Lighting Changes, calculate your savings, and fun LED holiday video

Incandescent light bulbs had a good run, but with the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 now fully active, you’ll  notice it’s impossible to find traditional incandescent light bulbs in stores. 

Here at Aztec Electrical, we will get your home or business lighting optimized on any new installation or remodeling projects you are considering. Ask us how to receive rebates and incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon.

In a nutshell, EISA has taken a three year approach to converting the United States to energy-efficient lights by prohibiting the manufacturing or importing of non-compliant incandescent light bulbs after 2014.

• January 2012 – 100-watt bulbs banned
• January 2013 – 75-watt bulbs banned
• January 2014 –60- and 40-watt bulbs banned

How much will you save when switching your household to energy-efficient bulbs?

We’ll need to begin with the amount of light bulbs in a home. According to a recent survey, the average American household uses 47 light bulbs.

Now, these bulbs might have varying wattages from 100 watts down to 25, but for the sake of easy math and comparisons, let’s assume that we are using all 60 watt bulbs.

Total Light Wattage = 47 bulbs X 60 watts = 2,820 watts

Now let’s take a look at the wattage if all 47 lights are ...
CFL bulbs .... 658 watts
LED bulbs ... 447 watts

As you can see, there is quite a difference in the wattage between energy efficient bulbs and incandescent bulbs. 

Cost Savings

The average cost of electricity in the United States is currently 11.88 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) (for a more accurate cost, you can check your last billing statement for your cost per kWh), meaning if you used 1,000 watts of electricity for an hour, it costs you 11.41 cents.

For fun, here is a holiday video boosting 65K LED lights.

LED Research: University Miami To Implement LED Lighitng

With glaring statistics pointing to humans as the cause of environmental pollution, the Energy & Conservation Organization (ECO) Agency is ready to do their part to help the university. Their initiative seeks to retrofit lighting with energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Last week, they achieved a victory toward their goal.

Spearheaded by Senior Class Senator Melissa Wyatt and ECO Agency chair Nika Hosseini, a bill in the Student Government Senate was met with unanimous approval to have LED lights implemented in all future university construction and for retrofitting to happen as soon as possible.

“It is crucial for us as a university to lead the way in this environmental initiative,” said Wyatt, who is also an ECO Agency board member. “With how much energy LED lighting saves, it’s just incredible and something that we need.”


The LED lights would reduce light pollution and would concurrently eliminate the use of bulbs containing mercury and other metals. This makes them last 10 times longer than the existing light bulbs used by the university. They also produce a better quality of light for increased visibility and reduced maintenance costs.

Aztec Electrical provides retrofit lighting services to businesses and homes through out Southern Oregon. We are a trade ally with the Energy Trust of Oregon and will help improve your ROI with incentives and cash rebates, ask us how.

There was a 62.5 percent decrease in energy from using LED bulbs and it proved to be more cost-effective. A cost-benefit analysis was conducted that studied the energy usage and costs of current lighting across campus, showing that having LED lights installed would result in energy savings of 50 to 70 percent.

Research at benchmark institutions has shown similar benefits. There were anticipated savings of $25 million over seven years at the University of North Carolina and 66 percent energy savings at Dartmouth College. Massachusetts Institute of Technology observed an increase of 100 percent in student usage of areas on campus that had been retrofitted with LED lighting, a trend that is likely to be replicated on the University of Miami’s campus.

From article of Miami University http://www.themiamihurricane.com/2015/10/15/eco-agency-plans-to-implement-led-lighting-in-new-buildings/

Research: Dimmable LEDs Save Energy

In 2013, the University of California, Santa Barbara partnered with the SPEED team on a small-scale pilot demonstration of 27 LED streetlights with network system controls and 10 LED post-top fixtures with local and network controls. The adaptive lighting operated for an average of 12 hours each night during monitoring. The retrofit to dimmable LED lighting reduced lighting energy use where implemented 78-88%.

Using occupancy sensors and lighting controls, adaptive lighting automatically brightens when occupants approach and dims when spaces are vacant, reducing energy use without compromising safety. Network control systems make monitoring, adjusting and maintaining light fixtures easier.

Simple payback provides a quick way to estimate the cost effectiveness of a given energy-efficiency improvement project. It is calculated by dividing the project cost by the annual cost savings achieved by the project.

Aztec Electrical is a tade ally with the Energy Trust of Oregon and will design your lighting retrofit to receive the maximum rebates and incentives available.

Read the study - click here.

LED: energy efficiency - saves energy and expense - get on board

New research at Rutgers University has shown how to slash the cost of highly efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) and significantly reduce lighting’s energy requirements. The energy savings, however, will likely be eroded as people find new uses for the inexpensive lights.

It’s a classic example of how a solution to a problem may cause more problems, or at least nullify the solution.

"I am doubtful that we will save any energy by going to LED lights," said Thomas Theis, director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

LED lights use just 10 percent of the energy of incandescent lights and less than half the energy of today’s compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs.  An LED that uses 6 watts of electricity, for example, produces the same amount of light as a 14-watt CFL bulb or a 60-watt incandescent bulb.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electricity used for artificial lighting in the U.S. could be cut nearly in half by 2030 through the adoption of high efficiency LEDs.

Aztec Electrical will help you with #lightingdesign and all your electrical needs. Give us a call today at (541) 245-8560.

LEDs help grocery stores save money reduce energy use

Lighting Design

Supermarkets use lighted refrigerator and freezer cases to display a variety of foods and beverages.

These cases account for nearly half of a supermarket’s annual electricity costs, with interior lighting systems using a quarter of the electricity required to operate the case.

Nearly all commercial refrigerators and freezers use linear fluorescent lamps. Although fluorescent lamps provide superior energy efficiency in many lighting applications, their use in commercial refrigeration is not ideal. Fluorescent lamps in this application exhibit a reduced light output of up to 25% and uneven lighting on the products. These problems are a result of ineffective lamp operation at cold temperatures, the lack of optics to direct the light, and poor configuration and mounting location within the freezers.

Average illuminances across the freezer shelves at the time of the installation.
Measurements were taken on the face of the products inside the freezers.

	LEDs at 100% light output	LEDs dimmed	Fluorescent
Average illuminance	2470 lx	2148 lx	2871 lx

 

(Shppoer Surveys)

LEDs may provide a better solution.

• LEDs do not suffer the same drop in light output under cold temperatures that fluorescent lamps do. 
• The current luminous efficacy (the amount of light per watt of energy used) of LEDs—45 lumens per watt (lm/W) in 2006—is similar to the application efficacy of fluorescent lamps in commercial refrigeration. 
• LEDs also can be customized to provide several distributions of light to provide more even lighting across freezer shelves. 

These differences mean that LEDs potentially can provide more efficient lighting.

New lighting technology improved with cheaper manufacturing

New research at Rutgers University has shown how to slash the cost of highly efficient light emitting diodes (#LED) and significantly reduce lighting’s energy requirements. The energy savings, however, will likely be eroded as people find new uses for the inexpensive lights.

LED lights use just 10 percent of the energy of incandescent lights and less than half the energy of today’s compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs.  An LED that uses 6 watts of electricity, for example, produces the same amount of light as a 14-watt CFL bulb or a 60-watt incandescent bulb.  According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electricity used for artificial lighting in the U.S. could be cut nearly in half by 2030 through the adoption of high efficiency LEDs.  

The lights are commercially available today but haven’t been widely adopted because they are more expensive than either CFLs or incandescents. The high cost of LEDs is due in part to their reliance on rare earth elements for their phosphors, materials that shift the blue light emitted by most LEDs into a broad spectrum of white light.

A new class of phosphors made from earth-abundant materials could slash the cost of LEDs by as much as 90 percent according to their developers.

The work has been driven by a dramatic increase in the cost of rare earth elements -- by as much as 1600 percent over the past decade -- due to increased demand and decreased exportation of the materials from China, which has historically produced more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth elements.

A 2010 study looked at lighting use around the world for the past 300 years as lighting technology improved from whale oil lamps to gas and kerosene lamps to electric incandescent bulbs. The study, conducted by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico found a direct relationship between decreased cost and increased consumption.

Looking at the current transition from incandescent lights to CFLs and ultimately LEDs, the authors concluded "there is a massive potential for growth in the consumption of light if new lighting technologies are developed with higher luminous efficacies and lower cost of light."

Aztec Electrical has helped businesses and home owners reduce their lighting expenses. Call our office today to learn more about how you can use new lighting technology to your advantage.

LED Research: LED lighting enhances mood and environment

For as long as we can recall,  #lightingdesign has focused its product placement, design, and marketing on fulfilling visual needs. In the more recent past, issues of sustainability and a need for more efficient energy sources has sparked a further interest in creating green lighting technologies, with LED technology of course at the forefront.

LED lighting technology has just bumped into an entirely new dimension of possibilities and benefits with the help of a study and other research in the field of human-centric lighting (HCL).

A recent study of Lighting Europe and the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturer's Association (ZVEI) and A.T. Kearney led to surpurising findings regarding the mass potential of LED lighting technology in the field of HCL and mood lighting which promises to gain a significant portion of the global LED illumination market by 2020.

Human-centric #LED mood lighting enhances well-being in two distinct but related ways:

#1 it can be optimized to effectively stimulate the organism biologically which leads to improved cognitive performance, which already proves itself in various educational settings such as classrooms.

#2 LED-based human centric lighting can emotionally stimulate by creating emotionally appealing and stimulating atmospheres, leading to improved positive emotions.

Aztec Electrical is a leader in Rogue Valley for optimizing #lightingdesign in both the home and work environments. Call us today, 541-245-8560, to learn more about our services.

Lighting Design: California DMV in Sacramento goes LED

Pre Retrofit

This project was designed to achieve significant energy savings to meet code requirements which required both the general lighting and task lighting loads be reduced without sacrificing occupant satisfaction and visual comfort.

Task-ambient lighting provides an estimated 40 – 50%  energy savings over current energy codes. It has the potential for 600 – 700 MW demand reduction statewide, and  2,000 – 3,000 GWh annually. It should provide an annual  energy savings of about 15 – 25 cents per square foot of building space, meaning  $300 million to $400 million annual energy savings for California. The simple payback is immediate  to one year when used in new construction projects. It has a four- to seven-year simple payback in retrofit projects.

Post Retrofit

Features

• High-quality ambient and task lighting for an aesthetically pleasing office environment
• Energy-efficient LED task light components that can be customized to the individual workspace
• Optional personal occupancy sensor to control  task lights

Read the study click here.

#electrician #lightingdesign

LED lighting makes all the difference in classrooms at one elementary school

How beneficial is LED lighting? At Cherokee Elementary School in Scottsdale, Ariz., new-fangled LED lighting fixtures not only save energy, they also prevent special education students with autism from being bothered by fluorescent lighting. Researchers maintain that individuals with autism are more vulnerable to the sub-visible flicker of direct fluorescent lighting, which can cause headaches, eyestrain and increased repetitive behavior. 


Call Aztec Electrical today at (541) 245-8560 to learn more about using our #lightingdesign services in conjunction with rebates and incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon.

In this pilot project, Scottsdale Unified School District replaced 69 2x4-foot fluorescent lighting troffers in four special education classrooms with 60 2x2-foot flat-panel LED fixtures from lighting manufacturer MaxLite. The install has the added benefit of energy savings.

The new lighitng used MLFP22D4535 2x2 Direct Lit Flat Panels. These panels each emit 3,850 lumens of brightness while using just 45 watts. The lumen power is far less than the 8,000 lumens the school’s previous fluorescent troffers offered, but those classrooms had been overly lit. 

Source: adapted from material at the K12 TD web site.

#electrician #lightingdesign

LED Retrofit: Local business installs new lighting tehnology (video)

The Rrrink in Medford, a popular skating rink, took advantage of rebates and incentives to install 400 watt metal halide, to LED lighting. See more information and pictures here.

New Lighting Technology: What Are Benefits To Small Business?

The owner of Mishka’s café, had two  goals for the recent lighting upgrade in his café: create a cozy, inviting  atmosphere for customers and save energy. In the main seating area  alone he was able to cut his lighting energy use 85% by upgrading to LED lighting.

Throughout the rest of the café, energy consumption for lighting  has been cut in half, reducing Mishka’s annual energy use by over 10,000 kWh and saving nearly $2,000 every year in energy  costs. The lighting upgrade will have paid for itself after just eight  months, and because LEDs last up to fifty times longer than older light sources, the lighting retrofit is producing others savings too.

“It’s not just the cost of buying the light bulb, but needing to drive to the store, spending time to install it, the inconvenience to customers...

Time and maintenance savings are vastly undervalued,” says the cafe owner.  LED lamps can last more than 50,000 hours, meaning there is less time changing lamps and more time focusing on the customers. It also means less waste sent to the landfill every year.

Call Aztec Electrical today at (541) 245-8560 to learn how our services can assist your project with new lighting technology. We can assist you with understanding the available rebates and incentives to improve your ROI.

#electrical  #lightingdesign  #ledlighting

LED's: a lighting retrofit solution

The opportunity in the LED retrofit market is enormous, and the missteps made in rushing other energy-efficient lighting to market (e.g., the compact fluorescent lamp) are less likely to slow market growth this time around. Experts say the science behind solid-state lighting, its quick return on investment, and ease of retrofit installation will result in a win for manufacturers, contractors, end-users and, ultimately, the environment.


The Department of Energy (DOE) predicts that LEDs will become the dominant light source in the United States by 2025. Rather than a market share based on dollars, the DOE calculates market share based on lumen hours, or demand for light over time. By that measure, the DOE predicts LEDs will have 59 percent of market share in a little more than a decade. That’s a tall order, but should it happen, U.S. lighting energy consumption will be sliced by nearly one-half, according to the DOE.

The DOE’s study didn’t focus on LED lighting retrofit per se, but it is clear that a great deal of the low-hanging fruit lies in the replacement of fluorescent lamps in commercial and institutional settings. Regulations have eliminated a majority of magnetic T12 lamp ballasts as well as the majority of linear T12 lamps. But according to the DOE, at last count, more than 500 million T12 lamps were in operation, including approximately 400 million 4-foot lamps. Obviously, there are other fluorescent options ahead of the LED as replacements for those T12s—namely the T8 and T5—but LED manufacturers are slowly applying this technology to a range of traditional lighting sources.


“The growth market for replacement of ceiling troffers is humongous. There are 2 billion sockets waiting to be filled in commercial settings, including office buildings, universities and hospitals,” said John Casadonte, marketing manager for lighting at Cree Inc., a company that manufactures lighting products and semiconductors for power and radio frequency (RF) applications.


Forget the T12 fluorescent. Casadonte said LEDs should leapfrog newer products like the T8. 


“Some universities are just now considering replacing T12s with T8s. It’s up to us to convince them that the newer technology is in their best interest,” he said.


While the LED market, as a percentage of the installed base is still quite small, companies that manufacture retrofit LED systems are making big bets on the future of the LED. Rob Freitag is vice president of marketing at EYE Lighting International, a company that has traditionally focused on metal halide, high-pressure sodium, and mercury lamps for outdoor applications (including parking lots, loading docks, and sporting facilities) as well as for large interiors (such as warehouses or big-box retail stores). 


There are tens of millions of lamps ripe for replacement by LEDs, Freitag said, adding that, “The LED is our greatest opportunity for growth in the coming years. They will become the majority of our lamp sales over the next decade.” 


Adapted from an article at http://www.ecmag.com.