Implementing a Lighting Control System is Key to Commercial Energy Savings
Posted on 15. Jul, 2010 by keith in Sustainable Building
If you own a commercial building, its greatest source of energy inefficiency could be staring you in the face: its interior lighting system. Research shows that a commercial building’s interior lighting system accounts for 38 percent of its annual electric usage; a percentage that, when lamps and ballasts aren’t energy efficient, can equal out to thousands of dollars or more in unnecessary annual utility cost. In the U.S., the three greatest culprits of inefficient lighting in commercial buildings are incandescent lighting, metal halide lighting and fluorescent T-12 lighting, all of which use more electricity and lose their brightness faster than T-8 fluorescent lighting, which is often recommended as a replacement.
Ideally, inefficient lighting technology would be replaced with efficient technology. But the cost of such projects can be too high for some companies, especially if they don’t qualify for repayment programs offered by energy efficiency providers. However, there is a less expensive solution that can still curb a company’s annual electric bill: implementing a lighting control system. According to Cleantech Approach (CTA), an environmental leader in energy efficient lighting solutions, implementing a lighting control system should be the initial approach to lessening the power load of interior lighting.
In addition to being more affordable, implementing a lighting control system also offers the advantage of letting companies use utility cost savings to budget toward implementing a new lighting system, or retrofitting other building areas for energy efficiency. As with other energy efficiency projects, implementing the best lighting control system begins with having an energy efficiency consultant perform an energy audit, which reveals information that is used to identify the best solutions for a particular building.
