September-October 2011

Finding the Light

With one eye on the bottom dollar and another on increasing demand amidst limited resources, many companies and municipalities are evaluating and implementing energy-efficient lighting.

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Lighting can represent as much as 35% of building energy use, according to Randy Dollar, vice president, systems marketing development, for Universal Lighting Technologies, a global leader in ballasts and controls for commercial lighting applications, with headquarters in Nashville, TN. Particularly in today’s economy, companies need to cut costs; however, there are limits where they can capture money without sacrifices. Dollar believes lighting is the “low-hanging fruit” that allows companies to simultaneously maintain desirable levels and save money.

John Noel, president, founder, and CEO of Energy and Environment LLC, agrees, adding that in the last two years, he’s seen significant interest in energy efficiency projects—“especially with low-hanging fruit like lighting. It’s the easiest to get to, the most obvious....”

When he founded the Atlanta, GA-based energy services company 12 years ago, Noel says “energy efficiency wasn’t cool, because electricity was cheap. Lighting retrofit was not sexy. People didn’t care; it wasn’t on their radar.”

These days, energy audits and lighting retrofits are commonplace.

What the audits frequently find, Dollar says, are over-lit locations, inefficient lamps, and/or lack of controls. “Most commercial sites are set up in a two-by-four, or two-by-two grid system,” he explains.

The lights have to conform to the system, and designers typically “round up” when calculating the space to get needed light level desired.

“If the end user is not satisfied because it’s under-lit, it’s expensive to add or reconfigure,” states Dollar, “but there’s usually no criticism if it’s over-lit . . . at least until they pay the bill.”

Controllable lighting is one way to save energy. “Historically, companies buy high-efficiency ballasts and more efficient lamps,” says Dollar, “but if you want to save more, you need to get into controllable lighting with a dimming ballast.”

That allows building managers to dim to the correct level for the space or usage, such as 50-foot candles at a desk. “If you get the right illumination, you can reduce input power as you dim,” he says. “That saves energy and eliminates overage.”

California leads in controllable lighting, adds Dollar, but the Northeast is “right with them”, thanks to rebate structures by the utilities that have been swift to incentivize controllable lighting over standard high-efficiency lighting (non-dimming). “We’re still on the front edge of controllable lighting, but things are shifting,” he says.

It’s purely for energy management, indicates Dollar, with expected payback within two years, in part because no control wiring is needed for the ballast. “That’s a big savings,” confirms Dollar. “It saves time and money on installation, because you’re not running wire between the fixtures—you just swap out the ballast.”

Efficiency Strategies
There’s more awareness of energy efficiency, Dollar believes. “We weren’t selling this product 10 years ago,” he says of the DCL. “Retail used high-efficiency lamps, which provide less light, but they weren’t interested in dimming.”

Things have changed, he says. The industry is not only open to listening to ideas to reduce lighting, now many engineers and managers have predefined light levels.

Helping them hit their assigned target is a number of energy-efficient lighting strategies such as daylight harvesting through skylights and windows and occupancy detector/sensor programs.

Demand response is used when the need for utilities exceeds availability, particularly at certain times during the year. If companies don’t reduce their load, the situation can reach critical mass, as exemplified by California’s brownouts. “Other parts of the world don’t have enough power to share; they have supply problems,” says Greg Davis, CEO of Lumetric. “We have rolling brownouts, power outages. If we reduce demand for 10 minutes, we can avoid brownouts.”

Unfortunately, he adds, many of us require incentives to become energy efficient. “The utility companies should want us to be inefficient because they’d sell more, but we have supply issues, too. That’s why they implemented peak demand charges and demand-response programs.”

To avert crises, utility companies pay businesses to reduce their load at peak times. Alternately, some utility companies assess a peak demand charge.

“You can turn down lights 10% without upsetting people,” speculates Dollar, “but HVAC changes upset people.”

For that reason, time-of-day scheduling allows building managers to program lights to turn on and off at pre-set times throughout the day with little negative impact on workers. At 6 a.m., for example, the lights may not need to be at 100%. In fact, Dollar says, they may never turn on over 85%. Depending on the need, at 6 a.m., the lights may be at 70%. At 7 a.m., they may increase to 80% and reach “full” 85% at 7:30 to 8 a.m. “You can shave kilowatt-hours but be innocuous,” says Dollar. “Walmart is never over 80% at night.”       

Similarly, lighting can be transitioned to a 5–10% reduction over lunchtime without noticeable change. Sometimes the task influences the requirement as much as the time of day. For example, a cleaning crew doesn’t need the same level; 50–70% could be sufficient.

“Time-of-day scheduling is easy,” says Paul Meng, principal with Smart Business Technology, a global provider of transaction and point-of-service information technology (IT) solutions. “There’s greater opportunity for load management when lighting has less impact.”

Smart BT develops energy management strategies built around managing equipment. It’s easy to integrate lighting into an HVAC system, according to Dave Martin, of Martin Branding, Smart BT’s agency. “Lighting solutions were expensive—up to 40% of load/building cost. People put it on the back burner. There was no viable lighting solution for retrofit until recently—only new or complete reinstallations. Now there’s a simple retrofit solution.”

Smart Solutions

As everyone knows, the cost of energy is rising. And yet, energy continues to be wasted. Smart BT’s Martin estimates that nearly 45% of lights are completely lit when businesses are closed.

By using communication over existing wire, Smart BT can reduce wiring cost during installation.

No Ethernet or Internet access is needed. The router is installed on the circuit panel to induce IP power control on existing wiring and each light switch is fitted with its own IP address. The computer acts like a light switch—similar to HVAC control, an interface with which building owners are already familiar. “Approximately 30% [of businesses] have an HVAC control system, but only 7% have a lighting control system,” says Meng. “We have the technology; it’s a more affordable opportunity.”

Completely programmable from a laptop, with capability to override settings, the system can be remotely adjusted to suit a space’s occupants. It works with any type of fixture and any voltage to control individual lights and set target levels.

Currently being installed at a commercial property used by a government agency, the system’s best application is in school districts, Meng believes—and it is used in schools in Indiana; New York City, NY; and Connecticut. However, he believes that many consultants aren’t yet aware of this option, recommending total reinstallations instead.

High-Intensity Energy Savings
All consumers suffer from inefficient devices and practices, argues Lumetric’s CEO. However, Davis says, with the increase in energy demand and costs, people are more aware than ever and are trying to do something about it. Ultimately, though, they’re concerned with the bottom line—the bottom dollar. Lumetric’s philosophy is that every dollar spent on efficiency will save more energy than every dollar spent to produce energy. “As demand increases, we have to save more energy just to maintain our lifestyle,” he says.

The company, founded in 2007, focuses on lighting and control. The biggest users of electricity are HVAC and lighting, which represents 22% to 24 1/2% of annual US energy consumption and up to 30% of a commercial or industrial building’s energy use. Lumetric’s mission is to minimize environmental impact through energy efficiency and the reduction of hazardous waste, with a five-year goal to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment by 3 million tons.

One way they’re trying to achieve that is by dramatically reducing the energy consumption of lighting in large commercial areas through the use of high-efficiency, high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting solutions that are part of a cost-effective platform for smart grid and demand response services.

“HID in industrial and commercial applications uses 4% to 7% [of a building’s electricity], depending on the season,” explains Davis. “The lamp is efficient, the ballast is not.”

Used for large area lighting, old HIDs are in place at 71% of our gyms and schools. Reducing this, he says, can eliminate the need for a power plant, but there has been no suitable replacement.

As the company literature explains, traditional magnetic lighting ballasts use probe start on magnetic metal halide lamps, which suffer from the harsh transformer, experiencing light degradation by as much as 50%. They tend to have a short lifetime and require frequent replacement. Lumetric’s SmartPOD technology provides a direct-drive light engine different from typical magnetic ballast technologies.

“With the old HIDs, you get 60 to 70 lumens per watt,” estimates Davis. “Ours provides 100.”

Because it puts out so much light, a lower wattage can be used. Energy savings can go even higher—as much as 60–65%, Davis estimates—because of the potential for fixture reduction on average of 2:1 or 1–1/2:1.

 Another advantage of the SmartPOD is that it’s fully networkable to achieve additional energy savings. Designed from the ground up to be part of the smart grid, it is demand response-ready.

They know lighting innovations have to remain affordable. By doing installation themselves, building owners can achieve additional cost savings. And because little heat is generated by the system, HVAC costs are reduced.

“HVAC costs were down 20% at one California company,” indicates Davis.

With the old HIDs, the cord coil generates heat. The ballast can run 300 degrees. “If a company can get its investment back in two years, it’s a no-brainer,” he says.

Photo: Lumetric

Photo: Atlantic Energy Concepts The biggest users of electricity are HVAC and lighting.

No Reason Not To
“It’s a no-brainer, but not everybody has brains,” boldly states Seth Warren Rose, founder of Eneref Research Center, an independent foundation that researches and reports on the efficacy and economic benefits of sustainable building technologies in the residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional facility market sectors through investigation of successful projects and data from individual case studies.

“There are two competing forces,” explains Rose. “The cost of energy is going up, so people think about it more, but the rising cost of energy means there’s less money to spend, so they’re buying on price, not energy savings.”

They examined one product from manufacturer to end user to determine why it wasn’t used. “A typical T12 commercial fluorescent light is inefficient,” says Rose, “but it still made up more than 50% of purchases until 2009. Thanks to government intrusion for helping progress, the T12 was outlawed because it was too inefficient. That forced manufacturers to go to more efficient systems, such as the T8 or T5. There’s an 18-month payback for the T5. A grocer in Scranton operating on a 2% margin saved $30,000 a year per store with 10 fixtures.”

The retrofit market is largely payback-driven. In an effort to identify other obstacles to speedier implementation of energy-efficient buildings, the Eneref Institute, examined one slice of the commercial lighting retrofit process: the use and potential effectiveness of specular aluminum luminaire reflectors in retrofit projects.

Light fixtures consist of three parts: lamp/bulb, ballast, and reflective material. Low-cost fixtures are often painted white, Rose says, and discolor over time. If 50% of light is direct and 50% bounces off, discoloration causes a reduction over time to 25–50%. A new reflector can gain a 25% increase.

Luminaires made with “under-performing” reflectors lower manufacturing costs, but can also lower fixture effectiveness. Some reflective materials actually absorb so much of the light that the efficiency of the fixture can be reduced by as much as 20%. Both the highly reflective white surfaces and specular surfaces minimize light loss. Specular materials can reduce energy usage in luminaires through the way they direct and control light. Combining enhanced reflective benefits with directional control can contribute to energy usage reduction by as much as 75%.

Noel, of Energy and Environment, understands the benefit of using the right reflector. A warehouse in Peachtree City, GA, had standard 400-W metal halide lights. Noel installed lineal 4-foot T8 fluorescent high-bay fixtures with spun aluminum reflectors. “Light quality and distribution were better, even though they don’t produce more light,” he says. “The perception is there’s more visible light.”

Specular surfaces with high reflectivity have influenced the lighting industry, helping fluorescents replace HID in high-bay applications. The penetration of specular material in the high-bay market is partially due to the fact that it is well suited for a warehouse layout and retail distribution centers, which typically have tall shelving units with narrow aisles. The specular material punches a narrow beam of light to the bottom shelf and avoids waste above the top shelf.

“Specularity can reduce the amount of lamps by 1:1,” says Rose. “The ceiling is bright, the floor is dull; with older fixtures, you have to add bulbs to reach low shelves. A white reflector offers no way to predict the distribution of light. But if you replace it with a new reflector with highly reflective material, you’re pointing light less on the ceiling. You can save energy, cut your usage in half and increase the quality of light.

“We examined this technology [specular reflectors],” continues Rose. “Even if it’s the right solution, cost often kept it from implementation. Facilities are still buying on price.” He believes that many owners could benefit from the services of a lighting expert.

Nearly 70% of commercial building owners or managers don’t use a lighting expert, Rose indicates. That means that over 60% of retrofits in commercial facilities are specified by non-lighting professionals. Without a lighting professional’s specification, energy efficiency is often sacrificed. Unfortunately, too often budgets don’t allow for a lighting designer to write specifications, especially when that cost appears to diminish the payback.

For facility managers, the return on investment for precision optical surfaces can be confusing. And it is the exceptional facility manager who understands that spending a few dollars more on a fixture can offer hundreds of dollars in energy savings over time. When commercial retrofit projects opt for low-cost commodity fixtures over a lighting designer’s expertise, they may be choosing short-term economy over long-term energy savings.

Rose believes that high-end design is commoditized all the way down to beat the competition. In the commercial retrofit market, competitive pricing may be causing a downward spiral to less efficient specifications in reflectors. According to the Eneref Institute, an Energy Services Company (ESCO) utilizes a performance contract as an incentive to employ the most energy-saving optics, which can reduce the total number of fixtures installed, along with energy use and required maintenance. However, ESCOs continue to push manufacturers to offer less-expensive fixtures.

An option to improve lighting for no additional cost is to point it directly where it’s needed. Poorly designed fixtures don’t always illuminate spaces effectively. If light can be focused with a well-designed reflective material, the total number of fixtures can be reduced without any light loss.

Cost is often a deterrent to energy-efficient lighting choices, but sometimes the reason is less tangible. Eneref recently published a report about why buildings are not “green” and is currently working on a documentary film that examines why America is not greener. One case study is not unusual, Rose says. “A barbecue restaurant owner in the south couldn’t give a reason why he wouldn’t make a change that had been proven to save energy and money. We showed him the 18-month payback for a solar-thermal roof unit made by a southern manufacturer, but he wouldn’t do it . . . and couldn’t explain why.

“It takes brain power to change,” continues Rose. “You have to think about consequences and ramifications. No one has the time or energy to dedicate to this decision if it’s not a fire to be put out. And there’s a risk because if you’re wrong, it’s more costly than doing nothing.”

Photo: Teridian Measuring the power consumption and power factor for high-power LED

Guiding Light
Figuring out what to do is the job of Atlantic Energy, with energy service companies like Honeywell and Siemens making up their core customer base. “Our objective is to find clients—institutional, state entities like hospitals and prisons—and develop projects that address the energy efficiency needs of buildings,” explains Paul Olive—director of business development. “Lighting is 90% of our business.”

Focusing on large projects, ranging from lighting, HVAC, windows, doors, and roofs to mechanical systems, Atlantic Energy utilizes performance contracting bundle and government incentives to earn energy savings that can pay for the loan. For example, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which changed US energy policy by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types, offers 30% in federal tax credit on lighting to combat growing energy problems.

Ten years ago, Olive says, large facilities already converted from T12 fluorescents to T8. Now, high-efficiency lighting requires lower-wattage ballast. “Another change is that controls are more important: occupancy sensors, a system to control from a central location.… The industry is looking at the entire building system to make adjustments and reduce in areas to meet load reduction demands.”

After performing an energy audit of the facility, Atlantic Energy creates an energy-efficient design that considers overall building design, maintenance issues, space utilization requirements, and lighting deficiencies. “We look at the condition of fixtures, reflectors, lamps and ballast combo, and add controls,” explains Olive. “Fixture design is an integral part of the quality of light. If they’re not uniform or are misfocused, it can be as bad as low light.”

But sophisticated high-end fixtures aren’t necessarily the answer. “The problem is with payback; they won’t self-fund. Expect three to five years to get payback from a basic retrofit. Controls also add extra expense.” In addition, utility rates and burn hours affect payback.

Nevertheless, he says a proactive owner can still reduce energy usage. “There are savings opportunities.” Many go for “low-hanging fruit,” he says, because that provides the fastest, easiest return. But with incentives, he sees less of that. “Incentives help drive upgrades. In Pennsylvania, there was resistance until an incentive was offered. Utility rates were low; there was no pain. Where incentives are offered through the utility companies, the market is following.”

Some of Atlantic Energy’s design strategies to save 30–50% of a company’s lighting bill include changing from 4-lamp to 2-lamp fixtures by adjusting the ballast without going below IES standards. For example, a T12-T8 retrofit can use fewer lamps to provide the same illumination. It also saves energy and reduces maintenance, which contributes to additional savings due to less labor and material. 

When you reduce the number of lamps, Olive cautions, you have to adjust the ballast factor to get the correct lumen output. “Lighting is perception-based,” states Olive. “If light is uniform and the color is right, people like it. New lighting with higher lumen output can be glaring, but light adjusted to the right levels is not intrusive.”

New fixtures can also be effective in improving light levels. Olive advises changing wrap-style fixtures to more efficient reflectors with one lamp.

One of the trends Atlantic Energy is monitoring is consumer interest in LED technology. “The LED market has made strides,” observes Olive, “but it’s not easily implemented to meet payback criteria. It’s still in its infancy.”

The technology is still developing—and Atlantic Energy is among those developing it. “We’re working on an LED tube that might be out within the next year,” speculates Olive, adding that the cost is high, but it has the potential for long life expectancy. Another possible benefit is that LED will allow for more design. Currently, fixtures are designed around a 4-foot linear lamp, but that could change with LED technology.

With so many options, Olive says they have to keep the client educated about what’s best for them. “As a partner, we have to be their expertise in lighting, so we keep on top of emerging technology, such as wireless control, which helps with retrofitting, and smart capability. We’re looking at ways to tie to control technology.”

Chip-in for Lighting
Some of the latest technology comes from Teridian Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Maxim Integrated Products. Introduced at Lightfair International in Philadelphia, the 78M6613 measures power consumption and power factor for high-power LED-lighting ballasts.

Targeted for applications such as warehouse, architectural, garage, parking lot, street, and highway lighting that use high-bay luminaires or have lights on when they don’t need to be or that are brighter than necessary, the programmable energy measurement chip replaces a microcontroller unit that receives Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) commands and controls dimming. It also provides digital information to assist with diagnostics and adds functionality for accurate power-consumption management. The 78M6613 is the industry’s first energy-measurement solution for alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) power that enables the capture and reporting of real-time energy data.

It fits in energy management systems and can be used with any light, explains Paul Daigle, business development and new product definition, Teridian Semiconductor. Pointing out that monitoring and verification are essential feedback for any energy-management system, but that energy measurement is not a core competency for most lighting manufacturers, he says the 78M6613 can help increase efficiency in several ways, such as allowing managers to make more accurate comparisons between lighting products before purchase, monitoring for scheduled maintenance intervals, controlling dimming levels, and issuing early failure warnings.

A diagnostic tool that can predict ballast failure, Daigle says, “This is information previously provided only to utility metering; now it fits inside an electronic ballast—and has additional functionality. The variable is economic: how to get return on investment.”

Because of the monitoring capabilities, there is less waste during maintenance. “You wouldn’t change them all in difficult-to-access applications like outdoors, warehouses, and other places with high ceilings like we currently do,” says Daigle. “That reduces maintenance costs. But where they’re most effective is in reducing energy usage. Using less wattage, you can get a better power factor.”

Many utility companies bill municipalities and commercial corporations based on a calendar and spreadsheet, calculating daylight and nighttime hours, with no allowance for dimming. However, Daigle says, now that municipalities have the capability to dim up to 50%, they want to see correlating reductions in their bill. “This allows negotiation with the utility company, which is a different form of revenue.”

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Admitting that they’re in the “very early stages” of market development of energy measurement, Daigle says Teridian is conducting market research to determine pressure points.

Dollar says Universal Lighting Technologies has found that customers want added functionality, such as stabilized dimming to low levels, but that level of control costs more money than most are willing to spend.

A lot of new technology now available comes at a premium, but it can also have benefits not easily calculated. “We estimate installation costs, payback, carbon footprint reduction, and green marketing,” lists Dollar. “That’s becoming a very important aspect for customers.”

Daigle believes new initiatives are needed for concerted action in energy management. “Lighting is 20% of global electricity use. A 10% change can make a big difference; it equates to more than the power generated by all the nuclear plants in one year. Energy use immediately improves through awareness. One of the steps we’re taking is to provide greater visibility, which helps people make better decisions.”

“Lighting is the next frontier,” believes Smart BT’s Martin. “Little daily decisions make a difference; they have a cumulative effect. We must cut loads and reduce energy usage. Building owners and managers don’t appreciate cost-savings, but tenants are demanding lower bills and a green approach . . . and they look for buildings that meet that requirement. We have to do something sooner rather than later.”

Located in Greensboro, NC, Box Board Products Inc. has been supplying full service corrugated packaging since its founding in 1968. With 190 employees spread out over its production facility, the company is well aware of the important roll lighting plays in product production; particularly in terms of cost. As such, Box Board Products embarked on a replacement and retrofit project in order to reduce lighting costs, increase efficiency, and enable the company to compete with cheap imports.   

The company contracted with Weavercooke to replace existing Metal Halide and T12 lighting with energy efficient Philips T5HO lighting. “By utilizing this solutions approach,” says Bill McShane, Director of Sales for Philips Lighting, “Philips Lighting gives the customer creative solutions that maximize energy management of their facilities while providing them a state of art lighting system.

 As part of the retrofit, the facility was also outfitted with high efficiency Cambridge furnaces as replacements for old, inefficient unit heaters. The Cambridge furnaces came with the added benefit of providing fresh airflow and positive building pressure (which reduces air borne dust). Best of all, the entire installation was achieved without a slow down or suspension of the company’s production processes.

Author's Bio: Writer Lori Lovely focuses on topics related to transportation and technology.