LED Lighting Retrofits for Commercial Buildings – The How and Why
For commercial building managers, commercial real estate portfolio managers and anyone who manages commercial properties.
Are your commercial buildings utility bills out of control?
This most likely is the result of using outdated and inefficient lighting to illuminate your commercial building. You wouldn’t be alone in this regard as many commercial buildings are in a similar position and are essentially wasting money each month, money that could be spent elsewhere. Currently, many options to correct this are now available. The most obvious solution for reducing your buildings operational expenses is to do a LED lighting retrofit. This is a guaranteed way to lower your power bill substantially.
Retrofitting your commercial building with advanced LED lighting will replace those outdated and energy inefficient conventional incandescent, halogen, and compact fluorescent lights which have been causing you to spend additional and unnecessary money each month on your outrageous energy bill. The LED retrofitting process for commercial properties is straight forward, in this article we discuss some of the details with the intentions of giving you the ammunition needed that if you so choose to take this rout and convert to LED lighting, this hopefully will assist in making this process go as smooth as possible.
When contemplating an advanced lighting project for your commercial building, there’s often one question at the forefront: “How much will this cost us?”
The truth is, each commercial building differs in square footage, structure, and hours of operation – these important factors directly impact the cost of each individual lighting project.
It’s important to mention that through our strategic partnerships, the specific LED lighting retrofit that we are offering to qualified customers has a zero-money down option – Schedule an Energy Audit to see if you qualify for the ERSA program.
When planning and installing LED Retrofit lighting program in commercial buildings, it’s important to consider a few things before getting started.
- How much light do your tenants require?
- Are you over-lighting or under-lighting your building?
Keep in mind when retrofitting, your building may not need more light, it may just greatly benefit from a much better quality of light that advanced LED lighting is known for.
- What are your desired LED lighting goals?
- Are you looking to improve the value of your property?
- Are you trying to meet corporate environmental standards?
- Are you trying to cut costs by increasing your overall energy efficiency?
An LED lighting retrofit will assist you in achieving these goals!
By improving your buildings lighting efficiency by converting to LED lighting, you may also increase the value of the building—and potentially increase your lease revenues as well! This ultimately will lead to increased CAP rates. LED lighting is a fantastic way to decrease the amount of energy your building currently uses thus reducing your carbon footprint and increasing corporate responsibility. Not only will LED lighting be a more sustainable long-term solution, LED lighting is the best modern solution for reducing your monthly energy bills and ultimately reducing your buildings overall operational expenses. Its truly a win/win.
According to the Small Business Administration, lighting accounts for nearly 50% of a commercial buildings monthly electricity consumption. This means that by converting your building to LED lighting you can save a substantial amount of money on your monthly utility bills by making a significant energy efficient upgrade! It’s as simple as that.
How the LED Lighting Retrofit Process Works
It Starts with the Energy Audit
What does the Energy Audit Entail?
A commercial energy audit is a detailed analysis of your commercial buildings energy efficiency, the audit is conducted by qualified energy auditors, engineers and or any other qualified energy reduction experts. The energy audit is generally initiated by visiting your building to determine specific ways that your facility can reduce energy costs and minimize your carbon foot print.
In this process, an auditor will also analyze your past utility bills to ensure you were correctly billed at the proper rates.
- Walk-through Analysis
- Energy Survey & Engineering Analysis
- Detailed Analysis of Energy Reduction Plan
We then discover on your behalf what Local, State, Federal Rebates & Incentives you qualify for
Building owners are mostly unaware of the rebates and incentives that are available to them. A good portion of this country’s utility companies offer cash rebates and other incentives to promote different energy efficiency initiatives. Commercial building owners are incentivized to reduce their energy usage during the times of peak demand or reduce through more energy efficient equipment and programs. The federal government offers several programs that reward building owners for investing in clean energy and becoming more energy efficient as well.
ERSA Program – Available Financing to Qualified Customers
What is ERSA?
ERSA is an acronym for “Energy Reduction Services Agreement” and the program covers all costs associated with the manufacturing, installation, and maintenance of the LED lighting technology. Our trusted partner will create, design, and install an advanced custom lighting solution that will optimize your energy savings, rebates, and incentives.
All projects are custom tailored to meet your specific client needs and include new/retrofit LED lighting systems, LED controls, LED networking, functionality, monitoring, emergency backup, and on location solar harvesting, in addition to all other required lighting components.
The ERSA program utilizes energy savings provided by Photonic Lab’s LED lighting and other energy reducing technology as the source of financing lighting projects. Photonic Capital, our finance division provides complete turn-key financing. Read more about our successful ERSA installations.
HOW ERSA WORKS:
- A certified representative will conduct an energy audit of the current lighting to ascertains, and if necessary, designs custom replacement lighting
- Based on energy reduction and maintenance savings, the overall energy savings is then calculated to be 40% to 80% savings, and an immediate reduction in their lighting utility bills
- Our finance partner utilizes the remaining energy savings to fund the cost of manufacturing and installation; financing costs over a 5-7-year term w/fixed monthly payment
- Our partner warranties and maintains all products throughout the entire financing term
Project Assignment & Management
Whether it’s new construction or a LED lighting retrofit, our network of installers and other energy reduction experts will successfully manage your energy initiatives, so that you can focus on what you do best. Our trusted network partner will be responsible for the planning and final delivery on any of your energy reduction projects.
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Commercial/Industrial LED Lighting Retrofits- Preferability or a Responsibility?
Switching to energy-efficient lighting solutions is certainly the need of the day. It has become more of a responsibility now than preferability, especially at commercial/industrial buildings. Do you know that according to the US Department of Energy’s estimation, over three-quarters of commercial buildings in the US are using fluorescent lamps as their primary source of energy, due to which energy costs are skyrocketing and environmental concerns are rising?
Why LED Lighting?
At the moment, the primary concern of every responsible individual should be to think beyond monetary limitations and focus on the collective goal of conserving the environment. LED lighting is the first step in this direction. LEDs are at least 80% more energy-efficient than conventional options like HID, Fluorescent and Incandescent lights. About 95% of the LED energy is renewed into light and just 5% gets wasted as heat. Comparatively, fluorescent lights transform 95% energy into heat and just 5% into light.
Moreover, LEDs consume lesser power than conventional lighting but you get the same level of light from a 36watt LED and an 84watt fluorescent. Besides, LEDs don’t contain toxic elements whereas standard fluorescent strip lights have highly toxic chemicals such as mercury, which increase greenhouse gas emissions and contaminate the environment.
Pros of Commercial/Industrial LED Lighting Retrofits:
Don’t be confused by the heavy-weight term retrofit. It just means to replace the outdated lighting with new-age, energy-efficient options like LEDs. The benefits of switching to LEDs are various and truly diverse. It not only amplifies the lamp life but also brings down operating costs considerably apart from lowering overall energy costs and consumption. Since LEDs last way longer than traditional HIDs or fluorescent lamps, so the replacement cost is also reduced. The best aspect is that LEDs’ heat emittance ratio is much lower than other lamps so the need to install cooling systems is greatly curbed. These are just a few direct benefits that commercial and industrial facilities can enjoy while the wide-ranged environmental and monetary benefits are far more substantial and far-reaching.
Does Every Commercial Building Require Lighting Retrofit?
That’s a tricky question to answer. It depends upon a variety of factors and not every commercial building needs a lighting retrofit. Before executing a retrofit, assessing the extensiveness of light usage, building’s age and future energy goals is important. You need to decide whether you are ready to bring down the building’s energy bills, lamp replacement/maintenance expenses, and switch to a more sustainable and long-lasting lighting solution. Other key aspects to consider include the number of hours your building requires lights to be turned on and existing lighting system. If it is above 12-hours, then your building definitely needs lighting retrofit.
What are the Different types of Lighting Retrofits?
LED lighting retrofit isn’t a job that will be completed in minutes; it is a simple job indeed but does require enough care and concern. Your building can undergo a retrofit in three ways, which include:
- Direct Lamp Replacement:
Since LEDs use internal drivers and don’t require ballasts so some lighting fixtures can easily be retrofitted by changing out the lamps. It is a low-cost method that can be concluded quickly. Most replacement applications also come with a plug-and-play feature that allows direct installation into existing fixtures.
- Retrofit Kits:
A commercial building can also be upgraded using an LED retrofit kit, which can be directly mounted into the current luminaire housing. So, you get to keep original fixtures and just convert the lighting to LEDs.
- Complete Replacement of Fixtures:
This is probably the most expensive of all three methods but most reliable as well if the condition of current sockets or lens/louver isn’t too good. It is also a feasible option if existing lighting fixtures are enclosed because, ideally, LEDs must not be installed into enclosed fixtures.
Bottom Line:
We live in an era dominated by a variety of issues that threaten the sustainability of the planet and future generations. Perhaps, it is time to think about retrofitting older, outdated lightings with to energy-efficient LED lights, especially at commercial and industrial buildings. To know if your commercial building requires a lighting retrofit, contact us immediately to schedule energy audit.
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Solar Energy Conversions & Why Corporations are Saying Yes
It’s never been a better time if you are a business considering going solar.
The cost for the installation to organizations is in some cases zero money down. Between local and national incentives and rebates, business can now get solar energy and a new drastically reduced electric rate.
Benefits:
- Decreased Operational Costs & Maintenance Expenses
- Increased Rebates & Credits for Going Solar
- Increased Energy Independence
- Decreased Carbon Footprint
What type of Facilities does Solar Conversion apply to?
Any large commercial/industrial/government facility can benefit from converting to solar energy, here are just a few of the facility types that it would apply to: schools & universities, municipalities, cities, and other federal government installations, multi-family housing units, storage facilities, office buildings, grocery stores, hotels, and more.
How the Energy Audit Process Works
It begins with a thorough examination your building’s past utility bills going back several years. By viewing your historic utility usage, auditors and engineers will analyze the specifics of the facility. Examples include heating/cooling usage, lighting usage, energy rate structures, possible billing errors, and much more.
Full Scale Facility Walk-Through
Next, auditors and engineers will conduct a full facility walk-through. During this time, they will generally examine all mechanical systems, lighting, thermal boundaries, equipment, roof, HVAC system and more. The results of the walk-through will be cross-referenced with your historic utility bills.
Reporting, Savings and Solutions Plan
Finally, once the full audit is complete, most energy audit contractors provide a detailed analysis of their discoveries. This report will include proposed solutions as well as the economic benefits of each conversion/retrofit provided.
How Long Will a Certified Energy Audit Take?
A certified commercial energy audit walk-through performed by an auditor/engineer will typically takes several hours depending on the size of the facility.
Why Trust EnergyAuditDirect?
We’ve spent the better part of the last year tracking 3 industry leading companies in the renewable energy space. These companies provide a range of services which include the sales and installation of large-scale commercial LED lighting and solar equipment and other renewable energy products. We had the opportunity to see firsthand the detailed process each company employed when doing an energy audit at all different types of facilities. In short, our contributor was “embedded” with the engineers/auditors.
Additional Resources:
Click here for a list of federal government rebates.
Click here to view industry certifications.
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LED Conversions Lead to Massive Corporate Savings
Is your business/organization considering retrofitting your building or facility to LED lighting?
It’s important to have a better understanding as to how this process works before you make your next move. Your current lighting system can indeed be retrofitted with LED lighting and this conversion could potentially save your business/organization a substantial amount of money. This process is also possible to accomplish with no money down. Some recent facilities that made the transition are saving between 25% – 80% on their energy cost.
Benefits:
- Increased Lighting Quality
- Decreased Operational Costs & Maintenance Expenses
- Increased Rebates & Credits for Compliant Lighting
- Increased Workplace Safety
- Decreased Carbon Footprint
How the LED Conversion Process Works
It begins with a thorough examination your building’s past utility bills going back several years. By viewing your historic utility usage, auditors and engineers are able to analyze the specifics of the facility. Examples include heating/cooling usage, lighting usage, energy rate structures, possible billing errors, and much more.
Full Scale Facility Walk-Through
Next, auditors and engineers will conduct a full facility walk-through. During this time, they will generally examine all mechanical systems, lighting, thermal boundaries, equipment, roof, HVAC system and more. The results of the walk-through will be cross-referenced with your historic utility bills.
Reporting, Savings and Solutions Plan
Finally, once the full audit is complete, most energy audit contractors with a provide a detailed analysis of their discoveries. This report will include proposed solutions as well as the economic benefits of each conversion/retrofit provided.
How Long Will a LED Conversion Estimate Take?
A certified commercial energy audit walk-through performed by an auditor/engineer will typically takes several hours depending on the size of the facility.
Below are some common questions and answers. If you have any additional questions or would like to speak directly with a certified auditor or engineer, feel free to contact us below.
How the LED Retrofit/Conversion Process Works
It begins with a thorough examination your building’s past lighting bills going back several years. By viewing your historic lighting usage, auditors and engineers are able to analyze the specifics of your facility. lighting usage, energy rate structures, possible billing errors, and much more.
What Types of Facilities Do We Service?
Office Buildings, Warehouses, Distribution Centers, Manufacturing Facilities, Schools, Universities, Cities, Towns, Municipalities and all other Government Installations.
Full Scale Facility Walk-Through
Next, auditors and engineers will conduct a full facility walk-through. During this time, they will generally examine all mechanical systems, lighting, thermal boundaries, equipment, roof, HVAC system and more. The results of the walk-through will be cross-referenced with your historic utility bills.
Reporting, Savings and Solutions Plan
Finally, once the full audit is complete, most energy audit contractors with a provide a detailed analysis of their discoveries. This report will include proposed solutions as well as the economic benefits of each conversion/retrofit provided.
How Long Will a Certified Energy Audit Take?
A certified commercial energy audit walk-through performed by an auditor/engineer will typically takes several hours depending on the size of the facility.
Why Trust EnergyAuditDirect?
We’ve spent the better part of the last year tracking 3 industry leading companies in the renewable energy space. These companies provide a range of services which include the sales and installation of large-scale commercial LED lighting and solar equipment and other renewable energy products. We had the opportunity to see firsthand the detailed process each company employed when doing an energy audit at all different types of facilities. In short, our contributor was “embedded” with the engineers/auditors.
Additional Resources:
Click here for a list of federal government rebates.
Read More
Commercial Energy Audit & Major Cost Reductions
The benefits of becoming more energy efficient are becoming more and more clear each day that passes. For organizations, corporations, government installations and other entities, some of the of the most obvious benefits of commissioning a commercial energy audit are cost savings as well as improved corporate citizenship status.
For organizations looking to substantially lower energy costs for their facility and boost their standing as an organization by becoming more environmentally friendly, it would be wise to consider a certified commercial energy audit. A certified energy audit is a thorough examination of your building that is conducted by a certified auditor or engineer to determine opportunities to lower your overall utility costs. This audit will expose any potential deficiencies you may have such as lighting, equipment, boundary leaks, and other savings opportunities.
A commercial energy audit will help commercial facilities increase overall value by reducing operating costs by providing sustainable, affordable energy solutions.
Any large commercial/industrial/government facility can benefit from a certified commercial energy audit, here is just a few of the facility types that it would apply to: schools & universities, municipalities, cities, and other federal government installations, multi-family housing units, storage facilities, office buildings, grocery stores, hotels, and more.
How the Energy Audit Process Works
It begins with a thorough examination your building’s past utility bills going back several years. By viewing your historic utility usage, auditors and engineers are able to analyze the specifics of the facility. Examples include heating/cooling usage, lighting usage, energy rate structures, possible billing errors, and much more.
Full Scale Facility Walk-Through
Next, auditors and engineers will conduct a full facility walk-through. During this time, they will generally examine all mechanical systems, lighting, thermal boundaries, equipment, roof, HVAC system and more. The results of the walk-through will be cross-referenced with your historic utility bills.
Reporting, Savings and Solutions Plan
Finally, once the full audit is complete, most energy audit contractors with a provide a detailed analysis of their discoveries. This report will include proposed solutions as well as the economic benefits of each conversion/retrofit provided.
How Long Will a Certified Energy Audit Take?
A certified commercial energy audit walk-through performed by an auditor/engineer will typically takes several hours depending on the size of the facility.
Why Trust EnergyAuditDirect?
We’ve spent the better part of the last year tracking 3 industry leading companies in the renewable energy space. These companies provide a range of services which include the sales and installation of large-scale commercial LED lighting and solar equipment and other renewable energy products. We had the opportunity to see firsthand the detailed process each company employed when doing an energy audit at all different types of facilities. In short our contributor was “embedded” with the engineers/auditors.
Additional Resources:
Click here for a list of federal government rebates.
Click here to view industry certifications.