Discovery Pointe, on the western outskirts of downtown, recently replaced most of the lights in its 129-unit west tower, parkade and lobby with fewer and more energy-efficient lights. As a result, it should cut its lighting bill roughly in half, plus receive a rebate cheque of some $20,000 from the Light it Right program.

“Some of us were motivated by the environmental friendliness of doing it. That was my big reason for pushing it,” says condo association President Scott Barker. “But to sell it to everyone required the economics, too.”

The bulk of the retrofit in the 10-year-old building involved replacing 1,124 T-12 fluorescent bulbs (60 and 34 watts) with 659 T-8s (28 watts). As well, some existing T-8s were replaced with more efficient T-8 tubes and ballasts, high-pressure sodium parkade lights were replaced with more efficient induction lights and exit signs were switched from incandescent bulbs to light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

“Overall, we’re getting the same lighting with about half the power consumption,” says Barker.

As a result, the $135,000 retrofit should be paid for in about two-and-a-half years. The savings should continue long after that as the bulbs have an expected lifespan of 75,000 hours, or 8.5 years, of continuous operation.

The retrofit was undertaken by Calgary-based Spectrally Enhanced Lighting (s.e.l.) Solutions. Its technology—based on the principle that daylight, or white light, is perceived more sharply by the human eye—uses higher colour temperature to create more natural and intense lighting, with far less energy than conventional lighting.

For a business that relies on having freezers run 24 hours a day, becoming energy efficient isn’t easy.  But, M&M’s Calgary head office has led by example, showing its 68 Alberta franchise owners that replacing fluorescent freezer lights with LEDs is an effective way to both green operations and boost the bottom line.

“We want to make the stores more profitable,” says Randy Szasz, construction manager for M&M’s western Canada division. “Times are tough right now.  Rent is going up, staff costs are going up, and we need to find ways to reduce costs where we can, and electricity is one way.”

Szasz and his team started by retrofitting the Calgary Northmount corporate store, removing all 18 T10 fluorescent bulbs that lined the store’s freezer system and replacing them with LEDs.

“Fluorescents tend to run very warm,” says Szasz, “so the freezer’s refrigeration system had to work a lot harder. When the store is busy the refrigeration system chews up a lot of power (due to cold air escaping each time the freezer door is opened).”

Although the retrofit cost $3,500, Szasz estimates that the reduction in energy use –135 watts per bulb to just 27 watts – will save the store up to $2,000 a year in electricity costs, resulting in a payback period of about 18 months. The store’s owner also will reap the benefits of not having to replace bulbs as frequently, as fluorescents typically last one to two years and LEDs have a lifespan of 10 to 15.

Before: Fluorescent lighting detracted from appearance of products

Even though the cost savings continue to be meaningful, they were only part of the impetus behind updating the shop’s lighting system.

“Aesthetics were about 50 per cent of why we did this,” Szasz says. “The colour rendering of LEDs makes the product look better; it improves the clarity and the colour of the packaging.”

The protruding appearance of the old bulbs was also an issue. “The fluorescents were difficult to hide,” he says, “when you walked in the store you could see the bulbs lining the freezers and your eyes were drawn to the light.” The new LEDs sit flush to the door and enhance the contents of the freezer rather than overshadowing it.

After: LEDS brighten packaging and improve the store’s aesthetic

And, there is one other downside to the original bulbs. “Fluorescents tend to damage certain products because they somehow break down cheese (ingredients),” Szasz explains.

The improvements in appearance and energy savings were so notable that the company is now encouraging franchise owners nationwide to change the bulbs in their walk-in freezers to LEDs. To date, up to 10 Alberta stores and 20 franchises in British Columbia have made the switch.

When Clarence Shields went looking for LED fixtures to replace the 1000-watt metal halide lights in the parking lot of his Blackjacks Roadhouse, he was told they didn’t exist. Instead, he was advised to consider 400-watt metal halides with electronic ballasts, which promised a 35-per-cent energy saving.

Undeterred, the Leduc entrepreneur continued his quest, convinced “there had to be an LED alternative comparable to a 1000-watt fixture.” In mid-2011, he finally found them through a U.S. supplier and immediately ordered two to test against his existing lights. He has since ordered a couple of updated models, which offer the option of easily switching to 400- or 250-watt equivalent LEDs.

“There’s no comparison,” says Shields. “The LED is far superior to the metal halide in light quality and in quickness to turn on. There’s also more light than the metal halide, which after a year is down about 50 per cent.”

The metal halide bulbs usually have to be replaced after a year (with the added expense of hiring someone to do it), while LEDs should last 10 to 15 years. Then there’s the $13,000 a year it costs Shields to power those metal halide parking lot lights, compared with about $2,000 for LEDs.  So, while the upfront cost of replacing some 40 parking lot lights is $1,400 per fixture (versus $560 for one metal halide fixture and bulb), Shields figures the payback period will be two years, “which is great.”

If the LED lights perform well in an Alberta winter, Shields plans to replace all the Blackjacks Roadhouse parking lot lights, as well as those at two of his other nearby operations, Airways Country Inn and Airways Parking.

“I’m absolutely the first business around here to do this,” he says. “If these LED lights perform the way I think they will, it would make sense for every hotel in this province with a parking lot to convert, too.”

At the same time, Shields has taken his LED zeal inside Blackjacks Roadhouse, installing dimmable, 25-watt-equivalent lights overlooking the games room and restaurant. These should use 65 per cent less light than their predecessors, for an annual savings of $2,700.

Outside the building, he’s replaced 60-watt metal halide lights with 40-watt halogen fixtures, generating savings of about 25 per cent, or $315 a year.

By The Numbers

To help meet that goal, the Edmonton office of the real estate giant took a hard look at slashing its lighting bill. It then embarked on an ambitious  project to retrofit lights in three of its buildings? an office tower, a parkade and a retail space.

The results are an expected energy reduction (for lighting) of 61 per cent, $120,000 in annual savings and a payback of less than six years. The retrofits should also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1,000 tonnes a year.

“The party’s over. Companies like ours can’t afford to waste energy any more,” says Dave Belley, Senior Operations Manager of Oxford’s Edmonton properties. “For the lighting retrofits, we went after the low-hanging fruit first?whatever was easiest and cheapest to do and gave us the biggest bang for the buck.”

The biggest project, at the 28-floor Oxford Tower, was removing some 9,000 double-bulb T-12 fixtures with magnetic ballasts and replacing them with single-bulb T-8s with electronic ballasts and reflectors.

“We took out these behemoth bulbs and ballasts and replaced them with something that was far more efficient and that produced better light,” Belley says. “It was like going from a 1973 Cadillac to a Smart car.”

At the same time, 520 energy-efficient LED fixtures were installed in Oxford Tower’s mechanical, electrical and storage rooms. “They’re in a strip with a diffusing lens that produces consistent light. If you looked up, you’d swear it’s a T-8,” Belley says. But the 18-watt-equivalent LED replaces a 50-watt bulb and lasts some 50,000 hours, instead of 18,000 hours.

At the Edmonton City Centre Parkade, Oxford replaced 225-watt metal halide lights with 96-watt T-5 fixtures, thus cutting energy use by more than half. Further savings are coming from occupancy sensors that shut lights off when the underground parkade is not in use. “The lights are activated before anyone comes into the parkade, so that no one ever knows they were off,” says Belley.

Finally, Oxford replaced some 60 metal halide fixtures with induction lighting on the third retail floor of Edmonton City Centre West. Again, the power savings are in excess of 50 per cent.

“We were going to do these lighting retrofits anyway, but the Light it Right program moved us forward,” Belley says. “It certainly pushed us into LED lighting, which we didn’t know much about at the time. We like it so much, we’re now proceeding to replace 460 metal halide lights in our parkade with LEDs.”

Induction lighting is a technology that has never enjoyed significant mainstream adoption, even though it’s been available for decades.  Over the past 5-10 years, induction has increased in popularity, perhaps in response to the increase in LED options and their ability to compete with the long lifespan of LEDs.

Like fluorescent lamps, induction lamps (or electrodeless lamps) are a low pressure source that excites mercury, producing ultraviolet radiation which is then translated into the visible light range by various phosphor coatings on the inside of the lamp.  Induction differs from fluorescent in the way that the gas is excited.  Fluorescent lamps use electrodes at each end, which provide the ultimate point of failure, whereas induction lamps have no direct electrical contact points, but rather use a magnetic field which induces the appropriate reaction.

When should they be used?

Induction lamps can be an excellent choice for some applications, particularly in outdoor settings when white light is desired. For example, as an exterior wall mount (wall pack) above a door or around a building, or as canopy lights employed to illuminate outdoor, and indoor, parking lots. Technology developments mean that induction lights are now capable of providing light output over a wider range of ambient temperatures, as has been done with compact fluorescent lamps.  Installed in an enclosed fixture to keep in heat, induction fixtures are quite capable of providing good light in exterior environments even in Alberta during the winter.  This will vary, however, depending on factors such as the manufacturer, wattage, type of enclosure, application, and ambient temperature.

Induction lights are also increasingly being chosen as a more efficient and longer lasting alternative to metal halides. When it comes to lower wattage (175 watts or below) options, induction lights have many advantages over metal halides, including:

- A variety of colour temperatures (warm to cool white)
- Much longer life (especially important in lower wattages, where the lifespan of metal halides average 12,000 hours, compared to 60,000+ hours for  induction lights)
- Better lumen maintenance. Metal halide lamps tend to depreciate significantly over their life, upwards of 50 per cent for probe start lamps, whereas induction lamps may depreciate 25 per cent over their much longer life
- Higher efficiency (lumens/watt)

The lack of electrodes means that induction lamps can last for a very long time- 60,000 to 100,000 hours.  At the same time they share all other benefits of fluorescents: a range of colour temperatures, excellent energy efficiency, no flickering, quiet operation, white light, instant-on, excellent lumen maintenance (output over life), and good colour rendering.  As with all light sources, there are limitations as well: more susceptibility to ambient temperature (i.e. less light output in really hot or cold conditions) and difficulty providing good optical control due to the light being emitted from the surface of the lamp.

There are some applications where induction is not the right choice, for example large area lighting projects or to provide high-intensity accent lighting. Induction lights also tend to be more expensive than metal halides or compact fluorescents, but are often justified through maintenance savings achieved over the long lamp life.

When retrofitting lights, you need to be aware of requirements under the law for removal, storage and disposal of ballasts that contain polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. If a ballast was manufactured prior to 1982 it may contain PCBs, a toxic substance and potential carcinogen that poses health and environmental risks. According to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, new regulations will require that all PCB ballasts are removed from lighting fixtures by 2025. Today, failure to comply with federal and provincial hazardous waste management regulations regarding proper disposal of PCBs can result in fines. To ensure that ballasts containing PCBs are safely removed and disposed of, commercial building owners are advised to contact a hazardous waste broker. To find one in your area call Alberta’s Recycle Info Line at 1-800-463-6326 (10 am to 5 pm – Monday to Friday).

Additional Resources

• Environment Canada- How to identify ballasts with PCBs
• Hazardous Waste and Recycling Fact Sheet
• Storage of Hazardous Waste Fact Sheet
• Hazardous Waste Management

Technically, the rebate pool is as robust as ever because the claims haven’t started rolling in yet. However, due to the high volume of interest already expressed in the program, it is possible that the applicants currently booked in for assessments could reserve all the money. To give those applicants who applied first a chance to reserve their rebates, we’ve decided to play it safe and stop making new bookings at this time.

If you were interested in the program but haven’t signed up yet, we still encourage you to do so. If all funds aren’t spoken for once the initial claims are made, additional applicants will be called- on a first-come, first-serve basis- to book an assessment.

As for those of you who signed up in the past few weeks but haven’t yet been called to book an assessment, your application has been date stamped and you are currently on the waiting list.

If you have questions about the status of your application, please send them to: lights@climatechangecentral.com.

Light it Right has been live for more than two weeks now, and here at C3 we’ve been busy booking assessments and fielding inquiries. One question has cropped up so much we thought it’d be helpful to address it here.  If you’ve been wondering how to get a product added to our incentive_list-June2011, the short answer is, you can’t.  The rebate list has been set and additional products won’t be added for the term of the program.

Our list may be brief, but we tried to keep it as simple and uncomplicated as possible. It was compiled by lighting professionals and energy efficiency experts whose aim was to capture some of the most likely or common retrofits options.  You’ll notice that no specific manufacturers are listed, only model numbers, allowing participants to choose any brand.

We appreciate hearing your suggestions and are keeping a list of potential products in the event the program continues past its current end date. If you have a product you’d like to introduce us to, please send a note to lights@climatechangecentral.com and we’ll add it to our list of potential future products.

I’m back from the launch in Edmonton and happy to report that it was a bright start to the lighting program! Oxbridge Place was packed with property managers, lighting specialists and media, all eager to hear about the available rebates.

The event kicked off with Environment Minister Rob Renner announcing $4 million in funding for the program. Simon Knight, CEO of Climate Change Central took to the podium after that and… guess what…. midway through his speech the lights suddenly switched off! The motion sensors kicked in, giving us a perfect demonstration of new lighting technology. Simon joked that next time he’ll be a little more animated!

We’re already hearing lots of buzz about the program. Our VP John Rilett survived the Rutherford Report on Monday and we’ve heard from some of Rutherford’s faithful listeners.

Aside from a barrage of media coverage, we’ve also had a great response from building owners. In just four days more than 60 lighting assessments have been booked. I caught up with Dave Belley, Operations Manager at Oxford Properties, and he said they’ll be taking advantage of the rebates to retrofit many of their office and retail spaces.

“This program will help us meet our mandate of reducing our carbon footprint 20% by 2012,” he said “and it’s going to enlighten other owners to jump on the bandwagon.”

Enlighten indeed. Based on demand so far, it looks like he’s right.