T12s: Gone in a Flash

If you own or operate a business and you don’t know the significance of the lighting term T12, this might be a good time to add it to your vocabulary. But you won’t have to use it very long: Come this July, the federal government will begin phasing out production of the longtime industry standard T12 fluorescent lamps.

That’s a big deal for American business: According to the National Lighting Bureau, as many as 500 million of those lamps are still burning across the nation in non-residential buildings—commercial,
industrial, institutional and more. That follows the prohibition on manufacturers of the systems that hold the T12 lamps, which went into effect in 2010.

Your options at this point, if you want to stay with fluorescent, are the smaller T8 and T5 lamps, which will require the lighting systems or conversions to accommodate them. But there is an upside: The energy savings from the newer models could help pay for the costs of switching over within a few years.

One example of the potential savings for business is the former Wal-Mart store in Raytown that became a new store for Sutherland Lumber Co. The 94,900 square-foot building held more than 1,000 of the T12 units. Sutherland hired power technology experts to convert those to 420 of the newer T8 units, along with motion-control features to reduce power consumption.

The estimated annual savings on electricity? $32,000. The store estimates that the payback on those will be just over two years, after which the savings go straight to the bottom line.

Cross-Midwest Tire in Kansas City, as well, made the switch of a total of 350 metal halide fixtures and T12 fluorescent lamps, installing a system built around T8 interior lamps and T5 exterior fixtures. That’s expected to yield an annual savings of more than $14,000.

Various utilities have offered rebates to help with the cost of switching out, but those still active will likely evaporate soon as demand picks up for T12 replacement systems and lamps. Check with your electric utility for more information.

 


The Lure for Business

For the business executive trying to read the tea leaves and set an energy budget, the best advice from professionals is to maximize the use of natural gas when possible—but do so with caution. Because a rebound in prices is inevitable, care must be taken to ensure that recovery costs for new equipment will remain available for the longer-term.

“For a small business owner,” says Crow, “my recommendation would be to call the gas utility—they have the people and the resources, and have them in to do an energy analysis. Listen to their sales pitch, and the same with the power company. A lot of times, companies that want to sell their product will do that work for little or no charge.”

Each will come with a bias, he noted, but the goal should be to position business operations so that energy options remain balanced. A dual-source heat pump, for example, can be switched to its natural-gas mode when prices drop, or returned to electric mode when those costs are more advantageous.

While natural gas doesn’t have as many applications as electricity, there are options for business owners, as well as residential customers, to take advantage of lower prices. Two of the biggest potential savings through the use of natural gas would be for companies that have traditionally relied on electricity for heating and cooling, and on gasoline or diesel for fleet transportation.

Gas-fired air conditioners, while not unheard of in this region, are considerably outnumbered as primary cooling systems, but are one option for cutting cooling costs. And there are companies that refit gasoline-fired vehicle engines to burn compressed natural gas, either as complete conversions or as dual-fuel systems.

Dennis Okenfuss, vice president of administration for Kansas Gas Service, noted that gas air conditioners enjoyed greater popularity a generation ago, but a spike in gas prices during the 1990s eventually made electricity the winner for cooling needs, both residential and commerical. A long-term price decline for gas could restore that popularity, he said.

Other businesses that could benefit from a switch include restaurants that upgrade to more efficient cooking systems, or coin-operated laundries. Buildings currently operating with electric heat, lighting and water-heating systems all could be candidates for switching to natural gas, as well.

And in any case, it’s a tough market: conversion systems for gasoline-powered vehicles run thousands of dollars, which means you’d have to log serious miles to achieve a payback on that investment.


Thinking Bigger

When it comes to leveraging the benefits of cheap natural gas, experts warn, the biggest cost considerations are the unknown variables: How quickly might prices recover, and how high they might go? Professionals in the energy sector and in the investment world alike are all over the board with predictions about near-term natural gas pricing. Some suggest that the glut could be over as soon as October, but others say we’re looking at a years-long realignment of energy prices driven by low gas costs.

Okenfuss says there are indications of long-term stability with prices.

“If you go to the NYMEX, you’ll have to go out to 2015 to start seeing gas for delivery at $5,” Okenfuss said. “There is a potential the price to go up if production at the level we have now stays constant and demand increases significantly.”

That and other unknowns can complicate any business manager’s decisions about how to capitalize on current prices, energy professionals say.

“If natural gas is so cheap as compared to electricity, I could change and save a lot of money and pay for that within maybe three years,” said Mike Gromer, a certified energy analyst for A.B. May. “But during those three years, if that price starts going up, the return on it starts stretching out, and that could get ugly.”

Longer-term, he said, the best policy for business owners is not to focus on leveraging the benefits of a single power source by itself. “I think folks looking to improve building performance, with the building as a whole, that is beneficial,” Gromer said. “You can make changes with the lights, with insulation, with different systems, but I hesitate to look at one system to change X just to take advantage of Y.

“Those variables can change.”

 

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