There are dozens of ways to shortcut the quality that goes into a lighting project, many which will only become evident years in the future. All too often facility managers find themselves dealing with substandard installation and safety practices as well as under-performing system designs. Be wary of contractors who advance an overly simplistic payback analysis or only offer retrofit options with low initial costs. Your lighting project is a long-term (once in a career) investment, and there is a tremendous opportunity to gain long-term energy savings and facility improvements through a well-thought-out approach with the right lighting partner.
Project Is Not Delivering Promised Savings
This is a Big One
When it comes to evaluating lighting projects for capital investment using average energy cost to calculate potential savings is NEVER an acceptable method. Often used by manufacturers, distributors and contractors because it is easy, using average energy cost is a high risk exercise if the underlying energy rate structure and equipment operation isn't considered. Every electric utility company in the US has a unique way of recovering their cost and making a return on their investment as approved by their regulating body so no two bills will be the same even for the same facility located in different utility service areas.
In certain situations using average energy costs will result in overestimating savings by fifty percent or more. An investment grade energy study prepared should always use actual kW and kWh cost to project future energy savings. Copies of recent electric bills should be used to calculate the cost used in energy savings calculations. It may be necessary to acquire twelve months of billing history to understand how seasonal variations in rate structure affect electric energy cost.
In certain situations using average energy costs will result in overestimating savings by fifty percent or more. An investment grade energy study prepared should always use actual kW and kWh cost to project future energy savings. Copies of recent electric bills should be used to calculate the cost used in energy savings calculations. It may be necessary to acquire twelve months of billing history to understand how seasonal variations in rate structure affect electric energy cost.
Incorrect Application
There are many factors that go into specifying the correct fixture or retrofit for a particular application. When selecting an LED fixture or lamp environmental conditions such as ambient temperature, moisture, chemicals (including cleaning supplies), and whether a fixture is open or enclosed must be considered. In other words, there is no "one size fits all" lamp or fixture. If the wrong equipment is specified for an application a fixture may fail prematurely and the manufacturer may void the warranty leading to unexpected maintenance expenses.
Poor Installation
Even if the correct lighting solution is specified, poor installation can still be a significant problem, resulting in increased maintenance and reduced lighting system performance.
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Incorrect voltage
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Improper wiring
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Using Cheap, Low Quality Fixtures
Poorly designed and low quality lighting products may reduce the initial cost of a project, but hidden problems down the road could end up costing substantially more than the initial savings. Be sure to buy from trusted manufacturing partners who produce quality products and stand behind their warranties.
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Incompatibility with Existing Emergency Lighting
Existing emergency or egress lighting systems are not compatible with LED technology. Because of this, emergency fixtures require special consideration to maintain suitable operation. Special care should be taken to assess the existing emergency lighting and install LED compatible components. It is not uncommon contractors to simply ignore the emergency lighting and leave old inefficient emergency system in place. Worse yet, there is a real industry problem with unscrupulous contractors disabling emergency lighting, leaving facility owners vulnerable to occupant injury or worse.
Cherry Picking the Easy Stuff
Cherry picking is a term in the lighting industry referring to retrofitting only the easiest and most profitable areas of a lighting system. Many complicated or hard to reach fixtures are purposely skipped, leaving a customer with an incomplete retrofit and maintenance headaches. Eventually the skipped fixtures will then have to be replaced costing much more money than if they were included in the larger lighting project. Make sure that all the lighting in a facility is documented in the initial survey in order to complete a comprehensive retrofit. Below are lights that were on a retrofit project that was supposed to be comprehensive.
The lowest initial cost rarely results in a suitable long-term solution.
