Your company has been presented with a lighting energy analysis and an estimate which projects annual energy consumption, operational costs and system emission reductions of up to +60% with minimal to zero maintenance for up to +20 years and now it is time to make informed decisions and upgrade your obsolete lighting system to LED.

Now what?

The obvious and rational course of action for any is to quickly verify the information presented, collect some more quotes and proceed to correct one of the top inefficiencies of your business.

You are not alone, this is not happening across the board – company’s are either locked in analysis paralysis or complacency when presented with energy analyses even though the information that proves LED lighting reduces costs and emissions and can increase productivity are easily verified through organizations such as BC Hydro, U.S. Department of Energy, Statscan, etc.

LED light fixture independent lab tested performance certifications can be viewed online when examining claims on a contractor’s estimate and can be easily verified on reputable organizations such as Design Lights Consortium (DLC) and BC Hydro Alliance e-Catalog.

Your business or employer

 

Financial:

Your company has been presented with a lighting energy analysis and an estimate which projects annual energy consumption, operational costs and system emission reductions of up to +60% with minimal to zero maintenance for up to +20 years once you upgrade your obsolete lighting system to LED.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2015, about 258 billion kilowatt-hours was used for lighting commercial and institutional buildings – equal to about 19% of commercial sector electricity consumption in 2015.

The majority of business owners and facilities managers are facing this same predicament. To save money, they’re temporarily patching systems to limp along into what they hope will be a more affluent future. It’s under these conditions that electrical engineers and contractors must try to separate reluctant clients from their dwindling cash reserves.

Lighting is one of the least efficient energy conversion processes in buildings, and adds to a building’s internal heat generation. This causes an increase in cooling requirements — newer energy-efficient lighting can drop air-conditioning demand by up to 30% in certain applications. 

Lighting can comprise up to 30% – 40% of the energy used by a building, and billions is wasted each year by the owners of commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings that keep their outmoded lighting systems, according to commissioned reports from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Reputation:

Environmental issues, from headline-grabbing environmental catastrophes to local letters to the editor/opinion pieces, can impair a company’s reputation.  Such reputation issues can threaten a company’s relationship with customers, employees, interest groups and the general public.  Because it can take many years to repair a damaged environmental reputation, it is critical for any company to manage its environmental reputation risk.

Most companies will never face environmental setbacks warranting coverage on the evening news.  However, environmental issues that appear in a local newspaper, website, blog or other medium can significantly harm a company’s environmental reputation.

Environmental reputation risks are not limited to companies in chemical, oil and gas industries.  Commercial businesses, retailers, wholesalers, distribution, warehousing, and logistics and technology companies, which have relatively benign environmental concerns, have also come under fire because of the impact that their supply chains and operational centres have on the environment.

Employees who believe they are being exposed to environmental harms may not be as productive.  These employees may also report such issues to regulatory authorities, labour organizations or the press further damaging the company’s environmental reputation and customers may not want to purchase products and services from such an organization.

You, your coworker’s and your employer

Health:

Facilities that have upgraded lighting have also reported improved safety (fewer complaints of headaches and eye fatigue), increased retail sales, and higher resale value. Possibly the most important benefit, particularly for office buildings, was the elimination of the hum or buzz associated with stereotypical older office lighting technologies, such as Metal Halide, old T12 and even T8 fluorescent lighting fixtures.

 

Productivity:

A benefit of improved light levels is an increase in productivity. An increase of 1% in productivity — measured by production rate, production quality, or absenteeism — can provide savings to a facility that exceeds its entire energy bill, according to “Building Momentum: National Trends for High-Performance Green Buildings,” a report prepared for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works by the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C.

As a real-world case study, the lighting upgrade to the postal sorting facility in Reno, Nevada proves this point. Enhanced visibility there through a lighting retrofit yielded a 6% increase in the number of mail pieces sorted per hour.

 

You, your coworker’s, employer, all of us and future generations

Reduced Energy Demand and Breathable Air:

The world’s transmission lines are believed to have dropped about 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity last year.

That’s 1.2 trillion metric tons of CO2 dumped into the atmosphere.

 

Though it is unlikely all these loses can be eliminated in the near future, LED lighting’s energy reductions of +60% is one way to reduce them.

 

Conclusion

Act:

Any business not actively pursuing an LED lighting upgrade would be wise to make this a top priority and address this issue with their operations and facility’s team. There are always plenty of reasons not to make a business decision, reasons to wait for more information, more options, more opinions. For those who value a significant reduction in their business’s operations costs and carbon emissions, an LED lighting upgrade which usually pays itself back within 1 to 5 years isn’t one of them.

 

Metcalfe Lighting is a BC Hydro Alliance company which provides full installation service for LED Lighting new installations and conversions.

Our team of installation experts can recommend the best types of LED Lighting for your facility and provide complete installation service throughout British Columbia.

We ensure that only LED fixtures which meet or exceed the DLC premium certification requirements are installed.

Contact an LED Lighting expert today for more information on LED Lighting and the best solution for your application.