Are utility companies the experts when it comes to lighting up your business?
A shift in environmental research over the last decade has led experts to decide utility companies need to reduce their carbon emissions. The utility companies are a little bit behind, so they decided if they give away $50 billion this year to their customers, then maybe they can avoid $100 Billion in fines next year.
The electrical utilities just can’t give us 50 billion dollars, so they have come up with programs…
In a nutshell, “If consumer x installs this then we’ll give them this amount of money”. The utility companies are trying to reduce carbon emissions, but to do that you have to reduce energy consumption. The less energy we use, the less coal needed to produce energy.
But how do the utility companies get consumers to use less electricity? They can’t make us not use lights, less heat, appliances, AC, motors, fans, pumps. What they can do is give us money to replace energy hogs with energy efficient measures. Broken down, if you replace your 100W light bulb with a new lower wattage LED light bulb, the utility company will give you money. Sounds good, right?
Utility companies came up with programs, hired rebate companies, and put out ads promoting their programs. There was tremendous buzz and the rebate programs started to gain traction. Businesses started replacing their old equipment with new efficient equipment and utility companies were saving millions of kilowatt hours across the nation (and giving millions back to their customers). But it wasn’t enough. As time went by the programs started to lose steam and run out of money. The electrical utility companies needed to do something to save even more kilowatt hours. But instead of making energy efficiency upgrades more enticing to end users, they decided to send out representatives to promote installing new LED lights.
UTILITY COMPANY IS NOT AN EXPERT ON LIGHTING AND LIGHTING APPLICATIONS
The electrical utility company doesn’t know much about lighting. Remember, their only focus is to reduce energy consumption. The utility rep often does not take into consideration the performance of the products they are promoting, only how many kilowatt hours they are reducing. As a property or business owner you should ask questions. Ask for a sample and install a few lights to see what they’re selling.
Why is a local lighting expert better?
It’s important to partner with an established company with trained professionals in the lighting industry. For over 75 years, Metro Signs and Lighting has been providing our customers with sign and lighting solutions tailored to enhance brands and engage customers. We offer personalized research, samples, and lighting options based on your business and its needs. We can also audit your existing lighting output, demonstrate you your property’s dark spots, and provide photometric data or renderings of new LED light fixtures.