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What is it?
Retrofitting is a
complete refitting of your current lighting system to a newer, more energy
efficient system.
How does that
benefit me?
The benefits of
retrofitting are threefold. First, you will save money on your electricity
bills. So much in fact that a general retrofit pays for itself within 3-4
years. Second, retrofitting improves the all around light levels in your
store or business. Lastly, you will have a little piece of mind that your
lighting looks good and is saving you money.
What if I
already have an energy efficient system in place?
That’s great! One
of the things that may interest you though is group relamping.
What is group
relamping?
Group relamping is
the replacement of all your lamps at the same time.
Why should I
replace all of my fluorescent lamps at one time?
At first thought it
does not seem to make sense to throw away working light bulbs, but you can
save significant amounts of labor by group relamping. A 40-watt fluorescent
lamp has an average rated life of 20,000 hours. In typical operation, at
4,000 hours per year this would be five years of use.
Lumen output, the
amount of light produced by a fluorescent lamp, begins to lessen from the
moment it is first turned on. As lamps produce less light while using the
same amount of electricity, they become less efficient.
A complete new
installation of fluorescent lamps will not operate for five years without
some failure. Generally, some lamps will begin to fail when they reach 50%
of their rated life (the third year of typical operation). Failures become
more numerous during their fourth and fifth year of use.
Dust and dirt
accumulates on lamps, reflectors and shielding materials, which reduces the
amount of light output. Even in very clean environments with very little
dirt in the air and efficient filtering, dirt can still reduce output by as
much as 5% per year. Relamping is the perfect time for cleaning fixtures
since the additional cost for cleaning materials is generally minimal.
Where more dirt is present in the air, light reduction due to dirt can be
more pronounced and significant. To maintain practical efficiency cleaning
should be at least an annual task.
When should I
relamp?
Group relamping is
planned every three years in a general business. At that time all lamps are
replaced, even those that are still operating. The savings on labor costs
are quite significant. Reductions of 80-90% are common.
When lamps are replaced in a group, full lighting
efficiency is replaced at the same time.
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