When you’re trying to save your company money, energy efficient lighting retrofits provide a great opportunity by helping you cut your overhead costs while improve the quality of your lighting. With dramatic savings of up to 65% of your current costs coupled with a fast time to recoup your investment, usually between half to two years, your business will see a great return on their lighting investment in better visual comfort and glare reduction, lower maintenance and replacements due to longer life design, lowered costs for cooling and utility rebates. But for all those benefits, there are some serious mistakes that can quickly eat up all your savings and investment. In this blog, we’ve gone through many potential mistakes. By following our recommended guidelines, you’ll be able to avoid these common lighting retrofit mistakes.
Don’t Judge Retrofit Returns Based on a Short Test
It’s easy to get sucked into the great results and the light level readings that you’ve obtained right after a lighting retrofit. But some systems don’t remain constant over a longer period of time. You may see variations outside of what would be acceptable for your purposes. Some lights, such as LED-based technologies, can lose some of their brightness when they reach the end of their effective lifecycle. Different lamps often have different lumen maintenance curves. The conditions inside your facility will also affect the performance of a lighting retrofit design as dust and dirt accumulates in the system. A good retrofit company will take these issues into account to ensure that you’re receiving the exact lighting solution you need by considering the future performance of your system.
Ask for Measurements Over Time
When you’re looking at different proposals that are based on light level readings, make sure that the readings are based over the expected lifespan of the retrofit design. If the selected lamp and ballast is not a good match, it can affect the lifespan of your system. A bad pairing could mean that you see a shorter lamp life or early ballast failure that would be expected of a properly paired design. These combinations can also void your product warranty, leaving you holding the bag with broken components long after you’ve paid for your retrofit project.
Take the Systemic Approach
The best way to approach a lighting redesign and energy efficient retrofit is to take the entire facility’s systems into account. A good lighting retrofit company will take into account your business’ exact needs, from the conditions the lights will be used in to the proper light temperature to your specific maintenance needs. By taking all possible factors into play, a retrofit company takes a true systems approach to lighting retrofit design for your business or facility, ensuring that your needs are well met both now and well into the future. This type of approach requires that the lighting retrofit firm have appropriate levels of experience and knowledge to properly match all technologies needed for the job.
Think in the Long-Term
If you don’t take a long-term approach to your energy efficient lighting retrofit, you may find that the retrofit solution that you’ve gone with isn’t providing the long-term results you need. A good contractor will take a systemic approach to your lighting retrofit, making sure that the results will meet your needs not just today, but long into the future. If you’re considering having a lighting retrofit for your business or institution, please feel free to contact us for more information. We’re always happy to help you find the perfect solution to your lighting retrofit needs.