New Research Report by Cleantech Approach Reviews Lighting Control Solutions for Commercial Offices
Report finds commercial offices can reduce electricity consumption by 35-55%, with payback in 2-10 years.
NEW YORK, NY, July 14, 2010 — Cleantech Approach (CTA) today announced the release of its latest research report: Lighting Controls: Savings, Solutions, Payback, and Vendor Profiles, a first-of-its-kind report that reviews not only lighting control solutions, but the return on investment associated their deployment. The report finds that commercial offices can reduce electricity consumption by 35-55% with the implementation of a lighting control solution and deliver a ROI within 2-10 years, depending on solution deployed.
Lighting comprises 20% of commercial buildings’ overall energy expense and 38% of their electricity expense. To reduce electricity consumption, corporations can deploy two impactful, technology-grounded strategies for reducing electricity consumption associated with lighting:
Lighting control solutions; and- Next generation lighting technologies, such as LEDs (see CTA’s Report on “LED Benchmarking”).
CTA recommends lighting control solutions as a good “first step” toward reducing energy consumption, given that they carry lower technology risk and up-front costs than next-generation lighting technologies. They also enable users to capture immediate energy savings in anticipation of further technological improvements and price declines in next-generation lighting solutions. Furthermore, these solutions should be fully interchangeable with existing bulbs in today’s lighting control systems.
Lighting control solutions enable businesses to reduce electricity consumption costs associated with their lighting infrastructure. With these solutions, businesses can easily control the behavior of their lighting assets (i.e., when lights turn on/off or how/when lights dim) to eliminate wasted light and excess electricity consumption and precisely meet the requirements of employees functioning within a given environment.
Another critical factor in determining the adoption of sustainable technologies is payback (the time required to recoup the initial cost of a solution from resulting savings). Accordingly, CTA uses a proprietary approach to determine the range of potential cost saving opportunities and the resulting payback periods associated with the adoption of lighting control technology. Our research examines several critical, financial metrics that should be considered as part of any lighting control purchasing decision:
- Cost of the solution: Comprehensive lighting control solutions for commercial spaces, employing the full suite of potential energy consumption reduction strategies, typically cost $1.00-2.50 per square foot installed.
- Electricity consumption reduction potential: These solutions reduce electricity consumption expenses associated with running lighting networks by 35-55% (in situations where next generation, ultra-high efficiency technologies have not been deployed); our analysis that lays out the assumptions underlying this range of potential reductions is available in the complete report.
- Payback period: Assuming electricity savings only, paybacks on the initial investment in lighting control solutions range generally from 2.7 years (implying 55% electricity savings with a solution that costs $1.00 per sq. ft. installed) to 10.7 years (implying 35% electricity savings with a solution that costs $2.50 per sq. ft. installed).
Lighting control solutions vendors range from large multinational companies to relatively new startup players with innovative technology. To help our readers better understand the range of solutions and providers, we have included detailed profiles of key lighting control solutions vendors and their respective offerings. Specifically, CTA lays out each vendor’s unique technological approach to providing its lighting control solution. Lighting control solutions vendors (associated brands) profiled include: Acuity Brands (Synergy, SensorSwitch, Lighting Control & Design); Adura Technologies; Cooper Controls; Delmatic; Encelium; EnOcean; Leviton Manufacturing; Lumenergi; Lutron; Philips (Dynalite, Lightolier Controls); Schneider Electric; Universal Lighting Technologies; WattStopper. It should be noted that CTA does not recommend vendors or endorse a particular strategy for lighting controls.
Cleantech Approach (www.cleantechapproach.com) is an independent research and advisory firm focused on helping municipalities, global development organizations, and private businesses devise sustainable, technology-enabled strategies. CTA’s research delves deeply into the sustainable technologies themselves, but is heavily weighted toward determining what technologies are financial viable.
