— By Sonja Berry —
From LED retrofits to lighting controls and daylight harvesting, this is where efficient, cutting-edge commercial lighting is headed.
It is well known that upgrading your company’s lighting system to LED greatly reduces energy consumption as well as utility bill costs. LEDs can save 60% to 80% over other energy saving or standard retail lighting. A straight replacement of halogen or incandescent bulbs with LEDs — called an “LED retrofit” — can dramatically reduce a building’s lighting energy consumption and thereby reducing utility bill costs. Furthermore, lighting efficiency can also be improved through controls, using products like occupancy sensors, timers and daylight harvesting. Lighting controls can respond to movement, automatically dim and operate on pre-programmed schedules so that energy is not wasted when people are not in the area utilizing the lighting. Daylight harvesting controls and sensors detect the amount of natural light that is available and dim/brighten the lights accordingly.
One of the major objections many have had to upgrading to LED lighting in the past has been the investment cost. Certainly, this has been a concern for small businesses working with limited capital. However, there are incentives that can abate the investment cost. Our company, for example, has been offering 179D tax deductions since 2007 and has found that incentives can sometimes pay up to 70% of your upgrade costs. In August, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was passed by Congress which allows qualified buildings completed in 2023 to receive up to $5.00-per-square-foot 179D tax deduction. That’s an estimated $500,000 in a tax deduction on a 100,000-square-foot building! Other incentives to reduce your payback period are state & utility rebates, tax incentives, grants, cost segregation, ENERGY STAR benchmarking and other IRS-related studies that are offered at the federal, state and local levels for energy-efficient design (including property or payroll tax incentives) to assist with your ROI.
— Sonja Berry is the COO of Energy Design Service Systems (EDSS), headquartered in Detroit. EDSS offers lighting and energy services that provide clients with a unique brand experience and improved aesthetics, while saving energy and money. Contact EDSS at 810-227-3377 or info@edssenergy.com to discuss your lighting solutions and a free consultation.