Have you upgraded all the lighting in your building to LED? Are you sure? According to the latest 2022 US Department of Energy report, approximately 56% of commercial buildings still have not upgraded to LED Lighting. Anecdotally, we have found that many of our clients BELIEVE they have already converted their facility to LED Lighting, only to realize after a free Minify Energy assessment that only a small portion is actually converted. Considering the savings potential as well as the many other beneficial reasons discussed below, we think it’s worth a second look!
1. LED Lighting Industry Evolution
Quality and Reliability -The very early days of LED lighting saw quality issues, creating a negative perception amongst some early adopters. Today, the LED lighting industry has been completely revolutionized through strict quality standards and a comprehensive industry-driven rating system developed by the Design Lights Consortium (DLC) that helps assure quality and efficiency.
Life Expectancy - Whereas traditional incandescent, fluorescent, and high-intensity discharge lighting had common life expectancies as low as 15,000 hours, some LED lighting fixtures are now rated up to 170,000 hours, eliminating the need to replace lighting in some applications for up to 40 years!
Controls - Control technologies have made rapid improvements over recent years. Luminaire Level Lighting Control (LLLC) technology involves sensors installed on each fixture which can sense daylight and motion to automatically dim or turn off depending on your desire. The fixtures are easily adjusted by simply entering settings via a remote or by utilizing a manufacturer’s phone application.
Maintenance Free - As there are no ballasts required to drive LED fixtures, there is significantly less product maintenance required. So in addition to the much longer life expectancy of new LED lighting, eliminating the need to replace ballasts frees up crucial time for facility staff to address other building concerns.
Warranties - The average LED lighting warranty for DLC-rated fixtures is now 5 years
Luminaire Level Lighting Control
2. Lighting Quality
Flexibility and Optimization: The latest trend in LED lighting is to provide fixtures that are highly versatile by offering field-selectable lumen output and color temperature options. Having this flexibility allows building owners and tenants the option of optimizing the space for their desired comfort level and needs. Minify Energy often tests lighting levels and provides photometric lighting designs to achieve the most accurate results for our clients.
Brightness: Over time the original lumen output of lamps degrades. New LED lighting can greatly improve the lighting levels of spaces, making them much more brighter and inviting, while being comfortable for occupants.
Color: The Coloring Rendering Index (CRI) is an indication of how accurately the lighting makes colors appear. This is critical in applications where color tones and matching is important, such as printing, architecture, grocery stores, design, medical, security etc., though, it’s really beneficial in just about any application. LED Lighting has a CRI rating that is on average 15% higher than common fluorescents, making objects appear much more vivid.
Efficient Lighting can Reduce Building energy use by 30%
3. Energy Consumption & Cost Savings
Lighting typically accounts from 25-40% of a building’s total energy costs. Modern LED lighting typically decreases these costs by 70% or more. This means that in some cases performing an LED Lighting upgrade could reduce your overall utility spend by up to 30%.
On top of that, added lighting control systems can reduce your lighting costs by an additional 75%, amplifying savings even more.
4. Occupant Health and Productivity:
With the above considerations, and factors ranging from reduced glare to elimination of audible buzzing, LED lighting helps improve the wellness factor and security of your spaces. In the classroom, studies have found changes to lighting can improve student performance, affecting alertness and cognition. This is also true for lighting applications in health care facilities where lighting affects patient outcomes. In office and production environments LED lighting can improve worker health and productivity, and on the roadway LED lighting affects driver and pedestrian safety. Improved health of workers can lead to less missed work time and better morale.
5. Environmental Impacts
LED lighting offers direct benefits for reducing the environmental impacts of light pollution. LED technology enables improved optical control, which allows just roadways to be lit to achieve recommended illuminance levels with less total light and off-target light that contributes to skyglow and light trespass. Light pollution is also detrimental on wildlife. For example, turtle hatchlings can become disoriented by anthropogenic light at night which guides them away from the safety of the ocean.
Reduction of Toxic Materials: Mercury, which is common in fluorescent lamps, is considered by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten chemicals of concern and poses a threat to human health. Broken or discarded fluorescent bulbs release this toxic substance mainly into the air through landfills where it can contaminate the food chain. Proper recycling is required by most states for lighting, but overall recovery rates are low. Globally, only about 10% of the mercury in lamps is recovered. LEDs do not require the use of any mercury.
Lifecycle Impacts: The longer operational lifetime of LED lighting technology enables a reduction in the amount of material that must be replaced as lighting products reach the end of their life. In addition, LED components are comprised of relatively benign materials that are not scarce. For example, it is estimated that a compact fluorescent lamp uses 0.18 mg of europium, a rare earth material, while LED lamps can use as little as 0.008 mg – approximately 95% less.
6. Incentives
In developing LED Lighting projects, we help identify and leverage the many incentives available to help encourage LED conversation.
Rebates: Very robust utility rebates are still in place to help incent building owners, property mangers and tenants to update their lighting and help save on energy consumption and costs. In fact, limited Bonus Rebates are currently offered, making holistic updates across lighting types even more attractive. Rebates can be as much as 50% of project costs.
Grants: Multiple grant types are available for LED lighting and other energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades, depending on your building’s location and type of organization. Can be as much as 30% of project costs.
Tax Incentives: A 179D Energy Efficient Building Tax credit can provide a tax deduction equivalent to $5/sft, further decreasing project costs.
7. Quick “Simple Payback”
LED Lighting often delivers a simple payback - based upon utility savings alone - in 2-3 years.
Beyond the simple payback in utility savings, additional value is realized in reduced operations and maintenance costs, enhanced brightness and consistency, improved color rendering for safety and quality assurance, improved productivity, enhanced property value, and overall occupant experience.
8. Incandescents Are Going Away
You won’t have the choice much longer! The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that lights producing less than 45 lumens per watt (lpw) will not be allowed to be manufactured in the near future, thereby eliminating the production of most incandescent lighting, with enforcement starting in 2023.
9. Sustainability & Climate Impact
While all the above points make a very strong financial, operational, and quality-of-life case for LED lighting, consider the wider impact. Reducing the amount of energy consumed by lighting has already had a measurable reduction on energy consumption in the United States, with a direct benefit of reducing emissions of pollution. The energy savings already enabled by more efficient lighting has been calculated as a 79 million metric ton reduction in CO2 annually. By 2035, 196 MMT/year of CO2 emissions savings could be achieved.
With buildings accounting for 40% of the greenhouse gases and carbon footprint, LED lighting is the fastest, easiest way to reduce a major factor in the mix and help to make an impact, reducing the negative results caused by commercial buildings.
Check out a couple of recent Minify Energy installations for a bit more LED enlightenment;
“Day & Night: What a Difference New Lighting Can Make”
“Bringing New Light to The Pacific Building”
Let’s take a fresh look at your lighting!