Lighting Retrofit Saves Energy Costs for Commercial Building Owners

Save energy and money by retrofitting your lighting

A hot topic among facility and energy managers today is lighting retrofitting.

Most commercial and industrial buildings have lighting selected for its relatively low capital cost – high intensity discharge (HID) fixtures that use metal halide (white light) or high-pressure sodium (yellow light) lamps. And while these lamps may meet your lighting needs, they're driving up your energy consumption and your electric bill.

Jackson EMC's Commercial & Industrial Marketing team has worked with a number of customers to analyze their lighting needs and make recommendations to save them money and energy. Retrofits using fluorescent technologies reduce lighting energy consumption (kWh) and lighting demand (kW) as much as 50 percent.

"Each type of space has different requirements for lighting, and one technology will not be suitable for every application; however Jackson EMC members have had great success replacing their HID fixtures for fluorescent fixtures using 4 or 6 lamp T8 or T5 lamps and electronic ballasts," says Commercial/Industrial Engineer Mark Zoller.

Zoller recently worked with Turnils North America in Suwanee, a manufacturer of high-end, custom order window covering and treatment systems, on a lighting retrofit project.

"The 40-45 percent monthly kWh savings has been excellent," says Operations Manager David Mitchell. "The light levels have been dramatically improved, making a safer working environment, and the warehouse is much quieter now without the constant hum of HID ballasts. Turnils North America is planning on making our Suwanee headquarters the model for energy savings for other locations across the country."

How much energy can you save? "The simple payback of a lighting retrofit depends on the price of new equipment, hours of operation, lighting controls and cost of electric service per kilowatt-hour. All of these parameters are unique to each facility, but common payback periods for HID to fluorescent lighting retrofits are 1-3 years with incentives," Zoller says.

While Jackson EMC doesn't offer retrofit incentives, the cost of the lighting retrofit is now more affordable with state tax credits and federal tax deductions. The state corporate tax credit (available until 12/31/2012) is $0.60 per square foot of building space capped at $100,000. Refer to O.C.G. § 48-7-29.14  and the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) for more details. The federal tax deduction is $0.60 per square foot of warehouse/manufacturing floor space for lighting reduced by 50 percent over AHSRAE 90.1 standard. Visit www.lightingtaxdeduction.org for more details.

But will you be sacrificing lighting quality for these savings? "Actually, though the amount of light you get per Watt of power will generally be about the same for both modern fluorescent lamps and modern HID lamps, fluorescent lamps have a higher Color Rendering Index (CRI) which improves the quality of light and is perceived to be brighter," Zoller notes.

And while both technologies are rated for about 20,000 hours of operation, you'll get higher quality lighting for a longer period because HID lamps have significantly higher light depreciation versus fluorescent lamps.

For more information, go to www.jacksonemc.com/lighting.

Sponsor: Redbird LED an Atlanta based designer and manufacturer of LED Tube lights can save companies even more on their energy bills if they retrofit their buildings with the newer lighting technology- LED lighting. Thousands of companies have used LED Lights in their retrofit projects with great success. Savings average between 30-50 percent. For more information please visit www.ledretrofit.org.