Relamping with LEDs can reduce operating and maintenance costs — LEDs last longer than incandescent and fluorescent bulbs — and they can qualify a business for federal tax incentives under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Any building that cuts its lighting power density 25-50 percent is entitled to a tax reduction of 60 cents per square foot.
By converting to LED bulbs — LED stands for Light Emitting Diode — companies can reduce their electric use for lighting by as much as 80%, according to “Building Energy Performance News.” Our Building Performance team can tell you what your actual savings would be. Click here to request a Building Performance survey that will identify strategies to save you money and ease the impact of your building on the environment.

In our continuing effort to test new energy-efficient products, we have relamped many of our fixtures with LEDs. We have replaced the 50-watt MR-16 halogens in the mini-spotlights that illuminate our project photos with 3-watt MR-16 Array LEDs manufactured by Nexxus Lighting and 5-watt MR-16s by Ecolamp, reducing electrical consumption at each fixture by 94% and 90% respectively.

We also replaced the 14-watt compact fluorescents in our lobby downlights with 3-watt Par-16 Array LEDs that reduce consumption by the already efficient fluorescent lamps by 80%.

Our project team and visitors find that the light from the LEDs compares favorably in both color and intensity to the light from the halogens and compact fluorescents, so much so that we can scarcely tell the difference without looking at the bulbs themselves. That being said, the Array MR-16s do create a somewhat more diffuse spot than the Ecolamps and standard halogens.

published 10.13.2009