Special Considerations in Hospital Lighting Upgrade
LED lighting and Control Upgrades in Hospitals
In the healthcare setting, there is lighting in the interior, exterior and parking areas of the facility. Surrounded by lighting, it is important to take advantage of the possible savings in hospitals by replacing the existing lighting with efficient LED.
LED lighting and control upgrades lower energy use and reduce overhead costs for many years. Two common upgrades are:
- Brand new LED fixtures, or
- An LED retrofit upgrade, where existing fixtures are retrofit with LED components.
New fixtures will have a longer lamp-life and added features such as light detecting photocell sensors, while LED retrofit upgrades balance lamp-life and efficiency with a lower price. Either of these upgrades create savings from added efficiency when paired with occupancy on-off sensors that allow for on-demand illumination, that also dim the fixture when the area becomes unoccupied. A light level and photometric analysis conducted by Earth Savers can suggest which type of LED upgrade would provide best results.
Cost/ Savings
Utility companies pay substantial rebates to customers who complete an LED upgrade project because the property will operate with less energy consumption, which reduces the utility company’s resources needed to keep the customer’s facility operating. Government and utility companies offer amortization loans on these projects, allowing customers to make payments against these loans to their local energy company when paying monthly energy bills. After rebates and energy reductions, financing an LED project results in a lower monthly cost, even after factoring in new energy costs. Project cost, projected kW reductions, and rebates are provided to customers after completing a survey of the facility’s lighting.
Cost and savings are presented to a customer on a detailed proposal that outline project cost, energy savings, air conditioning savings, maintenance savings, rebates, tax incentives and payback projections in a “Best”, “Better”, and “Good” layout. The differences in these proposals are the cost and product quality – the higher priced “best” proposal gives project details using premium quality lighting materials; the “better” proposal gives project details using high quality lighting materials; and the “good” proposal provides customers a project summary with “good” quality materials – at the lowest cost. A “best” optioned proposal will include highly optioned LED upgrades with IoT smart lighting that uses wireless wall switches and color tuning to support the human circadian rhythm. A “Good” proposal will give a project summary using less costly materials that will yield good results, with a shorter lamp-life and limited features for those customers with smaller budgets.