements in your future.

One of the biggest advantages of the corn light is that it allows people to upgrade their low bay, high bay, or outdoor lighting fixtures to LED without having to go through the trouble of replacing and discarding your existing fixtures. Simply bypass each fixture's ballast and screw in your new energy-saving corn lights—turn the power back on, and wow.

Corn Lights in Action

Jeffery owns a Goodwill store in Florida, and over the years he'd replaced the store's fixtures a few times, attempting to get a satisfactory level of light to make for a welcoming shopping experience. He was repeatedly frustrated with the results. In addition to customer satisfaction, lighting is critical to employee productivity. A pain point for Jeffrey's employees was the inspection area where they sorted through donations before stocking them on the store's garment racks. Inadequate lighting in this area made it difficult for Jeffrey's employees to make out the true color and condition of donated items. It slowed them down and contributed to mistakes.

To address the light levels, we recommended our 125 High Lumen LED Corn Lights. These bulbs output 16,800 lumens of light, the equivalent of a 400W metal halide, but at an efficiency of 134 lumens/Watt that leaves metal halide lighting in the dust. The CRI rating of these lights also solved the issue his employees were having in the inspection area—with the added benefit of further improving the shopping experience too. CRI, short for "color rendering index", scores light sources on how faithfully color is reproduced under that source. The highest possible score is 100. A standard fluorescent tube scores around 62—quite a gap. Jeffrey's Goodwill store didn't need a CRI of 100 to help his employees and improve the customer experience, but they definitely needed better than 62. Our High Lumen LED Corn Lights provide a CRI of greater than 80—plenty accurate enough for application.

After installing his new ELEDLIGHTS Corn Lights throughout his store, Jeffery was thrilled.

Corn Light Savings in Action

According to our savings calculator, Jeffery will save up to $9,609 a year in energy costs compared to his old bulbs. His savings will not only pay back the cost of his lighting upgrade (in just two years), but he can expect to see $28,000 freed up in his budget from the energy savings by the time the lights' 5-year warranty period ends. And, with a rated average operating life of 50,000 hours, it's likely Jeffrey will see continued savings well past the end of the warranty.

One reason we expect Jeffrey will get the full rated operating life, if not more, out of these lights is their specific patented design. In our High Lumen LED Corn Lights, the lamp's driver/control board is housed in a separate chamber from the LEDs, with spacing between them. This exposes the circuitry to significantly less operating heat than models with both in the same chamber, and less heat means longer life. Additionally, high-quality components, such as high-grade Samsung LEDs, combined with high-quality workmanship all work toward meeting or exceeding the average rated lamp life.

Shop for Corn Lights for Your Application

We offer 360° corn lights for indoor applications, like low bay CFL and high bay metal halide fixture conversions in our Indoor LED Corn Lights department. Corn lights are great for outdoor fixtures as well, from wall packs and canopy lights to parking lot and street lights. You can find flat corn lights, 360° corn lights, and corn lights specifically designed for post top installations in our Outdoor Retrofit Lighting department.

If you have questions about corn lights and your specific lighting application, such as which style or wattage will best meet your needs, contact the ELEDLIGHTS lighting team. We've helped many customers convert their fixtures to LED with corn light bulbs, and we're happy to help you, too.