According to industry sales data, T-12 Fluorescent lamps still account for 3 out of 10 fluorescent lamps sold in the U.S. With the July 1, 2010 date for the final step of a multi-step phaseout of T-12 Ballast quickly approaching, there is still opportunity to put together lighting retrofit projects for all of these commercial and industrial facilities that are still using T-12 technologies that are literally 70 years old. Facility owners and managers stand to reap significant benefits from these upgrades, from increased energy savings of as much as 48% to incentive programs offered by the Federal Government and State agencies that can offer a 2 to 3 year payback for these projects. Now is the time to act, contact Harmon Electric to find a lighting solution that’s right for you.

Jason
Estimator

Have you looked at doing a lighting retrofit for your building in the past, and decided not to proceed because the rebates were not large enough? It’s time to take a second look. Because of new legislation there are more incentives available for lighting retrofits. In some cases, the owner of a building can receive a Personal Tax Deduction if the energy savings are enough.

I recently had a customer ask us about taking a second look at doing a retrofit on their building. Originally we just looked at replacing the existing lamps and ballasts (most of which were T-12 magnetic ballasts) with high efficiency T-8 Lamps and Ballasts. Now we are looking at replacing entire fixtures with new technologies that were not as readily available, and more expensive two years ago.

The last time that I looked at the project, I had to “go it alone”, looking for all of the information about what it took to get a rebate, and then where I could get all of the proper parts. It took a lot of time and energy to do this. Now, because there is such a demand for lighting retrofits, there are electrical contracting companies that are willing to help you do this initial work up. We have enlisted the help of a lighting supplier that deals with these types of jobs all the time. They are willing to go out to the jobsite with us, and the owner, and discuss the options. One of the greatest parts about it is that they are willing to provide 2 to 4 new fixtures that can be installed so that the customer can see the difference that these new technologies make.

Now is the time to take action. If you have already looked at lighting retrofits, but were unhappy with the bottom line, it’s time to take a second look with a Phoenix electrical contractor that has enlisted the help of a leader in the lighting retrofit industry.

Jason
Estimator

“Go Green!” That is the mantra that is heard all over these days. We would all love to do our part to help the environment, but in these tight economic times we all seem to have less money in our budgets and “going green” can seem to cost a lot. So what are we to do?

Lighting loads are one of the most efficient and cost effective systems that we can “upgrade” to greener technologies in order to save on the electric bill. There are many different ways that this can be done with varying costs.

Think about how many lights are left on in your office building whenever someone goes to lunch, or for a smoke break, let alone overnight. Installing motion sensors will eliminate wasted energy from lights being left on, and it’s easy to retrofit these to existing systems with minimal cost. Typically all you have to do is replace the existing wall switches with occupancy sensors.

A lot of commercial buildings in use today were designed and built a long time before energy efficiency standards were put in place. Consequently many buildings are still utilizing old lighting technologies that are not only inefficient, but also annoying (old fluorescent fixtures utilize T-12 magnetic ballasts that “hum” constantly). Replacing these old ballasts with new T-8 or even newer T-5 ballasts and lamps can dramatically save energy, and improve noisy working conditions, which will help to improve productivity.

Replacing entire fixtures can seem cost prohibitive, but lighting retrofits have the quickest payback in the savings created by less energy consumption and higher productivity. Noisy, and many times unflattering color rending, “high bay” light fixtures can be replaced with High Output (HO) T-5 2X4 fixtures that are much brighter, quieter, and use a lot less energy.

In these tough times we all want to spend our money wisely. So the next time you have to have your lighting system looked at, consider discussing how you can reduce your monthly power bill by replacing outdated technologies with newer, Greener technologies.

Jason
Estimator