Comments on: Electricians pitch Energy Retrofits

By: waitslowdown

waitslowdown — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:28:00 +0000

Hi Moe, check out this brand new video we just uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyFaIpviDJs

Hope that answers your question re: delamping with the T5 Retrofit Kit. Thanks.

By: Dan Noiseux

Dan Noiseux — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:55:00 +0000

Dan, it is very unfortunate that you got of of that class with such an impression, I am not familiar with what they teach but that’s definitely not a good thing. I understand your point on who takes the risk get the reward but this lead to a vicious circle and contributes perception that adding control is expensive. There is always resistance to change and new stuff but hopefully succesfull installations will contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of all the opportunities.

By: Refrigeration Albany NY

Refrigeration Albany NY — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:03:43 +0000

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By: Micah Arnholt

Micah Arnholt — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:14:05 +0000

Terrific information, seeking forward to tomorrow’s revise!

By: Raleigh Photographer

Raleigh Photographer — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:40:50 +0000

Great article! You won’t believe how much time it took to find an authoritative source.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:52:00 +0000

Dear Mr. Noiseux; As an Electrical contractor with over 35 years experience as an JW electrician, I’ve recently completed a NECA sponsored class on “Advanced Lighting Controls. My experience with the “New” lighting controls are somewhat limited, but in everything we were exposed to at the class, nothing was something I would classify as “easy or simple”. Most of the lighting control schemes were labor intensive and I would respectfully add that as the one putting his or her company on the line in order to complete a Lighting controls job, the level of pricing whether you deem it high or low should be a luxury reserved for the one taking on the job and associated risk. Those same contols being pricey are something else to take into account before labeling a electrical contractor as submitting too “high” a bid. If any problems happen with a job, my experience is that the contractor “eats” the labor for replacing anything found “bad” and the troubleshooting time to find the problem.

By: Hertha Crebs

Hertha Crebs — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:40:58 +0000

I have a totally different view, but I respect you for posting this story.

By: The Green Savings Co

The Green Savings Co — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:26:17 +0000

Moe,

Our UL certified ( http://greensavingsco.com/network/2010/05/the-g... ) retrofit kit's lumen output and efficiency are as follows:

Lumens(lm): 2444.32
Efficiency(%): 90.40% No directional
Lumens(lm)/Power(W): 76.46

(You can download the full report here: http://greensavingsco.com/media/GSC-Photometric... ).

By: Dan Noiseux

Dan Noiseux — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:57:55 +0000

I'd like to add that as a manufacturer of lighting control solutions, some of the many challenges we are facing:

- Experienced Electrical contractors are in most cases, not very familiar with all the progress made in the recent years and the simplicity of the new technologies available today. So they tend to overcharge on the installation cost just in case it would be more complicated that originally stated by the vendor and in their favor, I have to admit that some jobs quickly become indeed more complicated if not designed properly. Forget about any type of wireless that is always "plug and play" without any issues ever and forget about running new control wires without running into some hurdles too, especially in retrofit environments.

- The use of wireless systems is affecting the distribution of the job costs. Electrician used to bill time by the hour and sell wires by the spool find it a lot less attractive. So the specification to request wireless controls need to be set by the person or entity that's paying the bills. Hopefully the new generation will be promoters and find the right business model to make it more attractive for them too.

- Engineers and architects are also still not very familiar with control systems other than HVAC which have been around for a while now, so it requires more efforts on their part to specify the right products. Plus there are a lot of un-met promises in the field that make everyone skeptical of new products and new solutions.

- There are a lot more agents, reps and distributors in the field to sell fixtures than there are that sell controls. Unfortunately, many have some control product lines in the linecards but are not promoting them because they are not familiar enough with the products.

Last a comment on the BAS (Building Automation System) integration, we believe that this is less and less of an issue since many companies are offering gateways and bridges between different systems but I agree that integration is clearly the right way to go.

Daniel Noiseux
VP Business development
DimOnOff Inc - Distributed Lighting Control and Automation

By: Moe

Moe — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:31:42 +0000

The Green Savings Company’s T5 Retrofit Kit is supposed to take the space of a 32W T8 lamp with 2850 lumens and replace it with a T5 lamp which emits 2900 lumens. How do they justify using less lamps, and getting the same amount of light output?? Especially when the efficiency of the kit is so poor??