Our perspective at EnviroProfit is similar to that of reverse engineering, so to speak: investing to save money. While most businesses are concerned with top-line growth we are concentrating on the bottom up for obvious reasons. There are a lot of business expenses to focus on these days and creating profit is getting more and more difficult. So why should you focus your energy spend on such items as Lighting and HVAC, for instance? Since these items cost you something wouldn’t you want to pay less for it- sounds reasonable doesn’t it?
But there is a trade off, by paying less for operational expenses and utilities you have to invest first, which generally leads to procrastination or avoidance on behalf of most business managers in today’s market. But what if paying $1,000 now would lead to $4,000 in 5 years and over $10,000 in 10 years? Does a 50% to 90% return on investment seem like an achievable goal? Does a 12 to 16 month payback seem realistic? While this sounds almost too good to be true, it can be proven. In all cases, if it can be measured, then it can be managed. Let’s start with such simple measures such as Lighting alone, where roughly 40% of every commercial building’s electricity charges originate. Simply turning them off or reducing their wattage creates instant savings.
For instance, take for example the standard 2ft x 4ft T8 fluorescent fixture in your office today. Typically these fixtures consume approximately 112 to 120 watts of electricity, and in some circumstances even more than that. Keeping these fixtures on for 12 hours a day that fixture would cost you about $80 per year to operate. Multiply that against all the fixtures in your office and that cost adds up quickly. For argument sake, let’s exclude for now the additional man hours or maintenance costs associated with maintaining this fixture including the re-lamping, re-ballasting, and the costs associated with the heat displaced by its fluorescent technology and its effect on your AC bills.
By reducing the amount of wattage used and exchanging your fixtures with new LED technology, it would save over 60% of the total cost of these fixtures alone. The new fixture will cost only $28 per year to run and in 5 years the total savings will be over $250 per fixture. Now add back the effects of a longer lived product, EnergyStar and/or DLC rated product quality, higher color rendering(CRI), tax savings, substantial energy rebates (up to 40%), and an up to date environmentally-friendly lighting investment, you can now measure both the qualitative and quantitative impact to your business and your bottom line. Replacing your fixtures with new LED technologies can capture enough energy savings where the fixtures will pay for themselves within 18-24 months. Depending on the rebates programs available the payback can be as little as 6 months! Incandescent PAR re-lamping can prove to have even higher paybacks as well.
Therefore, imagine how your business could profit by making such minor changes as using more energy efficient lighting in further combination with energy controls. This is investing in savings, because the cost of doing nothing is costing you money and it’s just not affordable anymore.