Green EnLIGHTenment

Real estate managers realize the benefits of integrating green lighting into their business

by Claire Bushey

The following is an excerpt from the Sep/Oct 2007 issue (Volume 72, Number 5) of JPM®, Journal of Property Management.

Property owners and managers around the globe have seen the light. They are investing in green lighting solutions for their buildings to save energy and in effect, save money.

Frederick Seck is one such property owner. He lights Bradley Auto Care Center, a 20,000 square-foot space in Sun City, Calif., with sunlight. On bright days, the building’s skylights draw so much light inside, most of Seck’s 10 tenants leave the electric lights switched off. As a result, they are not as worried about the possibility of blackouts—a major concern after the rolling blackouts of 2001 in California.

The daylighting system also saves tenants from exorbitant electricity bills—a cost savings they appreciate so much, they’re willing to pay more in rent. Tenants pay about $1.50 per square foot in rent, as opposed to the $1 per square foot Seck said they’d likely pay otherwise.

Seck installed the daylighting system because he wanted to help protect the environment: Using less electricity means less pollution is spewed into the air by power plants. Add in the higher rents and lower electric bills, as well as being part of the green revolution, and Seck said using energy-efficient lighting techniques have been well worth it.

“It’s a heck of a system,” Seck said of his Ciralight daylighting system. Ciralight is a Utah-based daylighting company. “I’m not saying it was the only reason people were interested in the building. But it was frosting on the cake. Everybody is interested in saving money on electricity.”

As energy costs spiral out of control, real estate mangers and tenants are looking for solutions to cut those costs. Some have turned to a host of energy-efficient technologies falling under the banner of green lighting to ease the pain on their pocketbooks.

Lighting The Way

Lighting is a big part of most buildings’ energy budgets. It is approximately 15 percent of residential buildings’ energy budgets, 17 percent of industrial buildings’ budgets, 25 percent of commercial buildings’ budgets and 30 percent of retail spaces’ budgets, said Keith Toomey, director of communications for the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Property managers can cut those energy costs, however, by integrating a variety of green lighting solutions.
 
One solution is daylighting—using standard skylights or more high tech skylights that include a sun tracking systems to light a space. The high tech versions have mirrors that track the sun’s progress across the sky and direct its light into the building where diffusers spread it more evenly. Thermal barriers then counteract its heat so the building doesn’t overheat or require more energy for air-conditioning.

Fluorescent lamps are another green lighting option. They are the most readily available energy-efficient lamp on the market today. Fluorescent bulbs last between 6,000 and 8,000 hours, compared with 750 to 1,000 hours for an incandescent bulb. The lamps use electricity to energize electrons in the mercury contained in the bulb. This produces ultraviolet rays which then cause a phosphor to emit visible light.

Newer linear fluorescent models like the T-8 and T-5 models, consume less wattage and generate many more lumens than former models, meaning they take less energy to produce the same—or more—brightness.

The market for energy-efficient LEDs, short for light-emitting diodes, is smaller but poised to grow substantially. LEDs are semiconductors that emit a narrow spectrum light. Essentially, they are miniature light bulbs that emit light as a result of electronic excitation, not heat generation like typical light bulbs. LEDs are typically found in fixtures like exit signs or outdoor fixtures.

LEDs last approximately 50,000 hours before their lighting capacity diminishes by 30 percent. They never burn out completely. They have become popular because of their longer lifetimes, little heat requirements, and they use less power. Currently, property managers aren’t likely to invest in the actual bulbs, but are more apt to buy fixtures in which LED bulbs are a component and the actual source of light.

Energy-efficient lighting can also be achieved through integrating motion sensors throughout a property. Motion sensors turn on lights when they’re needed—like when an employee is picking stock in one section of a warehouse—and turn lights off when the work is completed.

Task lighting is also an energy efficient way to light a space. Task lights focus light on a work surface, reducing the need for overhead lighting, which requires more watts to produce the same amount of light in a given area. A worker can get the same or more number of lumens at his or her desk with a 200-watt overhead lamp and a 30-watt task lamp than with a 400-watt overhead light alone.

The full article is available as an online exclusive in the Sep/Oct 2007 JPM® issue.

IREM Members have free access to the JPM® online archives and the “Online Exclusives,” articles that are only available on the IREM Web site. Non-members can subscribe to JPM® at www.irem.org/jpm.