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SUMMERALL ELECTRIC SAVES RIVER CITY STEEL $12,948.50 ANNUALLY
The staff at River City Steel has seen the light, literally, after a full-scale lighting upgrade doubled the brightness of their former system. Summerall Electric recently completed a lighting retrofit at River City Steel's 40,000 square foot warehouse that saved them an estimated $13,000 in annual utility costs, which translates to 143,872 kWh. The company also received a TVA rebate of more than $20,000 and were able to earn a $15,000+ tax credit for completing the project. The utility savings combined with the incentives will give the company a payback on this retrofit of less than one year.
According to River City Steel's General Manager Mike Sobczak, the upgrade was a no-brainer. "It was really a no-brainer on our part because of our lighting problems, but when you know that down the road you're going to have to do it anyway, you might as well be proactive instead of reactive." He says that the upgrade to his 20+ year lighting system has already begun to make a difference in his business including employee response, safety and an automatic return on investment through tax savings, rebates and annual savings in utility costs.
"At first, we thought about just changing all the lights and ballasts out because it was dark and it was dangerous for our employees." Sobczak says. "Then we came to find out, these mercury vapor lights in our warehouse were not going to be manufactured too much longer," he says, "so we thought, why fix what we have?"
River City Steel opted to replace their hi-bay 1,000 watt mercury vapor fixtures with hi-bay 6-lamp T5HO (high output) fluorescent fixtures, with motion controls. Sobczak also included his administration office, which had the typical 2x4, 4-lamp T12 fixtures, replaced with 2x4, 2-lamp T8 fixtures. By doing the entire lighting system, the state and federal incentives, and the savings, increased.
With greatly improved visibility, it increased productivity and decreased the likelihood of accidents. It also improved the mood of the warehouse staff. They had been working under a depressing greenish tint from the old system.
Also, employee Jenny Barham has noticed an immediate difference the new office lights. "I didn't realize how much brighter the lights were going to be and how dim everything used to be. I love it!"
BEFORE
AFTER
"We worked with Mike and the staff at River City Steel to determine their issues and then created a customized plan to update their warehouse in a manner that was quick and efficient and yielded immediate results," according to Holli Weatherington, CEO of Summerall Electric. "And, their project is a perfect example of how it doesn't have to be a big facility to get a big payback."
Weatherington asserts that there are many reasons to retrofit. Some of those reasons include:
- Save energy to reduce utility costs
- Reduce maintenance costs
- Receive tax savings, incentives
- Increase comfort levels of occupants, worker productivity
There is a return on investment to consider, also. Currently, the federal and state incentives for doing retrofits are at an all time high, (the TVA is paying 10 cents per kWh reduced) and they can be recouped immediately. Then there is the long term payback. Lighting consumes 15% of electricity in the United States. Retrofits can save the average company 20-50% in electrical energy consumed. During summer months, the temperature rises and so does the cost of electricity. With an efficient retrofit, the savings will continue to add up and the company will receive a payback over time.
Concludes Sobczak, "I think that it's something a lot of people don't know about, light bulbs being phased out. I think you're better off being on the front end of that because once people realize they have to upgrade their lighting, there's going to be a rush. Then the prices for replacing them will go up, and the rebates will go down."
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