Lighting | CIC Energy Construction

Lighting Retrofits

As the single largest operating cost facing U.S. buildings, lighting technology upgrades of old inefficient lighting is the quickest and easiest way to reduce energy costs and make a facility more efficient. A typical commercial or industrial building can attribute as much as 40% of their utility bill to lighting.

The Energy Policy act of 2005 (2005 EPAct ) helped to jumpstart the lighting upgrade market by declaring some technologies obsolete and banning their sale. The most important of those banned inefficient technologies are the magnetic ballasts associated with T12 lighting (exempting some specific models) since that is the technology found in most commercial and industrial buildings in the U.S. At the same time the 2005 EPAct forces change, it also rewards it by offering a significant incentive for lighting change in the form of a tax deduction of up to $0.60 per square foot.

Benefits to Upgrading Lighting Systems

Old technologies show a reduction in light quality after just 1-2 years and can lose 50% of light output after just 4 years. Today´s lamp and ballast technologies not only offer better, brighter light, but also maintain their optimized light levels up to 40-50% longer.

Energy savings from 30-70%.

Tax deduction of up to $0.60 per sq. ft.

Old lighting technologies emit tremendous amounts of excess heat which can add 10% to cooling loads during peak demand periods. A general rule of thumb when installing new lighting technologies is that for every 3 kWh of lighting energy reduced cooling load is reduced by 1 kWh (varies according to region).

Utility rebates that offer up to 50% of project costs.

Our Services Include

• CIC´s streamlined retrofit process typically shows payback periods of 1-3 years and returns on investment of anywhere 50-90% in the first year.

• Complimentary Audit and Design including Technical and Financial Analysis procurement and Installation

• Rebate and Incentive procurement

• Energy Control Systems including daylight harvesting, occupancy sensors and photo sensors

• Qualifications: NLB listed Lighting Designer & Certifier, U.S. Department of energy Lighting Facts Partner, IESNA Associate Member, AEE Professional Member, NGAC Member, Energy Star Partner.

T12 Magnetic Ballast
Phase Out
As of July 1, 2010, most magnetic ballasts powering millions of T12 lamps can no longer be made.