1. 38 CONDOBUSINESS | www.condobusiness.ca
MAINTENANCE
for general lighting needs (see “Why
switch to LEDs”).
A lighting retrofit case study
A 144-apartment building in Markham,
Ontario, replaced all of the lights
in its common areas with LEDs. The
common areas included the hallways
on each floor of the building, the
community room, the laundry room,
the staircases/stairwells, the parking
garage, the garbage shoot and room,
the mechanical room and the exterior of
the building.
First, an energy consultant performed
a lighting retrofit audit, recording the
physical count, type and energy use of
each fixture and lamp. Table 1 shows
the audit’s results. Table 2 shows the
proposed replacement for each item
Since the economic meltdown and
long-drawn recession of 2008, the
industry is facing a new challenge
to reduce the operational costs
to maintain profitabilit y. Today’s
economic pressures dictate innovative
thinking and new technologies.
LED retrofits are one way building
managers can cut their annual utilities
costs.
Lighting is an easy target for finding
energy efficiencies. According to data
published by the U.S Department
of Energy, it represents an average
of 15.7 per cent of an apartment
building’s total energy bill. LEDs are
a natural candidate for lighting retrofit
project. They were traditionally used
as small indicator lamps in electronics,
but are now becoming the first choice
The building industry is not
alien to change. It has always evolved
and adjusted itself to meet the social, economic and the
architectural needs of the time and space. The recent deluge of skyscrapers responded to
the mounting pressures of people’s desire to live close to work and limited availability of city land by
reducing building footprints.
with a corresponding LED fixture and
lamp. This excludes the exterior wall
packs where, for added security, the
management wanted to add six new
wall packs in areas that lacked lighting
at night.
Despite the addition of six new wall-
pack fixtures on the exterior of the
building, the retrofit resulted in a more
than 77-per-cent reduction in energy
use.
The economic impact of the retrofit
can be calculated using the effective
rate of the electricity. The effective
electricity rate includes the cost of
delivered electricity per kilowatt hour
(kWh), the debt retirement charges,
the transmission and delivery charges
applicable to kWh delivered and the
time of use rate fluctuations. Generally,
BY DR. IJAZ RAUF
Spotlight on: LED retrofits
Table 1: Before retrofit, existing fixtures and lamps
Existing fixtures
description
Watts per
bulb
Bulbs per
fixture
Watts
per
fixture
Total
fixtures
Total
Watts
Usage
hours
per
day
Total kWh
per year
T12 4’ x4-lamp 40 4 176 54 9,504 24 83,255
T12 4’ x2-lamp 40 2 88 114 10,032 24 87,880
T12 2ft U 40 1 44 16 704 24 6,167
T8 4Ft x2 lamp 32 2 64 10 640 24 5,606
Bulbs 15 1 15 28 420 24 3,679
Par-38 75 1 75 18 1,350 24 11,826
Exterior wall packs 75 1 75 4 300 12 1,314
Total 22,750 199,728

2. April 2015 39
the effective rate that a client pays is between $0.14 and
$0.18 per kWh.
Most of the ENERGY STAR and UL-certified products
qualify for the saveONenergy incentives from the Ontario
Power Authority (OPA). Table 3 presents all the data that
was used to calculate the payback and the overall economic
impact of the retrofit project. The actual effective rate, the
cost of the retrofit, the maintenance cost and the incentive
received are used. The payback was nine months, which
ensures all equipment will pay for itself many times over
before the warranties run out. Even if no retrofit incentive
was received for this project, the payback would be only
11 months, again ensuring that equipment pays back itself
many times over within the life of the bulbs, which is usually
100,000 hours (or 11.4 years with continuous 24 hours
usage).
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Table 2: LED replacement fixtures and lamps
LED replacement
fixtures
Watts per
bulb
Bulbs per
fixture
Watts
per
fixture
Total
fixtures
Total
Watts
Usage
hours
per
day
Total kWh
per year
LED T8 4’ x 2-lamp 18 2 36 54 1,944 24 17,029
LED T8 4’ x 1-lamp 18 1 18 114 2,052 24 17,976
LED T8 4’ x 1 lamp 18 1 18 10 180 24 1,577
LED T8 2’ U 18 1 18 16 288 24 2,523
LED A19 Bulbs 10 1 10 28 280 24 2,453
LED Par-38 Bulbs 18 1 18 18 324 24 2,838
LED Exterior wall packs
(4-existing, 6 new) 25 1 25 10 250 12 1,095
Total 5,318 45,491
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3. 40 CONDOBUSINESS | www.condobusiness.ca
Table 3: Payback calculations as a result of the retrofit
Total savings in kWh per year........................... 154,237
Cost of electricity per kWh.................................... $0.14
Total cost of retrofit...........................................$22,534
Current maintenance cost per year......................$2,253
New maintenance cost per year.................................$0
Maintenance savings per year.............................$2,253
Retrofit incentives received.................................$5,634
Payback with incentive (months)..................................9
Payback without incentive (months)........................... 11
Reduction in annual bill...................................... $21,593
Figure 4 shows the cumulative cash flow for the
project, which generated more than five times its cost in
cash flow from the annual savings to management.
LEAKS, PLUGGED
DRAINS, BACK
FLOW TESTING
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mechanical service
experts
CALL
416 789 7611
G
T
A
A
r e a t e r
o r o n t o
p a r t m e n t
s s o c i a t i o n
24 hour emergency service
-­‐
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
Existing
After
Retro5it
Figure
3:
Comparison
of
kWh
per
annum
consumption
-­‐40000
-­‐20000
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
0
1
2
3
4
5
Figure
4:
Cummulative
cash
;low
from
project
in
dollars
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• Professional advice

4. April 2015 41
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Conclusion
Lighting retrofits are low-hanging fruit in
the quest to go green and cut operational
costs. LEDs in particular carry a number of
advantages compared to traditional lamps.
Though results will vary from building to
building, the case study above shows the
potential for other buildings to save by
undertaking similar lighting retrofit projects.
All told, management reduced lighting
electricity use in the case study apartment
building by 77 per cent, resulting in annual
electricity bill savings of $21,593. Based
on the incentive received and annual
maintenance cost savings, this project paid
itself off within nine months of completion.
Besides giving the building a greener image,
management will continue to enjoy annual
savings of $21,593 in electricity bills for the
remaining life of the LED lamps. 1
Dr. Ijaz Rauf is a solar energy expert. He
obtained a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge
University in England. He is currently the
president and CEO at SolarGrid Energy
Inc. and an adjunct professor in the
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
York University. He can be reached via
e-mail at irauf@solargridenergy.ca or
phone at (888)743-4621.
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Why switch to LEDs
LEDs carry a number of advantages
compared to traditional lamps:
Energy efficiency: LEDs provide
electricity savings of up to 90 per
cent
Long life: LED lamps typically last
50,000 hours or more (roughly more
than 20 times the life of traditional
lamps), avoiding the labour and
expense of replacing bulbs every
few months. Most good quality
LED lamps come with a minimum
warranty of three years.
Low heat: LED lamps don’t waste
electricity producing heat and also
ensure a better environment around
the lamps.
Environmentally friendly: LED
lamps are mercury free.
Instant on: LED lamps turn on
without any flicker or delay.
High colour rendering index (CRI):
LEDs provide the highest possible
CRI, which measures a light source’s
ability to reproduce the natural
colours of various objects faithfully
in comparison with an ideal or natural
light source. LEDs typically have
a CRI of 80-plus compared to the
negative CRI of sodium lights and a
max of 50 CRI for fluorescent lamps.
High lumens per watt: Luminosity
of a lamp defines how bright it
will be. The higher the lumens the
brighter the lamp light is. So when
there are high lumens per watt that
means the lamp produces very bright
light consuming very little energy.
Fixture compatibility: Most LED
lamps fit into the existing fixtures,
avoiding the ex tra expense to
replace the fixtures and also keeping
the existing look and feel of the
environment. Most LED lamps also
come with a built-in driver and do not
need external ballasts.
MAINTENANCE
Specializing in condominium and
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(905) 707-9914
www.trilliumassociates.ca
TrilliumAssociates_Condo_May_2015.indd 1 15-04-22 11:13 AM
“All told, management
reduced lighting
electricity use in the case
study apartment building by
77 per cent.”