facility focus Lighting Upgrading your lighting system can reap environmental benefits and operational cost savings. By: Aaron Baunee, managing editor The Way About 40 percent of the electricity used in a commercial facility goes toward lighting. Therefore, it is no wonder that many building owners and facility managers are striving to make their lighting systems more energy efficient. Conversely to residential settings, it is not always feasible to turn off the lights in areas of commercial facilities that aren’t being used. Instead, many facility decision-makers are choosing to upgrade their lighting sys-tems and retrofit outdated, energy gobbling bulbs with new, lower wattage, higher lumen alternatives. Doing so can reduce a com-mercial facility’s energy bill by as much as 30 percent. According to a recent survey by Osram Sylvania, roughly 71 per-cent of respon-dents have evaluat-ed their commercial lighting systems in the past year, with 73 percent indicating that they are cur-rently using or are planning to use light-emitting diode (LED) technology in their commercial spaces. LED lighting is increasing in popularity in many industries and is seen with increasing frequency in commercial facilities because of its stellar efficiency. LEDs are able to produce more lumens — a measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye — with significantly less wattage than compact fluorescent light (CFL) or incandescent bulbs. Rick Leaman, president and chief exec-utive officer (CEO) of Osram Sylvania, says: “Businesses clearly recognize the energy and performance benefits of LED and solid state lighting. They are becoming early adopters of this technology to improve their commercial spaces and reap the financial benefits of energy efficiency.” Upgrading to an efficient lighting system that draws less power from the grid, thus reducing the amount of fossil fuels needed to produce electricity, is one way that cost savings and sustainability synergistically combine. to ‘skin a cat.’ A firm that has a record of pro-viding cost effective lighting efficiency solu-tions can provide a lighting upgrade design that maximizes the benefits of the different utility and tax incentives that are available and that meets the company’s requirements for aesthetics, light levels and cost.” Lighting technology continues to evolve, and having someone that is well-versed in current technologies with proven efficiency solutions is key to maximizing your investment. According to Steve Orfield of Orfield Laboratories Inc., most lighting retrofits save energy by reducing productivity, a ter-ribly expensive proposition. This occurs when an improper assess-ment was performed and a high-output lighting system that produces elevated lev-els of glare was installed. By failing to understand the holistic light-ing needs of the facility, a decision-maker can inadvertently decrease employee pro-ductivity levels by installing a system that produces distracting glare, effectively reducing the practical visibility. As Chris Covell, president of SmartWatt Energy Inc. proclaims, a detailed energy audit performed by a knowledgeable light-ing and energy expert can foster a unique-ly designed project designed with maxi-mum return on investment. A Assessing Your Lighting Needs Because the lighting needs of each facility vary — as they also do in differ-ent areas of each facility — it is a good idea to enlist the help of a professional lighting assessor. Gabriel Andreson, lighting director for Bluestone Energy, states: “With lighting efficiency, there is often more than one way Different Retrofit Options While technologies such as LEDs and high-40 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • January 2011
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