The Win Win of LED Upgrades

By Andrew J. Pisani

Building owners and managers spend endless time hovering over spreadsheets, seeing if the numbers can work for desired projects and upgrades. It’s often a give and take scenario with some degree of compromise in order to move forward on anything. In the rare case, the rationale to move ahead is obvious – and that case happens to be a retrofit to LED lighting.

LED lighting upgrades strike home in two key areas – they will instantly impact energy usage, and there are incentives in place to help cover the costs.

The energy impact is straightforward  – if your building has fluorescent or incandescent lighting, and those lights are being replaced, LED lighting will come out way ahead with respect to energy usage. LEDs are simply a better product that consume a fraction of the energy, and these savings add up over the long term.

Incentives are also available to help with financing. Con Ed customers may apply for incentives from the Con Ed/AEA Multifamily or the Con Ed Commercial and Industrial incentive programs. With these incentives in place, the payback should fall within a 1-2 year timeline.

The process is straightforward to apply for the incentives, and applicants can expect to be ready for pre-inspection in 4-6 weeks. Following the installation, the Con Ed auditors will return for a final inspection, after which they will use funding.

LED installations yield immediate results that go right to the bottom line. The best first step is always getting the facts on your specific scenario, and for this we recommend speaking with our friends at Green Partners. George Crawford can help you navigate through any questions.