Do You Have a Parking Lot Full of Metal Halide Fixtures?

Do You Have a Parking Lot Full of Metal Halide Fixtures?

Have you noticed that your utility bill keeps getting higher and higher over time…or maybe you haven’t noticed?  The increases in your utility bill are done in such small increments that you hardly notice unless you analyze very close. One thing is for certain, utility rates are not likely going down anytime soon.  Parking lot lighting is often overlooked because at most businesses, there is no one there when the lights are on. If you haven’t looked into upgrading the 400 watt metal halides lighting up your parking lot, you are missing a huge opportunity to save money.

Don’t Let All The Energy Efficiency Info Overwhelm You… Don’t let all the technical jargon, spread sheets, and big words fool you. While energy savings is a science…..it’s not rocket science.

Example Of An Inefficient School Parking Lot – It is much easier to understand the value of energy efficiency by looking at an example.  To show you the benefit that your business could gain, I will show you an example using a school parking lot.

The Facts and Assumptions 

The lighting is on a timer and runs all night long. To create a baseline, let’s assume the lights are on 11 hrs. per night (Assumption) as an average run time. The fixtures are all 400 watt metal halide (Fact) and there are 56 heads total (Fact).

You Can Reduce Your Energy Cost By 75%…By Reducing Your Wattage By 75%

For this application we will use an LED retrofit application.  I like to use this application because of the reduction in wattage and the reduced maintenance.

•  The old wattage for the 400 Watt Metal Halide is 458 Watts.
• The new wattage for the LED fixture is 100 Watts.

The fixtures are a 1 for 1 replacement and will actually result in better quality light than the existing Metal Halide.

Let’s do the math to find the savings.

Reducing Watts Reduces Kilowatt Hours over 75%

Old 400 watt metal halide fixtures= 110,866 KWH per year

New LED light fixtures= 24,528 KWH per year

That’s based on 4380 annual hours of usage and a electric rate of .08 per KWH.

75% LESS Kilowatt Hours = 75% Savings…or more

• Old 400 watt metal halide fixtures = $8868 annually to run
• New LED fixtures = $1962 annually to run
• Total annual savings = $6,906

Reduce Maintenance Costs While Reducing Operating Costs!

Now let’s look at maintenance savings. It definitely fits into the formula because Metal Halide is costly to keep running, especially if it’s older. With a 13,000 – 15,000 hr lamp life, let’s assume we have to re lamp every 3 years. I can tell you that’s pretty conservative because lamps usually die before then. Cost to Maintain Existing 400 Watt Metal Halide

• 56 lamps @ $30 each = $1,680.00
• Lift rental = $500.00
• 28 hrs of qualified labor @ $65 per hr = $1,820.00
• Grand total = $4,000 *every 3 years*

Cost to Maintain New Fixtures

The new fixtures have 100,000 hour lamp life. That’s a bit over 20 years maintenance free. In that period of time you would do roughly 7 re lamp projects at $4,000 each. That’s a life lamp life savings of $28,000 or to fit it in our annual savings it averages to $1,400 per year. It should be mentioned that replacing Metal Halide ballasts were not included in these numbers but would absolutely be needed at some point. So my numbers are very conservative.

Final Numbers

So we have:

• Annual energy savings = $6,906
• Annual maintenance savings = $1,400
• Grand total = $8,306 annually

Not to bad for lights that were costing the schools $10,268 per year to run! Looking Long Term…What Makes Sense?

The life of the LED retrofit fixture is 20 years, so let’s compare costs over the next 20 years for both:

• Old Fixture $10,268.00 x 20 Years = $205,360
• New Fixture $1962 x 20 Years = $39,240

Difference = $166,120 in savings over 20 years….for just 1 parking lot in the school district.  That’s it? Yes, it all boils down to simple wattage reduction and some math.

Mac Electric Company Inc. helps business owners calculate savings utilizing energy efficient strategies.  By creating a photometric layout of a parking lot, the energy efficiency experts at Mac Electric Company can show you options to increase light quality while reducing energy consumption.

We take the guess work out of difficult terminology and calculations to show you ROI, and put the entire package together for your business to include assistance with grants and rebates which may pay 25%-75% of your project total!

Want To Learn More?

Contact Mac Electric today at 970-669-2464 for your complimentary lighting analysis and together we will create a solution so you can start saving today!