Electrical Association

Working Smarter - NCS Lighting Retrofits

Buildings are the biggest consumers of energy by far. Of the average building's total energy use, lighting consumes 30 to 40 percent.

Along with insulation, efficient lighting systems are at the top of the payback scale for carbon abatement potential. This is a dual payback, offering near-maximum return on investment and greatest environmental benefit.

Yet energy conservation measures like lighting seem to have become overly simplified-to just changing bulbs-or they have gone off the public's radar screen entirely. The media tends to focus on renewable energies like solar, wind and alternative fuels, which are in fact at the bottom end of the payback scale. This gives disproportionate attention to costlier solutions with less impact. Focusing on renewables also tends to favor new construction while ignoring the need to make our existing stock of buildings as efficient as possible.

Even groups like The American Solar Energy Society advocate energy conservation measures as an essential prerequisite to adopting renewable energy:

"The American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org) strongly encourages making efficiency improvements [i.e., lighting retrofits] before installing renewables. By improving your energy efficiency, you reduce the size (and cost) of the renewable energy system needed...Improving your energy efficiency is the first and most important step toward adopting renewable energy." (February 2009)

Lighting retrofits are perhaps the best short-term practical solution for the majority of businesses-those using existing buildings with older systems. Not only are lighting retrofits at the top of the payback scale, they are also relatively easy, which makes them a practical first step for most businesses.

It is also a matter of timing, since tax incentives and rebates being offered now can save businesses up to 60% of their project costs and accelerate savings.

Steve Gottlieb, VP at Ratner Steel in Roseville, MN, said the lighting retrofit his company did with Noble Conservation Solutions was "seamless."

"By that I mean once we had an agreement, it got done. We just signed and they took care of everything. I didn't need to call and check up on anything. They did the work on time and as promised. They handled all the paperwork and financing. We did nothing-except sign the agreement."

Gottlieb said NCS made the decision easy for him to make. They made a very good case as to how his company would benefit and made it easy to understand.

Those benefits were:

• savings up to 50% on energy costs
• ROI in less than 2 years
• improved lighting intensity to enhance productivity and safety
• reduced energy consumption to benefit the environment
• timeliness, to get in on rebates and incentives being offered now

The retrofit project replaced several hundred old metal halide fixtures with new high-efficiency fluorescent ones. NCS worked around the company's production schedule and also removed the old lighting material for recycling under its no-landfill disposal policy.

The benefits of the retrofit were immediately apparent in reduced energy bills. Because the company expanded its space at the same time the lighting project was undertaken, exact rates of savings are not available. Yet Gottlieb predicted the return on investment will easily occur within the two years promised.

Reducing the company's carbon footprint is also important at Ratner Steel. Ratner Steel uses 135,000 square feet of space in a 500,000 square foot warehouse building. They process large coils of steel into flat sheets made to order for other area industries.

The company's plant manager, Jim Kidwell, assessed the improvement in lighting quality resulting from the retrofit.

"It's like night and day. It was like a dungeon before in some areas," he said. "The new lighting has created a much better work environment." From a quality and safety standpoint, he said it has become a lot easier to inspect material and avoid hazards.

Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, MN
• cut maintenance and energy cost-savings of at least 30% by standardizing their wide array of lighting fixtures to just a few types, they completely streamlined their maintenance requirements.
• standardized lighting fixtures and efficient, longer-life bulbs which dropped kilowatt usage has by about a third after the lighting retrofit.
• solutions for their aging (1968), multi-use facility where they identified and replaced outdated wiring in the building as they installed the new fixtures. Keep aesthetics in mind when considering lighting retrofits since new energy-efficient lighting is usually much brighter.

nobleconservationsolutions. Lev Buslovich | COO
phone 763.746.0982 | cell 612.636.1241 | www.noblecs.com 3800 Annapolis Lane North, Suite 195, Plymouth MN 55447