This is the 2nd in a series to help us all – in our homes and work facilities – save energy costs. Average US energy costs in August rose 16% compared to August 2021. Wow! Don’t just “shrug your shoulders”, curse a little, and pay your bill. Well, pay your bill, but remember there are ways to reliably bring down future energy costs. And the beauty of reducing energy usage is that such actions will continue to reduce your energy costs for years to come without having to do anything further. Contrast that to sales. If you increase sales, you have to do it all over again every year. When you install energy efficient equipment, it’s not like you are going to re-install the old, inefficient ones again!
Oh yes. These measures will cost money upfront. Yes, I get it. But smart choices will give you a fast return on investment – certainly better than a typical bank or Wall St. can offer you, without the risk! Potential savings are such to make a project quite affordable.
Lighting. Your buildings have many lights. They’re needed not just to safely walk around, but also for your employees to do their jobs properly and for your customers to navigate around and be satisfied with their choices. If you reduced the number of lights or made them dimmer to save electric costs, you know that would reduce worker output, customer satisfaction, and be a safety issue. Goes without saying, right? What if you can install lights that are just as bright as or brighter than the ones you have, and use less than half the wattage of the old lights you have now? The best of both worlds: save on your electric bill AND improve the lighting of your building or business. It’s possible. A no-brainer.
This is not fantasy; it exists in light emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs use less than half the wattage of equivalent fluorescents and incandescents and actually produce more light. Competition has brought LED prices down recently. At the same time, incentives from utilities or the government exist to pay part of your upfront cost. But don’t wait. These entities see the financial benefits and are cutting incentives; they’re no longer needed.
And here is another benefit of LEDs. Proper LEDs last 7 to 10 or even more years before needing to be replaced – unlike fluorescents and incandescents, which burn out often in just a couple of years. That means less work and distractions for your O&M crew (stopping work on an important project just to replace a key light somewhere) and lower risk of an accident from fewer trips up and down ladders. More cost savings! And LEDs give off less heat than the others, reducing your cooling demand in the summer, enhancing your AC equipment. Again, going to LEDs is a no brainer. Don’t wait. And one more thing: when you install LEDs, you’ll get and see electric cost savings right away – in your next bill!
All this said, it is not in your interest just to go to the nearest big hardware store, buy LEDs and install them yourself. You need to have the right fixtures and ballasts. Thus, make sure you get an experienced LED vendor to evaluate your existing ballasts and recommend ballast replacement or the proper LED lights; have a licensed electrician do all installations. Yes, this adds to the cost, but is still quite affordable given the great savings; plus, you don’t want to sacrifice the savings due to faulty equipment.
And there are other ways to save electricity usage, demand, and cost with lighting. Review your space and determine whether you need all those lights. Many areas in a building may be overlit. Get the IESNA guide for illumination standards for different operations. If your areas are too dim, that’s another reason to change to LEDs or add additional fixtures. But if some areas are well overlit, consider removing fixtures (“de-lamp”). Going to 0 kWh of electric usage is a great way to save, if it does not affect operations. For example, I audited a school and most of the classrooms had illumination levels of 100 or more foot-candles, when the IESNA standard for classrooms (for proper student learning) is 40 foot-candles. I recommended to the manager to disconnect one fixture near a window (which gets additional sunlight) and see whether any teacher or student even notices, not to mention affects performance. If not, then disconnect a second fixture, etc. until a comfortable lighting level is met, meeting IESNA standards. What’s nice about this is achieving electric cost savings with no upfront cost (just disconnect).
Last lighting tip: consider automated controls. As you review your space, are there periods when the area is not used? If so, consider occupancy sensors (which coordinate well with LEDs) to turn off lights or make them dim when nobody is in the area and then turn them on when someone enters. You might think: “I don’t need controls; I’ll start a campaign with reminders to get people to turn off lights when they leave a room.” This approach has been tried by several major firms, spending much money on researching how to motivate such behavior and for proper reminder signage. Every effort has been a failure. Automated controls works and is another major electric cost saving strategy with a fairly low upfront cost showing up right away in your next bill.
One practical example. I performed an energy audit for a warehouse that used fluorescents to light their warehouse area 24/7. The manager acknowledged that there was one wing which is hardly used (perhaps a worker goes there once per week). I calculated that the simple payback for converting the lights to LEDs with occupancy sensors was just 3 months (the electric bill savings would be so great). The company went ahead and fully installed LEDs and occupancy sensors and determined that my estimate was wrong; it took just under 2 months to get the upfront money back!
CCES has the experts to help you assess your lighting, manage your upgrade with top-line lighting firms, and provide options to save you significant costs right away and improve the comfort and effectiveness of your tenants. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.