A prescription for better lighting

“Why did you install lighting here in the first place?”

As simple as the question is, that's about how infrequently it is asked, which, is a shame because it's an important question.

The answer to the question is that lighting is for people and, more often than not, it's installed to help people work more effectively. “To help people achieve optimal performance.”

The location of the light source would also be important, in so far as the distribution of light and the direction that beams of light take in reaching the task surface and our reader's eyes. If the lights shine more or less like the high beam headlights of an oncoming car, the reader will have the right amount of light, perhaps, but the nature or quality of that light will not be what's required to permit the fastest possible, error free reading.

Consider the average administrative office worker. The cost of the energy used to provide the electric illumination that person needs to get the job done could be as little as $30 per year, depending on the lighting system being used and the prevailing energy costs. How much is that person paid? Probably $30,000 per year as a minimum, including wages, taxes, and fringe benefits.

If better lighting could help improve that worker's productivity by just 1 percent, the saving would amount to $300, a benefit equivalent to a theoretical 1000 percent energy saving. Or if better lighting could eliminate a glare source that was leading to headaches, neck aches, and eye strain, and thus eliminate one sick day each year, the benefit involved-a savings of about $115, would have a value equivalent to an almost 400 percent lighting energy savings.

Just realize that everywhere that lighting is used, it has a purpose. It almost always is a “people purpose,” meaning that people will be able to perform more effectively-faster, with fewer errors, safer, etc. — with better lighting. Accordingly before you authorize a lighting system change to lower energy consumption and costs, be certain to evaluate how the change will modify the area lighting and as a consequence affect people's performance.

High efficiency lighting, first and foremost, is designed to optimize peoples' performance and thus maximize overall investment on return. In many facilities where lighting is five years old or older, evaluating the need for an energy-motivated upgrade also gives administration the ability to evaluate the potential impact of high-benefit lighting.

In parking lots better lighting can help prevent auto/auto and auto/pedestrian accidents. More effective lighting can also reduce the incidents of vandalism, auto break-ins and assaults among other crimes facilitated by darkness.

Particularly when it comes to outdoor applications, lighting can sometimes permit reductions in security patrols without compromising safety. At some facilities the value of a ten percent security patrol reduction could be two to three times that of the cost of the lighting used to achieve it.

Talk about the concept that lighting is for people! In fact, when an electric illumination system is designed well, it can actually help you better achieve your mission, while lowering the amount of money spent on energy, on people, on insurance, on paperwork, ect.

When considering energy conservation always consider the task at hand and is there a more employee productive product or retrofit available.

Grand Junction Free Press, Matt Thesing is the owner of One Souce Lighting located in Grand Junction.