Posted January 26, 2012 at 8:38 pm by Ray De Varona
As much as I don’t like it, lighting retrofit projects have to compete for corporate funds just like all other projects. If it was up to me, lighting retrofits would just be given the green light and prioritized above all other capital requests, and corporations large and small would come flocking to RelightDepot for their energy efficient lighting needs. In the real world, project sponsors have to justify why they want to spend money on new lights if the existing ones work just fine. The most common way to do that is by building a business case that includes a return on investment (ROI) and a simple payback calculation. In this article, I’ll walk you through the simple math that will help you prove that the money spent on a lighting retrofit is money well spent.
Posted February 12, 2011 at 4:00 pm by Ray De Varona
It’s February and Ameren Illinois’ Act On Energy ® program is offering a sweet deal! For all new applications submitted from February 14th through March 31st of 2011 that include electric measures, an additional 15% cash bonus will be added on top of the incentive. This could improve your project’s ROI and increase your incentives for high bay lighting replacements and other non-T12 retrofits. Since the T12 lighting phase-out program already pays a 10% bonus, T12 measures are not eligible for this 15% bonus. The current 10% bonus for T12 lighting upgrades offers the best incentives for T12 replacements that will be offered for the duration of this program.
Efficiency Vermont, Vermont’s statewide provider of energy efficiency services, has announced a new program promoting the replacement of T12 and HID High-Bay lighting with more efficient technology. The newLIGHT program is being made available from April 1st to December 31st, 2010, and is offering businesses significantly enhanced rebates for upgrading their old T12 fluorescent and HID high-bay lighting systems to more efficient equipment. This comes as the Department of Energy has passed new regulations that will ban the manufacture of T12 fluorescent lamps for sale in the US after July 14, 2012.
We have performed many lighting audits for warehouses and industrial facilities across the country. In doing this, we have developed a very simple form that captures all of the pertinent information for a lighting audit in a single sheet of paper. We are happy to share this form with you in hopes that it makes assessing your building’s potential for a lighting retrofit easier.
While doing some research last week, I bumped into this great video that was put together by the folks at ElectricTV.net. I was surprised to see the logo of our sister site RelightWithT5.com towards the end, so I decided to reach out and ask if they would let us embed the video here. It’s great to see all of the points we’ve been stressing about T5HO high bay lighting being repeated by a professional organization like NECA and IBEW.
ElectricTV.net is the on-line “Television network” of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and their contractors, The National Electrical Contractors Association. “E-TV” uploads 2 electrical based stories per month presenting new technologies, installations and project profiles. To watch stories just like this one, visit www.electricTV.net today.
The vast majority of existing warehouse space in the US is lit with inefficient high intensity discharge or magnetically ballasted T12 fluorescent light fixtures. Unfortunately, lighting is one of the few areas that is often overlooked when investigating cost reduction opportunities. Owners and managers blindly budget tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for utility bills without realizing that switching to more energy efficient warehouse lighting can provide a tremendous opportunity to reduce energy demand and therefore cut utility costs. Many believe that the only option to lowering the electric bill is to shut off all the lights in the facility which results in an unsafe work environment. We have had major advances in lighting technology that allow for warehouses lighting systems to be optimized for bulk storage and rack aisle applications.
This application guide outlines warehouse lighting requirements and best practices and gives practical examples you can use as a basis for your warehouse lighting retrofit project. As with our gymnasium lighting application guide, we will use examples to illustrate these guidelines that are based on typical warehouse layouts. If you have any questions or need any clarifications, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Posted January 19, 2010 at 11:42 pm by Ray De Varona
The National Energy Technology Lab has announced on behalf of the US Department of Energy that it is funding 17 solid state lighting projects with over $37M of American Recovery and Reinvestment funds. The goal of the solid state lighting project is to develop advanced solid-state lighting technologies by the year 2025 that, compared to conventional lighting technologies, are much more energy efficient, longer lasting, and cost competitive by targeting a product system efficiency of 50 percent with lighting that accurately reproduces sunlight spectrum.
Posted December 12, 2009 at 10:59 am by Ray De Varona
One of the most common questions that facility and operation managers ask is “How much light do I need to properly illuminate my facility?”
Since 1958, the Illuminating Engineering Society has been publishing recommended illuminance levels for a multitude of tasks and facility types in table form. The published tables provide guidance for both generic tasks and hundreds of very specific tasks. In order to understand these tables, it’s best to start with an overview of how light is measured.
This article gives a brief explanation of how light is measured and provides a handy table that can be used to determine how much light is needed in various types of facilities. If after reading this, you have any questions about the quantity of light you should plan for in your lighting retrofit project, don’t hesitate to contact us.
It’s February and Ameren Illinois’ Act On Energy ® program is offering a sweet deal! For all new applications submitted from February 14th through March 31st of 2011 that include electric measures, an additional 15% cash bonus will be added on top of the incentive. This could improve your project’s ROI and increase your incentives for high bay lighting replacements and other non-T12 retrofits. Since the T12 lighting phase-out program already pays a 10% bonus, T12 measures are not eligible for this 15% bonus. The current 10% bonus for T12 lighting upgrades offers the best incentives for T12 replacements that will be offered for the duration of this program.
The vast majority of existing warehouse space in the US is lit with inefficient high intensity discharge or magnetically ballasted T12 fluorescent light fixtures. Unfortunately, lighting is one of the few areas that is often overlooked when investigating cost reduction opportunities. Owners and managers blindly budget tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for utility bills without realizing that switching to more 
One of the most common questions that facility and operation managers ask is “How much light do I need to properly illuminate my facility?”
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