Substantial cost savings can be achieved by replacing traditional lighting with efficient LED lights as shown in this example based on a 40w Bulb with 24 hour usage including hardware and air conditioning savings.

Note: Based on energy cost of $0.1879 KwH, 24 hours per day for one year. FT 40W, IB 100W, LED 15W

With a fluorescent bulb, around 8 watts of electricity is converted into heat requiring the same amount of energy to cool. Depending on the climate this could add up to substantial additional costs for each fluorescent tube compared to LED lighting.

Production of fluorescent lighting results in an annual US consumption of 32 tons of mercury. The use of mercury free LED technologies has the potential to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, reduce acid rain and global warming and well as a sizable reduction in electrical power plants.

LED technology is constantly improving with new innovations and breakthroughs. It's anticipated that over the next 10 years LED technology will achieve efficiencies 12 times greater than incandescent and 2 times greater than fluorescent with device lifetimes 100 to 1000 times greater than their glass cousins.

Consider the amount of resources currently consumed by traditional lighting and the LED benefits become crystal clear:

• 21% of all energy goes to lighting.
• 30% of all electricity is consumed by lighting.
• 32 tons of mercury is used to make high efficiency fluorescent lighting.

By reducing the dependency on natural resources, LED technologies have the potential for tremendous environmental benefits including:

• Reduction of $125 billion spending on electricity over the period 2005-2025
• 50% reduction in electricity use for lighting
• 30% reduction in total electricity production saving 3.5 quadrillion BTUs

The combined benefits have the potential to eliminate approximately 115 million metric tons of carbon emissions and over 1 million tons in combined nitrous and sulfur dioxide emissions annually.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting represents 40% of the average commercial building’s electric bill, followed by motors/HVAC (40%) and other equipment (20%). For years, energy-efficient lighting solutions have been available that can reduce lighting energy costs while maintaining or potentially improving lighting quality. According to the Energy Cost Savings Council, energy-efficient lighting projects generate an average 45% return on investment, paying for themselves in just 2.2 years.

The Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction (CBTD) is a special financial incentive created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and designed to reduce the initial cost of investing in energy-efficient lighting and other building systems via an accelerated tax deduction. Who can benefit from the energy tax deduction?

• The person or organization that pays for construction - including building owner or tenant.
• Building or renovation must have been put into service after December 31st, 2005.
• Building must be at least 40,000 sq feet to qualify.

This special tax deduction allows building owners (or tenants) to write off the complete cost of upgrading a building’s indoor lighting, HVAC/hot water and building envelope in the year the new equipment is placed in service, capped at $1.80/sq.ft. Alternately, the owner (or tenant) could upgrade one of these three systems to earn the CBTD capped at $0.60/sq.ft. In short, with the CBTD, the cost of new lighting or other building systems can be claimed in a single tax year instead of amortized over a period of years. CBTD can be claimed for qualifying projects completed before January 1, 2014.

Contact GreenCircleLights today to find out if your commercial project qualifies for the CBTD tax deduction.