Commercial Members Cash In On Energy Optimization
By Kevin Cragg
Recalling the old career development adage about needing to “sharpen your saw,” I recently decided to tag along with fellow employee and Energy Use Advisor Bill Garey and attend a seminar on commercial lighting.
It started out well enough, but when the instructor said we needed to drop the word “bulb” from our vocabulary and replace it with “lamp,” I grew a bit suspicious. Next came a dizzying array of terms like candela, efficacy, color rending index, and troffer diffusers.
As you might imagine, my anxiety increased with each new term. The final straw was a homework assignment that required the use of the Pythagorean Theorem and a bit of trigonometry for good measure.
Ultimately, what I learned from the seminar is that career development is hard work; commercial lighting is far more complicated than I ever imagined; and existing businesses that upgrade their lighting to new energy efficient fixtures and bulbs (I mean lamps) will generally realize a very quick payback. New commercial lighting provides improved lighting, consumes less energy and reduces replacement and maintenance costs.
Compressing the payback period further is Cherryland’s Energy Optimization program. If one of our commercial members invests in qualifying energy saving lighting, Cherryland will pay a cash rebate directly to that member. Depending on the upgrade, rebates vary but usually begin at around 35 percent of the cost of the fixture.
For example, the 400 watt light is a common light fixture at many businesses. It consumes about 450 watts of energy including its ballast. Replacing a 400 watt light with an equivalent fluorescent light fixture will reduce energy consumption by more than half. The rebate for this upgrade is $80 per fixture.
Non-LED exit signs are another common source of wasted energy. Individually, even an inefficient exit light does not use much energy. However, when you take into account that these little energy thieves run 24 hours per day and can number in the dozens at some facilities, it all adds up over time.
So to encourage our members to upgrade these lights, Cherryland is offering an Energy Optimization rebate for LED exit lights. We have calculated payback periods of less than two years!
The great news about Cherryland’s Commercial Energy Optimization program is that it goes beyond lighting. Just about any energy efficiency upgrade that saves electricity could qualify. Rebates can cover motors, pumps, variable frequency drives, motion sensors, commercial appliances, insulation, HVAC, chillers, and so on.
While we expect the Energy Optimization program will be around for a number of years, annual funding is limited. Rebates will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis. Rebates are not retroactive and will be paid only on pre-approved projects.
Call Bill Garey at 486-9251 or Kevin Cragg at 486-9250 for more details.
Kevin Cragg is Member Service Manager at Cherryland Electric Cooperative.
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