Effective Energy Efficient Lighting Opportunities and Strategies
for Colleges and Universities

Originally broadcast Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | 9:00AM—11:00AM (CT)

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Welcome and Introduction (John Cuttica)
Identifying Lighting Retrofit Opportunities (Peter Brown)
Lighting Technologies, Retrofits and Redesign Strategies for Colleges and Universities (Daniel Frering)
Next Steps: Tools and Resources (John Cuttica)

Q & A:

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Download the Q&A document (PDF). Q&A is also posted below.

Answers to the questions posted below are not direct transcriptions from the webinar. Additional information and resources are included.

What is the basic audit calculation formula that was shown in the first presentation?
Peter: The formula is shown here with example values. For more information, please refer to Slide #9 of Peter Brown's presentation (PDF).

What does the acronym RE stand for?
Dan: The acronym RE is defined as Rare Earth.

What will be the impact of LED lighting on Educational and Commercial lighting?
Dan: LEDs are a new type of light source, basically a computer chip that produces light. Their current rating is 40-50 lumens per watt, significantly lower than typical fluorescent lamps, but with projected ratings of up to 200 lumens per watt expected by the year 2020. Hundreds of new products will be available: colored applications, general applications, adjustable color lighting, flexible products, high-end design. Right now, these tend to be expensive. The technology is evolving rapidly with many niche applications. LEDs are very directional, easy to control, don't emit heat into space, very small (can be built into appliances, architectural features and products), and long lasting (approx. 50,000 hour life). Again, LEDs are expensive right now, they will not be taking over fluorescent lighting applications anytime soon or until about 2015 when the price will come down. LEDs though are a technology to look into and they will be seen in many niche applications. (For more information, refer to Slides 54-56 from Dan Frering's presentation.)

Are there LED retrofits for existing signs in which you simply change the bulb?
Dan: Yes, there are LED exit sign retrofit kits where you typically take out the lamp that's located in the sign and clip the new lamp in and there are even Energy Star retrofit kits. Always look for the Energy Star label because the Energy Star label will tell you it's a good product, long lasting, tested, and will gives you the luminance (brightness) required for that sign.

Is it true that fluorescent lighting must be disposed of as a hazardous waste?
Dan: Yes and no. Fluorescent lighting must be disposed of as a waste, but it is considered a controlled waste, not a hazardous waste as EPA considers all of these categories as waste. If your facility is throwing away a number of fluorescent lamps (10 or more, for example), the lamps must be removed by a certified waste hauler, one that is certified to remove this particular waste. Typically, you would want to recycle the fluorescent lamps. There is a cost to have the waste removed and/or recycled. You don't want the mercury in the fluorescent lamps to be disposed of in a landfill, especially if the waste is incinerated in your local area, because the mercury then enters directly into the air. Make sure the waste is disposed properly and that you use a controlled waste hauler to remove waste from your facility. It is a legal requirement and federal law, and requirements may be stricter on local and state levels.

When a fluorescent lamp is burned out yet remains in a fixture, is it still consuming energy?
Dan: Yes and No. If one lamp is operated by one ballast and the lamp burns out, the ballast will continue to operate at a very low level. The lamp and ballast will not draw the 32 watts of electricity required by the lamp, but a couple of watts of electricity may be drawn as the ballast remains operating. On the other hand, if one ballast is operating two or three lamps and one lamp burns out, then little or no additional wattage is being drawn by the burned out lamp. Only the operating lamps are drawing the electricity in this scenario.

How do I become Lighting Certified (LC)?
Peter: For more information on becoming Lighting Certified, please visit the National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions (NCQLP) or call (512) 973-0042. The next LC exam is Saturday, November 3, 2007.

What is the cost difference between T-8 and Super T-8? Is the cost differential small enough to make the Super T-8 economic in most applications?
Dan: Yes and no. If you are replacing one lamp, it's probably not economical because with fluorescent technologies, your distributor gives you a better price the more you buy. You're getting more light, but you're not saving money. Generally, it is more economical to purchase Super T-8's versus T-8s when you are replacing a number of lamps and ballasts because the bulk purchase lowers the cost per bulb and you are saving more energy.

Peter: One other comment, if you have areas of your facility that are operating 24/7, then it's going to make more sense than if you have a classroom that is operating 2,500 hours per year.

What types of lamps would be used in a gymnasium? How many fluorescent lamps do you need to match the equivalent lighting of a metal halide lamp?
Peter: Rule-of-thumb I use, if you're under 50 foot candles required, usually more elementary and middle/school gymnasiums, and you're under 25 foot mounting heights, you can typically satisfy the lighting requirements with T-8s. When you're dealing with higher light levels and higher ceiling heights, it will at some point, make more sense to get away with less fixtures using T-5HO. So it depends.

This next question is a clarification on the costs of fluorescent versus metal halide lamps that appeared in the chat window during the live webinar. The prices of $2.50 per fluorescent lamp and $20.00 for metal halide lamp were shown in the chat window.

What is the cost comparison of fluorescent lighting versus metal halide lighting? How many fluorescent lamps are required to match the lighting of a single metal halide lamp?
Dan: Regarding the $2.50 versus $20.00 comparison, you may be using six T-8 lamps at $2.50 per lamp to give the same lighting output of the $20.00 lamp. The T-8 lamps may still be saving money, but don't forget about the added expense of changing the lamps and keeping the lamps stocked.

Peter: Please bear in mind that these retrofits typically reduce energy usage by 50%. All lighting systems once installed have an ongoing cost breakdown of 80% energy, 20% materials (replacement lamps, ballasts) and labor. The ongoing savings from the 50% reduction in energy costs heavily offsets any slight increase in materials/labor from a fluorescent system.

I measured light output degradation from standard 400 watt metal halide to be 65% by the end of the life. Is this normal?
Dan: Obviously, with new pulse start technology this should not be a problem. But with older technology, yes, in fact, we (Lighting Research Center) recommend with metal halide lamps that you leave them in only to about 50-60% of their life and then take them out because after that you're getting so much less light, yet you're using the same amount of energy, that it's really a waste. We do recommend group re-lamping all at once at about 50-60% of their life, but with newer technologies, your lumen maintenance (how well each lamp maintains its light output over life) is much improved. So if you had old metal halide technology and you want to keep your same fixtures, you can change out the ballasts and lamps to a pulse start technology, and that will cost you a little bit of money but it will save you some energy, so you can go from a 400 watt to a 320 watt and your light output will be maintained a lot better.

Peter: Some end users have found varying levels of performance from pulse start systems; if a three coil ballast is used, lumen depreciation is less than standard metal halide. However, if "standard" grade ballasts are used, lumen drop off is close to the same as standard metal halide.

Where do we stand today with wireless lighting control technology?
Dan: We stand at wireless technology is being developed. If you want to be one of the cutting edge individuals that uses things first and don't mind having to adjusting the equipment a lot and having it not work the first time, I would say sure, go for it. There are a couple of companies that are making wireless occupancy sensors now where you don't have to wire them into fixtures; the fixtures can simply be fixed to the ceiling. Whenever you have wireless technology, you have all those FCC (Federal Communications Commission) issues, making sure you are not using frequencies that other devises are using (i.e. remote control for television). It's not a mature technology. We think in spaces like warehouses where there is not a lot of electronic equipment going on that wireless control technologies make a lot of sense. But in a highly electronic office, a healthcare environment or even in a school, you probably want to wait a couple years before you try a new wireless control technology. You will see the wireless control technologies coming on the market; companies are working hard on that right now.

We (Lighting Research Center) have a developed a wireless photo sensor technology, which we patented, but that is not available on the market yet, but you will see in the next few years.

Can you provide any comments to switching to Philips 25 watt T-8s in most areas of the building?
Dan: What you have to be careful with when going down to 25 watts operating on a 32 watt ballast is the lamp life. Philips claims 20,000-25,000 hours of life. If you read the fine print in their catalog, they tested those at 12 hours per start, meaning they left them on for 12 hours. Maybe in hallway, that's what you do, you don't turn them on and off. But we know that switched on a typical cycle operated on that ballast, you will have a degraded lamp life so may only get 14,000-15,000 hours out of those lamps. But if that doesn't matter to you or you are not switching them on and off frequently like in a hallway application, sure I think it's fine, you should get reasonable light output. Don't expect the same light levels, the light output levels will go down.

Peter: I would also caution you to make sure you look at the existing ballast and make sure that that combination of lamps and ballasts is okay with manufacturers.

How is peak demand calculated?
MBTAC: Peak demand may be calculated differently by different electric utilities, but is basically the maximum kilowatts used in a 15-30 minute time period at any time during the year. Typically, the highest demand is recorded during the summertime when all the a/c equipment is operating.

What difference in lumens output is actually noticeable to most humans?
Dan: Generally, when they tested with large groups of people, 10% reduction seems to be the cutoff. People don't notice a 10% difference and anything over 10%, people can pick out. But if you're doing a change out and someone had 50 foot candles on Friday and they come back in on Monday and have 40 foot candles, but they don't have a side-by-side comparison to see, they probably won't notice, unless they're people who just like to complain. When a change out is being performed, the luminaires (light fixtures) are typically being cleaned, and therefore the space appears brighter anyway. You can then typically get away with 15-30 foot candles, and most people will think it's fine. 30 foot candles allows people to see very well, it's very rare that in most applications you will need lighting above that level, unless you are involved in fine detail work in a laboratory or playing basketball in a gymnasium and you want it nice and bright.

LED gives out lots of heat, does it affect efficiency and luminaire? And by how much?
Dan: LEDs actually emit no heat. LEDs are not like traditional light technologies, fluorescent or incandescent where they radiate heat into the space. You do have to extract the heat from the fixture, from the back of the lamp and up into the fixture there is a heat sink that is above the ceiling plenum which is going to extract the heat so the heat remains outside of the occupied space.

Does this affect the efficiency of the luminaire? Actually LEDs are very directional so in a down-light application, a compact fluorescent luminaire will typically be about 55-60% efficient, a very poor efficiency because the light is trapped in the luminaire. LEDs are so directional that you can actually get a 90% efficient down-light from an LED. The amount of light that comes out of the fixture is very good.

If the heat is trapped and the LEDs heat up too much, the LEDs will degrade very quickly. The design of the LED light fixture is very crucial to making sure the LEDs last. Luminaire manufacturers are just beginning to toy with that, you will see about 4 or 5 companies that are making down-lights now with LEDs. You have to make sure that heat is managed very well, and of course, you as an end user don't know that, you have to be careful that there is testing done of these luminaires. We (at Lighting Research Center) are testing LEDs to get a sense of how well they mange the heat because that will be the downfall of LEDs if the heat is not managed properly. The nice thing is that they do not radiate heat into the occupancy space so you're A/C load is not affected if again this is managed above the plenum where that heat can be dissipated where it doesn't matter to people.

Who would you contact to do an audit?
MBTAC: We would recommend you search the database registry on the National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions' (NCQLP) website for Lighting Certified professionals.

Where can we get a sample audit spreadsheet?
Peter: Please see the attached spreadsheet (Excel file) for an example.

Dan: Our center does not have a sample spreadsheet, but we do have a Lighting Evaluation Toolkit that people can purchase from our website. This gives them all of the tools, directions, and an electronic spreadsheet.

Do energy-saving lamps require different ballasts?
Peter: Mostly yes. All different diameter lamps need a specific ballast - so you cannot change from T12 to T8 or T5 and use the existing ballast. There are several "hybrid" ballasts that can run T12 and T8 lamps, but these are mainly for residential markets. Usually you can keep the same ballast within the same diameter lamps - an F28T8 lamp will run on a ballast designed for F32T8. But you may run into problems using a F25T8. Bottom line - check with your ballast provider to be sure.

Are T-5's recommended for gyms?
Peter: K-12 gyms used to require only up to 50 foot candles, so T8 fixtures provided adequate light levels when replacing existing HID systems on a "one for one" basis. IES has recently raised high school gyms to 70-80 foot candles, so either you put in more fixtures using T8 or go to T5HO on a one for one basis. Main college and university gyms almost always go with T5HO; the auxiliary gyms (lower ceilings) can use either.

Are manufacturers narrowing the selection of CCT on compact florescent lamps?
Peter: This is hard to say - there are constantly new suppliers from offshore - probably say it remains the same. 90% of CFL's sold are in just five CCT's - 2700, 3000, 4100, 5000, and 6500K.

Dan: It is likely that CFLs will remain sold only in this range of CCT's.

Is there a difference in the electronic ballasts that I purchased 14 years ago for my T12 lamps and the electronic ballast that I purchased today? If I have used T8 lamps with the ballasts that previously were used with F32T12 lamps, at an average of 6 cents per kWh, I can't justify replacing my old electronic ballast. Please comment.
Peter: Are your original electronic ballasts spec'd to run T12 and T8? Some were, some were not. Assuming they are, you will be fine. The main consideration is that what is the expected life of those 14 year old ballasts. Based on hours, ambient temperature in the fixture, on/off cycle you may be fine for 10 years, or only 2 or 3. Look at low power electronic ballasts as replacement option - with either F32 or F28T8 lamp - with this combination you may have enough savings to justify switching.

Effective Energy Efficient Lighting Opportunities and Strategies for Colleges and Universities

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Q & A:

Effective Energy Efficient Lighting Opportunities and Strategies
for Colleges and Universities