The Situation
You know your facility uses older lighting technology and you’ve heard about the cost and environmental benefits of doing a lighting upgrade. It’s on the to do list. So you arrange for some lighting professionals to send you a quote. Easy! Fast forward a week or two and you have received a couple of lighting retrofit proposals.
Do you:
Scan to the last page of each proposal, see who has the lowest price and go with that company.
Analyze the proposals and identify which option best suits your needs and has the fastest financial payback.
Leave it in the too hard basket and bury the proposals in your drawer for a rainy day which surprisingly even in the BC climate may never eventuate.
The correct answer is always 2. To make your life easier we have put together this simple four step plan to guide you through your lighting retrofit project.
Do you want lights or do you want better lighting that will improve your cash flow?
At Kambo we approach a lighting retrofit in a fundamentally different way to lighting contractors. A lighting contractor is ultimately selling lighting solutions their revenue comes from the margins on the lights they sell you. At Kambo we are selling energy savings we won’t recommend an upgrade unless it has a solid business case attached and we always recommend the most cost effective solution with the best return on investment. Before we make any recommendations we make sure to understand your business and listen to your pain points to ensure our recommendations will improve both your lighting and your cash flow. Our service doesn’t end with the installation; we always validate project savings with energy data.
The adage of you get what you pay for most certainly applies to LED lighting
LED is a relatively new lighting technology; as with any new technology there has been a scramble for manufacturers to get to market and establish their market share. Because of this, there are a lot of cheap, poor quality, imported LED lights available with shorter lifespans and problems with maintaining brightness and colour temperature.
The good news is that the big brands have already done their due diligence in market research and safety testing to work out which LED lights are best so you don’t have to. Because we focus on larger commercial lighting projects and we validate our projected project paybacks, quality is paramount. We only recommend leading brands such as GE, Sylvania, Philips etc. so we can be confident the lighting we install will not create any headaches (literally or figuratively!) in the future.
Check the warranties
Similar to above, we are seeing a lot of cheap, imported LED lighting on the market offering extended warranties up to 10 years. Before going with this option do your research what happens if this company is not around in 10 years? We do not know of any manufacturers offering 10 year warranties. Do you really want to save a few cents only to find the warranty can’t be backed up after the lights start to fail? Alternatively, if the bulbs fail will they be replaced with the same poor quality bulbs which are just as likely to break?
One of the compounded benefits of LED lights is the maintenance savings you achieve in a facility by not having to change bulbs as often. If you go for cheap, poor quality LEDs you’re going to cheat yourself out of the maintenance savings in the long run.
Because we only recommend reputable lighting brands, the products we use come with manufacturer warranties. If there is a problem, we will take care of everything we’ll work with the supplier and manufacturers to make sure your problem gets fixed quickly, with no added costs. For reputable lighting brands, average warranty periods typically range from 3-5 years depending on the product.
Don't be Rebate Happy
We’ve heard story after story of companies being promised rebates and ultimately not getting them. We’ve also seen companies quoting incentives through a rebate program that has been cancelled by BC Hydro it happens! If one quote proposes rebates and another doesn’t, it could mean one of the companies hasn’t done their homework and is therefore giving you inaccurate estimates.
The BC Hydro rebate process is not straightforward, we see a lot of facilities that have missed out on rebate approval because they didn’t understand the process. Look for a company that will administrate the rebate process on your behalf to ensure you receive final approval and optimized payment. At Kambo we have a 100% success rate getting rebates approved and we will tell you upfront if you are not eligible for rebates.
At Kambo, we do so much more than lighting! When we do an energy assessment we look at all the energy systems in your facility and thoroughly analyze your billing data before putting our recommendations together with a business case. You can feel confident about the payback and viability of the project before you move forward with it.
We are the only energy management company that consistently validates savings after a retrofit. Regardless of whether you need lighting retrofits, window upgrades, boiler replacement or any other energy update, we have a network of highly experienced contractors we can engage. We partner with our clients long term to optimize their facilities and our success stories are testament to this.
