Capitalizing on the financial benefits of lighting upgrades

Did you know? * A seemingly inconspicuous and often overlooked element within a building's infrastructure, lighting actually accounts for as much as 30-40% of a typical commercial building's energy costs and can be a primary source for significant cost savings in today's competitive market. * The nation's estimated 5 million commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings consume nearly 900 billion kilowatt-hours of energy and spend over $40 billion a year in electricity bills to operate their lighting systems alone * According to the Department of Energy, roughly 90% of these 5 million buildings were built prior to 1986, before many of the popular energy-efficient lighting products of the last decade were even introduced. Experts believe that less than half of these buildings have undertaken upgrades and that the majority still contain outmoded lighting systems which could readily be upgraded to reduce lighting costs by up to 30-50% and total facility energy expenditures by as much as 20-25%. * Nearly 90% of the total cost to run a fluorescent lamp over its lifetime is accounted for by the electricity to operate it (e.g., product and maintenance costs amount to only 10-15%). Therefore, measures taken to reduce the energy consumed by lighting products -- such as conversion to more energy-efficient technologies -- represent the most significant way to reduce total usage costs. Significant savings driven by a new generation of lighting products Lighting technology has evolved tremendously over the past decade and has resulted in the broad availability of a host of exciting, high-performing, and highly-efficient new lighting products. At the commercial level, for example, efficient new T8 fluorescent lamp and electronic ballast systems can reduce total system wattage by as much as 45% relative to the use of older, less efficient T12 fluorescent lighting systems driven by magnetic ballasts, and at every market segment and application in between, the market's range of lighting options delivers a more powerful package of efficiency and uncompromised performance than ever before. The time is now! If you have ever questioned the impact that a lighting upgrade could have on your company's bottom line, consider these facts: * If your company's net income as a percentage of sales is 5%, saving $5,000 per year on energy costs is the equivalent of an increase of $100,000 in top-line sales * A recent survey of hundreds of chief financial officers by the Energy Cost Savings Council found that the majority was either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the results of lighting upgrades that they had managed or overseen in their facilities. The upgrades they witnessed had overwhelmingly delivered the energy and cost savings promised. A wide network of utility professionals, qualified electrical distributors, and energy service companies as well as a variety of government agencies and trade associations are available to assist with upgrade projects. There has never been a better time to reduce your energy costs, improve your facility's lighting quality and ambiance, support the environment, or gain access to additional tax deduction opportunities on qualifying upgrades through the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Don't wait to capitalize on the benefits that an energy-efficient lighting upgrade can offer your facility! Susan Bloom is director of corporate communications for Philips Lighting & Advance