LED lighting that pays back in daily savings dividends

In this article I plan on highlighting some easy ways to incorporate efficiency with LED Lighting into your facility that will literally pay you back in savings dividends day after day. I'll identify and summarize some key steps to ensure a financially successful project.

When beginning, it's good to answer a few questions about how you traditionally handle lighting maintenance. Is it an in-house effort or are we calling in an electrician or professional service? Is our main motivation to enhance the space visually or potentially fix a costly ongoing maintenance issue? Have we prioritized the key areas needing the updates as exterior, interior, or both?

Establish a baseline. How many fixtures do we have in these areas and how much are these costing us to operate and maintain?

Determining what your true lighting maintenance costs are and taking the time to research rebates can be challenging and ultimately lead to hours learning how watts, lumens, foot candles, kelvin temps all play into the equation.

There are two types of lighting to consider with your project: new fixtures and retrofits. A retrofit makes use of the existing fixture in place by only replacing the existing lamps and power supplies aka ballasts. Both choices are available for interior and exterior fixtures and both come with their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Generally speaking retrofits will be the most cost effective and new fixtures will visually enhance the space by adding a finished modern look.

New fixtures will cost more for both product and labor with retrofits typically being a much simpler and financially friendly transition. Both will get the job done and are way more efficient than non-LED lamps or fixtures, but not all retrofits are great choices.

Utility rebate programs can be broken down to either a wattage reduction incentive or a per fixture/measure incentive rebate where an amount is applied for each item. They also will classify incentives based on demand of electricity for your building, type of business or facility, with differing incentive amounts for interior and exterior fixtures.

Wattage reduction is simply taking your existing fixture (400 watts for example) and monetizing the difference using a dollar amount between the replaced LED Fixture (150 watts for example). The 350 to 400 watt difference (ballasts can add or reduce wattage) will generate an amount to be used toward both the led fixture and labor. It's important to find out what demand classification your building is as the incentive rates will vary greatly for lower electrical demand clients versus higher demand users or larger businesses/buildings.

Light color will matter, and to ensure you don't have to install something twice you'll want to know what color the new lighting will be emitting and how it will look in the environment. 3000-4000- 5000K are the main color options with some pleasant in between colors being available for creating that perfect atmosphere.

K represents Kelvin Temperature. The color of a candle flame will hover around 2200 Kelvin Temperature and daylight is stated to be 5000K. Most offices and common areas will usually choose 3500K or 4000K with warehouses, exterior building and pole lighting opting for 4000K or 5000K. When wanting to create a warm cozy environment either inside or out 2700K or 3000K are great choices.

The utility efficiency programs leave the brand and style choices up to the service provider and the end user to determine what will work best for them so vetting your service provider will only help ensure you receive a quality product that will last maintenance free for years to come. Most of the major brands offer five-year warranties and the more white label brands offering up to 10 years for the added reassurance.

Having a manufacturer and a service provider that will handle both warranty claims and provide labor coverage assistance for a few years in the event of a product failure is a big bonus saving money for unexpected repairs down the road.

Not all service providers are equal with some energy efficiency programs having multiple tiered classes of incentives and tiered service providers that can provide better incentives for your project. Reach out to the utility to make sure you get paired with the right service provider for your building.

• Brad Esposito is President of GreenBee Energy Efficiency.