09/12/08 Lighting Efficiently

Lighting Efficiently. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. Thomas Edison really managed to brighten our world with the incandescent light bulb. The concept is actually fairly simple. Pass an electric current through a piece of wire so that it glows. Simple and very energy in-efficient due to the extreme heat created. Much like how the burner on your stove glows and gives off heat. Now we know just how in-efficient that kind of lighting is and people like Eric Strandberg, Senior Lighting Specialist with the Lighting Design Lab work with various applications to make your world brighter and more efficient. STRANDBERG: What I try to look for anytime I walk into a space is what are the existing conditions and I look at the current lighting, see how well it's maintained, try to see the age of the lighting. If someone says we just don't have enough light in here and I walk in and it's all dirty fixtures and half of them are almost burned out, then it's pretty easy to understand why they don't have good lighting. He says that there is the opposite situation as well when a space can be over lit and that is a major waste of energy. STRANDBERG: They could reduce their loads by perhaps by maybe reducing the number of fixtures or the number of lamps per fixture. But maybe they like the lighting levels the way they are and the lighting is reasonably well maintained then I'll look at the age of the lighting. Is it current technology or is it old technology? Sometimes changing from old technology to new technology will actually save them energy. No matter what your operation there is a good chance you have at least one fluorescent fixture like the one above my work bench. STRANDBERG: One of the easiest, most straightforward retrofit's to do is to go from old T-12 lamps, which are the old style fluorescent 4-foot tubes that you typically find at most home centers. Those bulbs are fairly obsolete. They're still in use and we would try to change those out to what's called T-8 lamps. They're a little thinner and they save energy. They give you generally more light, better quality light more efficiently. Strandberg suggest that if you have questions about a lighting project you contact your local utility first. They also do a number of lighting seminars throughout the year and they are listed on their website at lightingdesignlab.com. STRANDBERG: Another thing that you can find on our website is short articles, little one page things that address technology issues, talk about the new types of fluorescent tubes but also application issues like what would be the best kind of lighting for exterior; interior spaces. That sort of thing. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org lightingdesignlab.com