Commercial lighting is changing rapidly, with new or improved technologies available
annually, if not sooner.
Whether you’re constructing a new building or upgrading lighting at your existing location, the Energy Trust of Oregon guide highlights how you can take lighting to the next level.
It will help you explore options you might consider now or in the future. The information will prepare you to work effectively with designers and lighting professionals. You’ll also have a stronger understanding of everything from the color quality of light to what technologies work best in different applications to how lighting affects other energy-using systems in your business.
In the typical U.S. commercial building, lighting accounts for close to 35 percent of electricity use, taking a bite out of profits.
Fortunately, recent technological advances have launched a new era of energy-efficient lighting products. When you take advantage of the most advanced light sources, fixtures and controls, you could save up to 50 percent on lighting energy, while benefiting from the best in lighting quality. With good design, energy-efficient lighting typically pays for itself in energy savings within a few years.
Opting for energy-efficient lighting offers additional benefits, including reducing the load lighting puts on air conditioning, ventilation, refrigeration and your overall electrical system. Today’s options come in a variety of styles and functionalities, offering flexibility for your design and business.
Go to www.energytrust.org and find out how lighting can put your products, services, customers and employees in a better light.
KNOW YOUR TERMS
The lighting industry uses the term lamp when referring to the light source (what you may think
of as the bulb) and often uses the word luminaire when referring to the fixture.
DAYLIGHTING
Well-designed lighting, including daylighting, enhances visual comfort, reduces eye fatigue and improves performance, which can lead to higher productivity and sales.
AESTHETICS
Quality lighting makes a space pleasant and inviting for employees and customers, opening the door to lower absenteeism and more business. Coupled with energy savings, these benefits can make today’s lighting technologies a profitable investment.
SAFETY/SECURITY
Garage and exterior lighting often use LED or HID technology to provide security for building users
PLAN AHEAD FOR SUCCESS
Review your goals: Do you want low operating costs? Are you trying to keep maintenance to a minimum? Is reducing your carbon footprint important? Have you been unhappy with lighting in the past, and why? Have you seen lighting in other businesses that you do or don’t like, and why?
Comprehensive lighting design is critical to the design of new buildings and major renovations, and it is increasingly used during lighting retrofits because it goes beyond simply replacing lamps or fixtures. Comprehensive lighting design looks holistically at the lighting in your building. A lighting designer prepares a lighting layout and a technology and controls approach that factors in aesthetics, how lighting
integrates with other building systems, light levels suitable to each application and location, uniformity of light, available daylight, glare, safety, total operating cost of the lighting system, the appropriate integration of lighting controls and more.
Comprehensive lighting design can maximize energy savings and provide better comfort, health and productivity for occupants.
EXPAND YOUR DEFINITION OF COST
Think beyond first cost. With rising energy costs, the decisions you make today will affect operating costs for years. Because lighting is so visible, quality lighting influences the aesthetics of your business as well as comfort, productivity, health and safety, and profit. Today’s lighting technologies are extremely long lasting and can lower maintenance costs by drastically reducing the need to replace lamps.
www.energytrust.org
