It is going to cost more not to retrofit to LED Lighting

The push is on

I just finished an awesome callisthenic workout this morning. 53 years old and I can still do the BUD/s Navy SEAL workout. Then at the boxing gym in Mercedes I am getting back into the grove and I am able to demonstrate to these young kids, 12 to 18 years old how it is done. When I train these kids I figured out that if I can show them, then they can just emulate what I do and they are able to do it. So while I was working out I got to thinking about some of the stalls I have heard from engineering departments and electricians “We are not ready for LED Lighting in the Valley”, “I don’t believe in LED” after I responded “It’s not a religion” I got a reply of “I don’t think it is proven”. Now I could understand that but the established manufacturers have product that not only have been working for over ten years but there is still a lot of cheap crap being sold over the internet and in Home Depot and Wall-Mart. You can go on YouTube and see tutorials where they take about a fixture bought from China where the driver is actually 60% lesser watts than what the specifications state. Unless you have a light meter or you have seen what a 150 watt LED shoebox or floodlight looks like you won’t know you’ve been ripped off.

Right now across the country and especially in Texas there is a push to retrofit to LED lighting and solar power. It seems odd because energy costs are lower now then since I was 30 years. The emphasis is coming from a couple different a few different factors. First is reducing the carbon footprint, even though power costs are so low some businesses are only installing LED lighting for their new construction but if you have a company adopts an environmental sustainability commitment in their business practices and there are a lot more out there they almost have to do it. Then there is the whole job creation aspect of it. Businesses don’t buy products or implement changes so they can pay more people but if they can realize the long term cost savings in maintenance and upkeep when they switch to LED lighting they are more apt to make the conversion. It reminds me of when I worked in a grocery store and I would see women looking at the display of products that were on sale and weigh in their minds “Do I buy this sale products or this bigger container which is actually less per servicing?” They would usually by the larger container and pay more but they wouldn’t have to come back and buy another product for a while. Now men are different. They go right to the aisle that has what they are looking for and they grab the first thing they see or recognize. It is not too much different when shopping for LED Lighting. That is why it is so important for manufacturers to get their products on the shelves with distributors. Louvers has awesome state of the art products but a rebate program for stocking products and Altech  is even offering a reverse rebate program. They actually pay the distributor their rebate up front before they actually sell their products and they have some good quality shoeboxes and architectural lighting 33,000 to 45,000 lumens. You can’t just look at lumens or watts, Global Tech LED have what is called a Dip chip giving the fixture three energy savings options, they have a setting which has the fixture running at 100% for five hours, then 50% for six hours and back to 100% for one hour. Even though the fixture is running at 50% it puts out 70% of the lumens. This works for security lighting or sport venues where the lights need to be on for the maintenance crews who are cleaning up after an event but there aren’t the crowds, athletes or performers who need more light. Then they have a dimming mode used with the motion sensors or controller to adjust the lumens and then there is the manual setting with four options High Output, High, Medium High and Medium Low. Depending upon the amount of time the fixtures are in use you can save up to 70% of the 50% of the energy saved just by converting to LED lighting.

This is where the SECO LoanStar loan program offered by the state of Texas for schools and municipalities comes in. This is a $7.5 million loan for retrofitting to solar and LED lighting with 1% rate, a 2% APR and 10 to 15 year amortization that would be paid off out of the energy savings. Sports lighters because they aren’t used every night or during the off season or when schools are not in season, they may not be eligible under this program if it weren’t for these options. Between incentives from the energy providers and this LoanStar loan program the cost of retrofitting is covered by the energy savings. In other words, it costs more not to retrofit.