Leading Edge Design Group

I am so tired of these so-called ESCO’s and holier-than-thou companies that claim to be the next best thing since the sheet rock screw to businesses who want to do the right thing by reducing their energy consumption and associated carbon footprint. I’m not trying to say that they are all evil, hit & run artists - but I can’t help but think that they are more the norm than the exception. We propose and do a lot  of lighting retrofits for commercial and industrial concerns and our approach is to  the provide the customers with a solution that not only meets or exceeds their goals for energy reduction but also leaves them with a much better system than they had when we arrived. This means that if they had a terrible lighting system when we surveyed the facility, they would have a considerably better lighting system when we completed our proposed solution. I have seen way too many projects where the customer was looking to do the right thing only to be victimized by the ‘low hanging fruit bandits’.

Why would anyone with half a conscience go into a facility  on the premise of an energy consultant/specialist, see that the place has a horrible lighting system and simply propose the down and dirty, take the money and run, low hanging fruit approach to retrofitting their lighting systems? I guess the answer is pretty obvious……….. that it is the easy money and more often than not the customer is simply looking for the biggest bang for their buck – or  best ROI so that certain individuals can pound themselves on  their chests and brag about the 2 year ROI they just manage to negotiate while  the ESCO is laughing all the way to the bank.

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“Throw my switches out the window, throw my relays out there too, throw my time clocks out the door I don’t need any more cause tonight I’ll be staying with my wireless control system.  I should have made this move much sooner, but it was more than I dared to do,   Oh the features are so strong, and I’ve waited way too long to make the move to wireless controls.”                                                                                        

Thought I was quoting a Bob Dylan song didn’t you? Well if Dylan were to write ‘Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You’ during these times he might just throw in a verse or two like this. 

With the emergence of wireless lighting control systems the need for switches, contactors, time clocks etc is a thing of the past. No more banging on an entire factory of lights and leaving them on 24/7 simply because the prevailing controls are so antiquated that it just doesn’t allow for any flexibility or – more importantly- granularity of controls based on occupancy levels, scheduled events, available daylight, personal preferences etc, etc.

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What does the term ‘open protocol’ really mean? It is an operating platform that is not proprietary.

In today’s world of emerging technologies the open protocol approach should become the standard by which all control systems are based. There are so many of these emerging technologies either on the market now – or soon to be- that offer tremendous features from a performance and/or functionality standpoint. However, the proprietary operating or control systems that are inherent to most (if not all) of these products are a weak link and ultimately a sales deterrent.

Let’s talk lighting and lighting control systems. From what I see there are plenty of great solutions available already, but the biggest problem is that there isn’t one solution that addresses all the different applications in the market place.

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So here’s what is happening in the market place. The vendors are all on a major campaign with end users (primarily industrial concerns) to practically give these T5 & T8 systems away since they know that it won’t be long until the LED lighting solution dominates the market… and the rebates for these fluorescent lighting systems are still available, making it all that much more attractive  to the end user.

Although the pricing for the LED solutions will consistently drop as the technology improves and the options increase, there is presently no way to compete with a fluorescent lighting solution on strictly a cost comparison for a turnkey installation, especially when you factor in the incentives provided for the fluorescent solutions that are not available for the LED solutions.  It is like the utility companies, through their retro-active energy initiative programs, are steering their customers to invest in old technology simply because their incentives are based on this old technology and they are not prepared for the technologies that are available today.

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For anyone who is even remotely involved in the energy related world, LED lighting has to be gaining traction in your conversations daily. About a year ago the LED lighting world was literally like the Wild, Wild West, with every manufacturer of LED lighting scrambling to get LED products on the market as it became increasingly evident that this was where the lighting world was going- and going quickly!

While the dust is far from settled from this stampede, several factors became glaringly obvious- with the most important factor being the need for a standard or set of standards by which to evaluate LED lighting products for the quality of the light they produce, the relative efficiencies of LED’s compared to prevailing technologies, the longevity of the product and the applications where LED lighting will reign and where they will not. Since this LED technology had been relegated to flash lights and exit signs up until now, there was no established means for testing and evaluating LED’s for the applications which they are now being applied. Meanwhile the race was on full speed ahead and the field was getting crowded.

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Well the 80s were the glory days of energy initiative programs, and as is typical for all large programs that are governed by political machines they became more complicated and cumbersome. The ability to stay ahead or simply keep up with the technology becomes impossible. And this brings us to where we are today in the world of utility-run energy initiative programs.

Since these energy initiatives are primarily based on technological advancements that allow for more output with less power consumption, it is paramount that these programs keep up with the emerging technologies. Otherwise the program committees get caught up in the bureaucracies involved in the approval of products for their programs, and once the approved product list finally makes it into the program schedule they are in some cases ‘old technology’. Far superior products might have been introduced to the market place which would clearly out-perform the ‘approved’ products, but since they are not recognized on the ‘approved’ product schedule the utility company cannot come to grips on how to evaluate them and subsequently provide incentives through their programs.

So the consumer is only provided incentives from the utility company to implement technologies that may not be in their best interest, or in some cases in the best interest of the environment. But they qualify for the money by using products whose technology could be two years old- a virtual lifetime in some technological circles.

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Since I reside in New England I can only relate directly to these utility programs in this area, however I can only imagine that the story is the same all over the country. My goal here is to have a lively discussion about how these programs were born, the long strange trip they have been on from their origin to today and how they impacted businesses and the economy- so come along for the ride!

At some point in the mid-late 80’s the utility companies in these parts were in a world of hurt. Their capacity to produce power was at its upper limits, their grids were saturated and the infamous nuclear power plants they were building to address the crisis turned out to be a disaster. The entire country was having one big China Syndrome nightmare featuring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemon and Michael Douglas in their mighty struggles to prevent a major catastrophe at a nuke plant. This was not a particularly good time for power companies to say the least.