How to calculate Material savings from an LED lighting retrofit project

This is the fifth blog post in the series to calculate the total Return on Investment (ROI) that a business will generate from their LED lighting retrofit project. Previously, we published the following posts in this series:

1. How to calculate Material savings from an LED lighting retrofit project – April 2019
2. Energy Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project – March 2019
3. Labor Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project – February 2019
4. What will you save from an LED Lighting Retrofit Project? – January 2019

This post focuses on the Material savings gained by a lighting retrofit project and the long-life LED products incorporated into the project. Most of the products you’ll be replacing during the project, like incandescent, CFL or halogen bulbs, have life-spans of 1,500 to 15,000 hours.  That means that if you operate your lights 12 hours a day for 250 days a year (3,000 hours), you’ll be replacing burned out bulbs up to 2 times per year.  Those costs can add up quickly, especially if you have hundreds, or even thousands of fixtures in your facilities.
LED lights, on the other hand, have life spans of 35,000 to 100,000 hours. At 3,000 hours per year, that’s 11 – 33 years!  An even then the bulb may not burn out but may just lose some of its’ output capacity, so your life spans could exceed the standard rated hours.
We will continue our example from the series in that we are replacing 90 watt PAR 38 bulbs with 14 watt LED PAR 38 bulbs that operate 3,000 hours per year. 
Step 1: Gather Data – the following information will be needed to start the calculations:

• Rated life for the current lights: for this calculation we will make an assumption that you are using a PAR 38 with a rated life of 1,500 hours.
• Rated life for the new lights: for this calculation we will make an assumption that the replacement lights are LED PAR 38 with a rated life of 50,000 hours and come with a 5-year warranty.
• Replacement cost for the current lights: for this calculation we will make an assumption that the replacement cost for a 90W Halogen PAR 38 is $7.50.
• Replacement cost for the new lights: for this calculation we will make an assumption that the replacement cost for a 14W LED PAR 38 is $18.50.
• Total Annual Running time: in this example the annual run time is 3,000 hours.

Step 2: Calculate the number of times you will need to replace the current lights per year, which is dependent on the rated life and run time per year:

• Total Run Time per year: 3,000 hours
• Divided by: Rated life of current lights: 1,500 hours
• Equals: Number of times per year you’ll replace each light: 2 replacements per year

Step 3: Cost of replacing existing lights:

• Annual replacements from above: 2 per year
• Times: Cost to replace from above: $7.50
• Equals: Annual replacement costs per year: $15.00

Step 4: Calculate the number of times you will need to replace the new LED lights per year, which is dependent on the rated life and run time per year:

• Total Run Time per year: 3,000 hours
• Divided by: Rated life of current lights: 50,000 hours
• Equals: Number of times per year you’ll replace each light: .06 replacements per year

Step 5: Cost of replacing new LED lights:

• Annual replacements from above: .06 per year
• Times: Cost to replace from above: $18.50
• Equals: Annual replacement costs per year: $1.11

Step 6: Calculate your savings per year:

• Annual replacements per year for current lights: $15.00 per year
• Minus: Annual replacements per year for new LED lights: $1.11 per year
• Equals: Annual material savings per light: $13.89

(Note that this calculation does not take into effect the normal 5 year warranty provided by the LED light manufacturer, so during years 1-5 of the project your replacement cost for the LED lights would be zero and you’d have an even larger annual material savings per year.)
Using the annual material cost savings per light ($13.89 in this example) you can determine the total material savings based upon the number of lights you’ll be replacing during your LED lighting retrofit project.  Multiplied over hundreds or thousands of replacements and the savings add up quickly.
The professional lighting installation experts at PKK Lighting would be delighted to talk to you about your LED retrofit project.  We can help you evaluate the opportunity, manage the entire project, and provide ongoing lighting maintenance of your system.
This post was originally published at https://www.pkklighting.com/how-to-calculate-material-savings-from-an-led-lighting-retrofit-project/

How to calculate HVAC energy savings from an LED lighting retrofit project

An LED Lighting Retrofit project will provide a significant ROI to your company

This is the fourth blog post in the series to calculate the total Return on Investment (ROI) that a business will generate from an LED lighting retrofit project. Previously, we published the following posts in this series:

1. Energy Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project – March 2019
2. Labor Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project – February 2019
3. What will you save from an LED Lighting Retrofit Project? – January 2019

This post will address how a lighting retrofit project will save you money on your HVAC costs.  The primary assumption behind this part of the overall savings is that the retrofit project is being done in an area that is air conditioned.
So, how would a retrofit project help generate HVAC savings?  Incandescent and halogen bulbs from older light fixtures do two things really well, produce light (which is what they are supposed to do) and produce a LOT of heat.  Dealing with that extra heat in the summer months is what takes extra energy.  The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has established a rule of thumb that it takes 30-35 watts of cooling to offset the heat generated for each 100 watts of lights within a space.  We will use 32.5 watts for our computation below.
We will continue our example from the last post in that we are replacing 90 watt PAR 38 bulbs with 14 watt LED PAR 38 bulbs that operate 3,000 hours per year. 
These step-by-step instructions will help your business calculate the potential HVAC savings so you can evaluate if it makes sense to include these savings in your overall ROI computation.
Step 1: Gather Data – the following information will be needed to start the calculations:

• Total energy savings per year per light: this is one of the outputs from the March 2019 post - 228 kwh saved per year per light.
• Percent of the year that a business operates its air conditioning.  According to a 35 year old study by the U.S. Department of the Navy, Naval Civil Engineering Lab, CR82.028, 1982, Madison Wisconsin air conditioners were operational 38.85% of the year.  Granted, this data is old, and given the warmer temperatures over the last few decades, it’s likely that the percentage would be higher, but 38.85% will work for this calculation.
• Electricity Rate: $0.12/kwh is the average rate in Dane county.

Step 2: Energy savings from reduced HVAC:

• KWH saved per light replaced with an efficient LED: 228 kwh
• Times: % of the year that air conditioner is running: 38.85%
• Times: Cooling required per ASHRAE rule: 32.5 watts
• Equals: 28.79 kwh of HVAC savings per year per light

Step 3: Cost savings from reduced HVAC demand:

• HVAC savings from above: 28.79 kwh
• Times: Electricity Rate: $0.12/hwh
• Equals: Savings per light: $3.45/light per year

While a savings of $3.45 per light per year may not seem like much, if you have hundreds, or even thousands of light fixtures that you are replacing during an LED lighting retrofit project, the savings will add up quickly.
If you are considering an LED retrofit project and want to consult with a professional lighting installation company, contact PKK Lighting.  We can help you evaluate the opportunity, manage the project, and maintain the lighting system well into the future.
This post was originally published at https://www.pkklighting.com/how-to-calculate-hvac-energy-savings-from-an-led-lighting-retrofit-project/.

Energy Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project

How to calculate the energy savings from an LED retrofit project

Of all of the reasons to embark on an LED lighting retrofit project, the energy savings from the project might be the most compelling.  Not only do the savings go directly into your pocket from a reduction in your monthly utility bills, but the carbon footprint your business is leaving is smaller.  While the impact of the project on our planet is important, it’s the reduction in your utility costs that will likely get management’s attention and help sell the project.
This is the third blog post in the series to calculate the savings from an LED lighting retrofit project.  In the previous 2 posts we introduced the topic (What will you save from an LED Lighting Retrofit Project?,) and dove into the Labor savings in more detail (Labor Savings from an LED Lighting Retrofit project).  In this post we will provide more details about how to calculate the Energy savings from a retrofit project.
Unlike the calculation of the Labor savings we introduced with our last post, which involves several assumptions for how long the bulbs will last, how many minutes does it take to change a bulb, and the fully loaded labor rate, the calculation of the energy savings is a very straight forward math problem.  Put simply, the total energy savings is the money your company will save due to the reduction in wattage from switching from less efficient lights to the more efficient LED lighting products. 
For the purposes of calculating the energy savings, our project assumes we are replacing a series of older 90 watt PAR 38 lights with 14 watt LED PAR 38 lights.
Steps to calculate the Energy Savings from your project:
Step 1 – Gather the inputs for our project

• Wattage of old lights: 90 watts
• Wattage of new LED lights: 14 watts
• Operating hours: for this calculation we’ll assume the lights are on for 12 hours a day for 250 business days per year
• Electric rate: this is the rate you pay your electric company. In Dane County, Wisconsin, the average rate for electricity is $0.12 per kilowatt hour.  For your calculation you’ll need to check with your electric company.

Step 2 – Calculate the Energy Savings for each bulb
Using the inputs from Step 1, the savings per bulb is calculated as follows:

• Wattage of old light: 90 watts
• Minus: wattage of new light: 14 watts
• Equals: Savings per light: 76 watts

Step 3 – Calculate the total Operating hours

• Operating hours per day: 12 hours
• Times: operating days per year: 250
• Equals: 3,000 operating hours per year for each light

Step 4 – Calculate the Energy Savings per light in kilowatt hours (kwh)

• 76 watts saved per light
• Times: 3,000 operating hours per year
• Divided by: 1,000 (to convert to kwh)
• Equals: 228 kwh saved per year

Step 5 – Calculate the annual savings

• Energy savings per light: 228 kwh
• Times: Electricity rate: $0.12/kwh
• Equals: $27.36 Savings per light per year

Now that you know the savings from each light, you can easily determine the savings from your LED lighting retrofit project(s).  For example, if you have a warehouse with 100 lights, your retrofit project would save $2,736 in electricity costs per year – a substantial savings!
If you would like some guidance on your LED lighting retrofit project or need an experienced lighting installation company to help with your project, contact PKK Lighting in Madison, WI.  We’ve helped hundreds of customers take advantage of the savings from more efficient lighting solutions and we’d like to help you.

How to calculate the labor savings from your LED retrofit project

In our last post, What will you save from an LED Lighting Retrofit Project?, we provided a high level overview of how to calculate the savings your business will recognize from an LED lighting retrofit project.  As a reminder, the major contributors to the total savings are:

1. Labor savings
2. Energy savings
3. Material savings
4. HVAC savings

In this post we will go into more detail about the labor savings from an LED lighting retrofit project.
Your older lighting products, like incandescent, halogen, or CFL bulbs, have lifespans of 1,500 to 15,000 hours.  Depending on your business and your lighting needs, these bulbs could be operating 365 days a year and an average of 12 or more hours per day.  At the low end of the lifespan, that means that you need to replace each bulb about 3 times per year.  In order to replace the burnt-out bulbs you have to spend time purchasing/tracking your inventory of replacement bulbs, using your own employee or hiring a contractor to find the correct replacement bulb and then replacing the bulb (which could involve a ladder or lift to reach the fixture). 
If your facility has hundreds of lighting fixtures, you can see how the time and cost to replace bulbs can add up quickly.
Switching to LED lighting, with a rated life of 35,000 to 100,000 hours, would significantly lower your labor costs because you don’t have to change bulbs as often.  Also, many LEDs come with a manufacturer’s warranty, which will further defray your total maintenance costs.
Let’s work a “real” example:

• In our example we are determining the labor savings from replacing 90 watt PAR 38 bulbs with 14 watt PAR 38 bulbs.  These bulbs are operating 365 days a year for an average of 12 hours per day (4,380 hours/year).  For purposes of this calculation, we will assume that the rated life for the existing 90 watt bulbs is 1,500 hours and the rated life of the replacement LEDs is 50,000 hours.
• Determine the number of annual replacements for the old bulbs.  With a 1,500 hour rated life operating for 4,380 hours per year, each of the old bulbs will need to be replaced 2.92 times. 
• Determine the number of annual replacements for the new LED bulbs.  With a 50,000 hour rated life operating for 4,380 hours per year, each of the LED bulbs will need to be replaced .09 times per year. 
• Determine average time to change a bulb. For purposes of this calculation, we will assume it takes an average of 10 minutes to identify the proper bulb, find a replacement in the storage room, get a ladder (if needed), change out the bulb, and properly dispose of the burnt-out bulb.
• Hourly rate for lighting maintenance.  This hourly rate will depend on whether you use a contractor or hire your own maintenance employee.  For purposes of this calculation, let’s assume a fully loaded labor rate of $80/hour.
• Determine cost to change one bulb:
  • Minutes to change a bulb: 10
  • Cost per hour: $80
  • Labor cost to change a bulb: $13.33
• Determine annual cost to maintain the old bulbs vs the new LEDs:
  • Old bulbs: replaced 2.92 times at $13.33 labor cost per replacement = $38.93 per year per fixture
  • New LEDs: replaced .09 times at $13.33 labor cost per replacement = $1.20 per year per fixture
• Calculate the savings per year per fixture:
  • $38.93 labor cost per year for each fixture using the old bulbs vs $1.20 per fixture for the LEDs generates a savings of $37.73 per fixture per year.

If your facility has hundreds of fixtures, you can see how the labor savings adds up quickly and helps make the case for changing out your old, inefficient bulbs for LEDs that will provide you with years of worry free (and maintenance free) operation.
In future posts we will cover the Energy savings, Material savings, and HVAC savings from an LED lighting retrofit project.  Contact the LED lighting installation experts at PKK Lighting to discuss your next lighting project.

What will you save from an LED Lighting Retrofit Project?

A how-to guide to calculating the savings from an LED lighting retrofit project

Your business is interested in finding ways to save money throughout your company.  You’ve worked on process improvement and other cost cutting initiatives and you’ve managed to find significant savings that went straight to the bottom line.  You recently heard about the potential savings you can get from an LED lighting retrofit project and you have a question – “how do I calculate the savings from an LED lighting retrofit project?” This article will provide you with a  high level overview to calculating the savings your company will realize from such a project, and future articles will provide more detailed information to computing the actual savings.
Step 1 – Identify the different sources of savings. With any LED retrofit project, the savings will come from several sources and you’ll need to compute the savings from each in order to determine the savings from the entire project.  Here are the different sources:

• Labor Savings: older lighting products, like incandescent, halogen, or CFL bulbs have a lifespan of 1,500 to 15,000 hours.  Depending on your business, these bulbs could be operating 365 days a year and an average of 12 or more hours per day.  If your business is using the 1,500 hour bulbs, that means that you’re replacing each bulb 3 or more times per year.  If you were to switch to LED lighting, with a rated life of 35,000 to 100,000 hours, your business would realize significant savings just in the amount of maintenance you’d save by not having to replace the bulbs so often.  In a future article we will cover the detailed steps to compute these labor savings.
• Material Savings: due to their longer life, the LED lights will not need to be replaced as often.  While LED lights cost more than their older counterparts, the trade-off will more than pay for itself each and every year.  Again, you’ll be surprised at the annual cost of keeping your older lighting system around on a per bulb basis.  We’ll go through a detailed example in a future article.
• Energy Savings: LED lights use considerably less energy (less wattage) than the inefficient bulbs they replaced during the retrofit project. Computing the different wattage of each bulb, the number of bulbs in operation, the number of operational hours during the year, and the cost of electricity per kilowatt hour, and you’ll come up with the amount of savings per bulb per year.  You’ll be surprised at the result and wonder why you didn’t start your retrofit project years ago.  In a future article we will cover the detailed steps to compute these energy savings.
• HVAC Savings: note that these potential savings only apply to retrofit projects that are done in a building that uses air conditioning.  Older lighting products generate a LOT of heat and that extra heat spreads throughout the space, increasing the temperature of the room.  In a space that is air conditioned, that means that extra energy will be needed to cool the space down.  ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers) has provided a rule of thumb for computing the extra cooling required to offset the heat generated for every 100 watts used to light a room.  In a future article we’ll go through a detailed computation of the savings on a per bulb basis.

Step 2 – Determine the Total Cost of your LED lighting retrofit project.  Be sure to include ALL costs, including materials, labor to install new lighting and dispose of old lights, any disposal fees, etc.
Step 3 – Compute the Overall Return on Investment (ROI) from the project. Once you have all of your savings above and the cost of the project, you’re ready to compute the ROI of the project.   You might be surprised to find that the ROI is fairly significant and that the payback period is much shorter than you think.  We will provide an actual example of the savings from a project in future article.
PKK Lighting will be happy to help you determine the ROI and payback period for your LED lighting retrofit project in Wisconsin.  Contact us at 608-836-7821 for an initial consultation.
This post was originally published at https://www.pkklighting.com/what-will-you-save-from-an-led-lighting-retrofit-project/.

How can your business convert fluorescent tubes to LED?

A guide to replacing your Fluorescent tube lights with LED lamps

If your business is considering a fluorescent to LED retrofit project but you’re not sure where to start, this high level guide should help you.  You may not have time to look into all of the details of such a project and know what you should be considering, and so my goal is to provide you with enough information to make some decisions.  If after reading this you still need more information, I invite you to contact me directly for an initial consultation into your LED retrofit project.

There are 3 popular options to replace your fluorescent tube lights:

1. Replacing your old tube lights with LED lights that are 17 watts or greater. The benefits to your business:

• Lowest upfront costs.  These lamps are generally less than $10 each.
• They are energy efficient, but not as efficient as the options below.
• You can use the existing ballast without needing to replace it.
• These lamps will typically last 35,000 hours, which equates to over 8 years of life if you’re running the lamps for 12 hours per day, 365 days per year.
• These lamps do not produce the amount of light as the options below.

2. Replacing your old tube lights with LED lights that are 15 watts. The benefits to your business:

• These lamps cost about $17 each and provide the highest light output.
• These lamps will typically last 50,000 hours, which equates to over 11 years of life if you’re running the lamps for 12 hours per day, 365 days per year.
• This lamp will provide good energy savings.

3. Replacing your old tube lights with LED lights that are 12 watts. The benefits to your business:

• These lamps cost about $13 each and has a medium light output.
• These lamps will typically last 50,000 hours, which equates to over 11 years of life if you’re running the lamps for 12 hours per day, 365 days per year.
• This lamp will provide the best energy savings of the 3 options.

5 steps to start your LED Retrofit project

Now that you know the 3 primary replacement options, we’ll cover the steps you should take for your LED retrofit project.
Step 1 – Determine your LED retrofit budget: prices have trended downward and now is a great time to start your project. No matter your budget, there is an LED lamp that’s right for your project.
Step 2 – What are your goals for the project? If you’re looking to significantly reduce energy costs and/or ongoing maintenance expense, using a lamp with a longer lifespan should be part of your plans.
Step 3 – Identify the lamps to be part of the retrofit project.  Referred to as “group relamping” I recommend that a business identify clusters of lamps that make sense to replace at the same time.  In the long run, group relamping will save you more time and energy than doing the project on a one-off basis.  This also makes the spend more predictable and you can prioritize which lamp clusters should be done first, second, and so on.
Step 4 – Determine the level of light output needed.  Consider how the space is being used and select your light output accordingly.  If you need help with this step, contact us and we’ll be happy to assist.
Step 5 – Make your final decision.  You’ve determined your budget and goals, the level of light output needed, as well as the cluster(s) of lamps to be retrofitted.  Now it’s time to put it all together to determine which LED lamps you need for the project.  The following project types and lamp recommendations are just a guide, but should be helpful as you select your lamp type:

• Warehouse (with low light output needs): 17 watt lamp recommended
• Commercial office building: 15 watt lamp recommended
• Hospital/Retirement home: 12 watt lamp recommended
• Parking garage: 12 watt lamp recommended

Now that you have all of the preliminary steps cared for, it’s time to start your project.  If you’d like a partner to manage the project, installation and ongoing maintenance, contact the lighting experts at PKK Lighting in Madison WI.  We’ve managed hundreds of LED retrofit projects and would be delighted to talk to you about your project and how we might be able to help.
This post was originally published at https://www.pkklighting.com/how-can-your-business-convert-fluorescent-tubes-to-led/.

Lighting as a Service (LaaS) – what is it and is it worth it?

Could Lighting as a Service (LaaS) pay for your lighting project?

Many businesses are learning that they can put money in their pocket each and every month AND upgrade their lighting system AND reduce the amount of energy they use.  Sound too good to be true? Keep reading to see if Lighting as a Service (LaaS) might be the solution you were looking for to upgrade your lighting system.

What is Lighting as a Service?

Think of LaaS as a monthly subscription service like your cell phone bill or cable bill, where you pay a monthly amount for your service.  In this case, what you are paying for is a significant upgrade to your lighting system that is completed by your lighting service provider, but you’re spreading out the payments over a period of a few years. At the same time you’re realizing the cost savings from the reduced electric bills due to the energy efficient lighting you’ve installed.  The lighting service provider will take care of the design and installation of the new lighting system as well as the warranty, repairs and maintenance on the system over the life of the contract.  In many cases the reduction in monthly energy costs is MORE than the monthly LaaS payments, resulting in the business actually spending less each month after the upgrade than they were spending previously.

Where to find a Lighting Provider for your LaaS project?

It’s important to have a trusted lighting service provider when you’re ready to Implement a LaaS project.  The lighting provider can walk you through the benefits and the savings calculations and help recommend a financial institution that is experienced with LaaS projects.  Some of the things you should look for in a lighting service provider:

1. Good reputation: you want a company that’s known for its quality work, fair pricing, and responsiveness for repair and warranty work.
2. Years in business: look for a company that’s been in business for a long time and will be around for many more.  Since LaaS requires the lighting service company to maintain and repair your system for several years, you want them to be able to fulfill the contract.
3. Experience implementing LaaS contracts: not every lighting company has experience with LaaS projects and fulfilling the obligations of the contract.

When you’re ready to determine if a LaaS project might be right for your business, contact the experienced team at PKK Lighting in Madison, Wisconsin.  We have been in business for almost 50 years installing and maintaining lighting systems for our customers.  We’ve worked with a number of customers to help them implement a LaaS project and we’d like to help your company evaluate the benefits that you could realize from a lighting as a service project.