NEEP Notes: Advantages in Commercial Lighting

New Advantages Emerge in Commercial Lighting

As the most applicable and market-ready new technology, high performance T8 lighting systems, and developing upstream infrastructure push as well as the downstream pull, are the primary emphasis of NEEP’s Commercial Lighting Initiative. Metal Halide and T5 technologies are also being watched closely. All the while Solid State Lighting (SSL) continues to evolve, nearing market readiness in niche applications and maturing toward market readiness in other “core” applications. The ever-tightening baseline and code requirements regarding lighting power density are driving daylighting, controls and design to become more and more efficient. “Graduating” from the standard T8 provides a competitive advantage to programs by giving them something new to offer; to customers by offering more savings; and to the underlying grid by generating new resource savings and relieving demand pressure.

The High Performance T8 Advantage

Fluorescent commercial lighting has undergone a significant evolution in the recent past. Magnetic ballasts have been replaced by electronic. Standard four foot long lamps moved from one and a half inch diameter T12 systems, to one inch T8 systems. The latest, most efficient system combines high efficiency ballasts with high efficiency lamps. The Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) has specified these systems as High Performance T8s (HPT8).

HPT8 lighting produces equivalent or higher light quality while using less energy than standard T8s or older T12s. HPT8s typically reduce energy costs by as much as 40 percent compared to other systems. Their longer life span also results in reduced maintenance costs.

Both the branding and the underlying technology of HPT8s bring advantages to marketing and awareness as well as to the end-user and government procurement. Through the Commercial Lighting Initiative, NEEP has become heavily involved in the promotion of HPT8s.

Last year, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) sought and accepted NEEP’s proposal to increase use of HPT8 systems in business and government buildings. This year NEEP and its sponsors are making headway in the project. Activities toward the project’s goals have three components, all of which work to illustrate the advantages of HPT8 systems:

Technical resources: NEEP and its sponsors provide educational and information materials for lighting equipment suppliers, lighting designers and lighting equipment purchasers.

Web Presence: The HPT8 section of the DesignLights Consortium Website (http://www.designlights.org) provides a wealth of information for market players to pursue energy efficiency in commercial settings.

Outreach: The project provides people on the street, making personal contact with significant players in the commercial lighting market.

The HPT8 program has an aggressive mission for 2007: to make efficient commercial fluorescent systems more available and more widely used in the region. By addressing the producers and distributors of commercial lighting products, the project intends to reach all commercial buildings in the region. A significant sub-set of these, and one of major interest to FEMP, is buildings used for federal, state and local government functions. The project makes available to government agencies a model procurement specification for HPT8 fixtures. This will be a centerpiece of the government facility outreach.

The project grantee is NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority), but several other NEEP sponsors are contributing: Efficiency Vermont, Efficiency Maine, Connecticut Light & Power, United Illuminating, NSTAR, Cape Light Compact, National Grid, WEstern Massachusetts Electric Company, Public Service of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, Unitil, Long Island Power Authority and the New Jersey Clean Energy Initiative.

All sponsors recognize a need to reach out to manufacturers on a regional level and also to engage distributors in their individual territories. There have been pockets of high activity by progressive distributors scattered throughout the region but with all vendors. The HPT8 project concentrates on commodity sales for medium sized projects. This is where the bulk of program opportunity lives. And, this is where the project will make a difference regarding competitive advantages.ICF International will deliver the project outreach, building awareness of the technology and its advantages, throughout the region. Jeff Schwartz, ICF project manager reports that as of March 19th, 100 percent of the lighting manufacturers targeted here in the region and at national industry events have signed participation agreements to support the HPT8 brand. He notes that “manufacturers are showing real interest in the HPT8 project. They’ve had some successes, but in most of the region people are not asking for qualifying fixtures. This will boost demand, and give them a reason to respond with increased supply of HPT8 fixtures.”

NEEP hopes that the relationships developed through the course of this project, with assistance from web and print resources, that the regional demand for commercial lighting efficiency, equipment and services will grow, as will the associated advantages up and down the chain in the commercial lighting marketplace.

Advantages from Other Technologies and Practices

NEEP’s Commercial Lighting Working Group is also keeping abreast of other lighting developments. Market availability and applicability for products such as T5 and metal halide lighting continue to grow – with additional savings (and customer and societal advantages) accruing as a result. These technologies in particular are, along with daylighting and controls, examples of how lighting design is becoming more critical than perhaps ever before. Customers demand savings and programs need to exceed ever-decreasing watts per square foot codes and baselines. Discussing how to capture more savings by capitalizing on the advantages of new technologies and an increased emphasis on design are topics of conversation and strategic information sharing among working group participants. Over the course of 2007 it can be expected that these topics will become more and more important to programs as the U.S. DOE’s new “Commercial Lighting Challenge” effort takes shape.

Solid State Lighting: NEEP’s Information Advantage

NEEP is also aggressively tracking the development of solid state lighting (SSL) technology on behalf of its sponsors. The potential for hundreds of percent improvements in both lumens per watt and lifetime make solid state light emitting diode (LED) technology one of the greatest potential developments in years.

LEDs use semiconductors to convert electricity to light. They do not contain filaments or bulbs. LEDs have the potential to provide better lighting quality output than incandescent, at a fraction of the energy use. Commercial LEDs already provide 40 lumens per watt compared to 14-20 lumens per watt in an incandescent, with lumens per watt rising constantly as research and development continue. Their long life (reported, subject to testing, of 50,000 hours or more) make LEDs durable and their small size makes them flexible for creative use in various lighting applications.

While the “buzz” is constant and everywhere regarding LEDs, accurately assessing the state of the technology and the market readiness is a challenge. NEEP is involved in the development of LEDs on a national level to be able to provide the information sponsors, their customers, and even the regional as a whole need. This is an area in which there is a tremendous amount of activity:

The U.S. DOE has a multi-year, multi-million dollar program dedicated to research and development of the technology.

An ENERGY STAR specification has been released for comment, with a 2008 target in-field date.

The national Lighting for Tomorrow competition is expanding its scope with respect to LEDs.

Efficiency program administrators, particularly in the west, are beginning to embrace niche LED applications in their incentive programs.

Yet with all the activity, there has emerged a reality that, except for niche applications such as under-cabinet lighting, the white LED technology is not ready for market. Through NEEP’s involvement in the DOE research and development program, the following points have been brought to lighting sponsors:

Color and light properties of most white LEDs are extremely variable and unstable.

Efficacy, or lumens per watt, in many white LED applications is still on par, or lower than that for fluorescent lighting.

Costs are not yet able to come down as materials costs, design and production are all very much in a research and development state for most applications.

Product testing and standards are yet to be settled.

There is little question that SSL is going to be a significant factor in the future, and has the promise to bring tremendous competitive advantages to programs, customers and society as a whole. However, the current state of the technology is such that the competitive advantage most important to NEEP sponsors today is information. NEEP’s presence in and commitment to the development of SSL and the SSL marketplace are strong.

Further information can be obtained from Jon Linn, NEEP's Commercial Lighting Initiative Program Manager.