When the Future Energy Jobs Act was passed in 2016, it changed the way Illinois supported the public sector in energy efficiency. Historically, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity had run programs to meet energy savings goals for the state in the public arena. However, in 2018, the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program will now be taking on the awesome task of reducing energy usage in firehouses, police stations, libraries, and all municipal buildings.

Like commercial buildings in Illinois, Public Sector buildings are broken into two rate classes. The “smaller” buildings enjoy a higher incentive since they often lack dedicated employees to focus on improvements throughout the facilities. Both programs are great, but have a different approach and feel as larger and smaller

Public Sector Small Facilities

Like the commercial sectors, Small facilities are classified as 0-100 kw and this information can be found on your facilities electric bill. This type of building is often maintained directly by the fire chief, police chief, or department director. The incentives are higher in this program, to help offset the lack of time and attention that smaller buildings can give toward this type of capital improvements.

Popular in this program are high bay LED fixtures, Type A and Type C LED tubes, exterior new Fixtures, and occupancy controls. This program is new in 2018 and is being administered by program implementer Willdan. Verde has seen success with the Wheeling Fire Department and Sugar Grove Fire Department early in this program, and we have seen great Return on Investments of 9 months ot 1.5 years. As a side benefit, with less continuing maintenance and brighter lighting in these fire stations, the crews can focus more on training and worry less about ballast and fluorescent lamp replacement (or perfecting that New Orleans Style Gumbo Recipe!)

Public Sector Large Facilities

Large public schools, municipal town halls, and water plants are just a few examples of public sector buildings that are often classified as large buildings through the lens of ComEd. This program is administered by DNV GL and was previously the responsibility of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in Illinois, but transitioned to ComEd’s responsibility in 2018 with the Future Energy Jobs Act.

The Public Sector 100kW – 400kW and 400 kW and above rated buildings fall into the same program as the “Standard” or Large Business program through the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program and incentives are the same.

Highlights of this program include a $.40 per watt reduced incentive for LED conversions, incentives for occupancy sensors, photocells, and daylight controls, as well as support around HVAC and building controls. One of the top highlights of this program is a $.70 per watt reduced streetlight program in 2018, as Chicago and other municipalities undergo major initiatives to modernize street lighting.

Made in Illinois Bonus

In 2018, there is currently a 10% bonus on the incentive for any product made in Illinois (50% manufactured or/or assembled in Illinois). We currently purchase from Jarvis Lighting, which is made in Elk Grove Village. This only applies to the standard public sector program at this time.

Are you a restaurant owner and ever wondered if you are losing money on your HVAC systems?  Chances are, the answer is yes.  Modern restaurants have a lot of systems that create heat and remove heat, often fighting against each other.  In addition, modern code works to keep our occupants safe but often introduce more air flow and exhaust fans, which create even more challenges for the systems that add and remove heat.

Luckily, there are fairly easy projects that you can undergo to save money and energy for your restaurant.  And since Verde Energy Efficiency experts has completed over 1,000 energy efficiency projects for restaurants over the past 10 years – we have a lot of experience to back this up.

Smart Thermostat

A great first step is to consider is to consider a smart thermostat for your restaurant, as maximizing the efficiency of your existing equipment is where it all begins.  In the linked article, we recommend the Pelican Smart Thermostat for your restaurant because of their focus on commercial products, as well as the ability to integrate a CO2 sensor in the thermostat for demand control ventilation.  However, they are also price competitively and offer fantastic support to businesses and the HVAC contractors that support them.

Any smart thermostat is good for your business, although we do see folks sometimes replace a Nest thermostat in a restaurant, because it is too focused on residential.  It enables too much control and adjustment, and doesn’t help you understand fresh air like a Pelican smart thermostat can do – something required in public and commercial buildings, but not in residential homes.  That being said, we have seen many offices and small businesses love the Nest – so each application is different.

We have also seen a lot of our customers enjoy the Ecobee EMS Si product – which is a canadian manufacturer that does a great job of provide data and aims toward the commercial market.  While the EMS Si lacks the CO2 sensor integrated into the thermostat, it also charges for the online platform – which can add up for those that have a lot of facilities and thermostats.

Finally, we love that the Pelican thermostat works on a mesh network This means the more thermostats you have, the better they all communicate to each other and the sensors and cloud data.  Again, this highlights the difference between a residential HVAC system with one furnace and AC, and a commercial building that may have as many as 10 RTUs heating, cooling and ventilating the spaces.

Priority Energy Air Balancing

Air balancing is also an important step to consider.  Verde has partnered with Priority Energy to provide commercial air balancing options for our customers, helping to make sure there is not a vacuum inside the restaurant and that air does not rush in every time a door or drive through window is opened.  This service can be a quick return on investment, and provide both energy savings and comfort to the customers and employees.

A building that is out of balance is either pulling in too much air, or pushing out too much air. The front door will stick, and open doors or windows will have air rushing in and out. The feel less comfortable, and they waste more energy.

An Energy Recovery Ventilator is a great energy efficiency product that recovers up to 93% of the energy leaving a space.  It provides a huge benefit to the energy load of a space, but in addition, it can help balance a space.  It does this automatically by design, where one fan blows air into the building, and the other blows air out.  As they cross against each other, the heat and energy from one air flow is transferred to another.  However, as these fans can run at different speed or CFM, it automatically can balance a space.

We saw this in our pilot VHE HVAC sustainability project, in a grand rotunda entryway for the space.  The last roof top unit removed was from the entrance to the building, which had cold air rushing in during building usage because the RTU was out of balance.  But – as we replaced it with the ERV – the space balanced itself and air did not flow in with such velocity, creating more comfort in the entrance and less wasted energy.

Advanced Measures

After you have done smart thermostats and made sure your building is balanced, consider these advanced HVAC systems for your location.

Cooking food is a must for restaurants, and taking the smoke and heat out of the kitchen is also required for both comfort, safety, and building codes.

However, exhaust fans are traditionally an on/off control, and they run at high speed as long as there is cooking in your building. For many fast food restaurants, that can be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Since these fans need to pull all smoke out of the building, they typically pull a ton of conditioned air out of the building as well. What does this mean? As you try to keep your customers cool on a hot summer’s day, your exhaust fans pull a huge amount of that air out of the building and makes your air conditioner work even harder.

Fortunately, there are advancements in exhaust fans that allow variable speed fans. These can ramp up or down, based on the actual usage of cooking (instead of constantly running 100%). The differences that can be saved on both electricity and gas energy can be significant, although they vary based on your geography in the United States. In addition, you can connect this controller to your HVAC system, to communicate to your economizer on your rooftop HVAC units and really balance the in and out of the air in your store.

This means, when a customer enters your stores or your drive-through window opens, air will be at balance and a minimum amount of airflow will occur. We have heard countless stories of the drive-through window employee being bundled up in winter coat until the Kitchen DCV (Demand Control Ventilation) gets installed, and then they can comfortably wear just their uniform.

Here is a step by step description of what installing a kitchen exhaust Demand Control Ventilation will look like.

First – you need to install Direct Drive or variable speed drive motors in your exhaust fans. We typically use Greenheck, although there are a lot of brands of motors available.

Next, you need to install a central communication system that can control the fan speed. We use the Franke Variable Ventilation. Many kitchen DCV controls insert a sensor in the cooking hood to know when the fans need to be ramped up, but the Franke HVAC system actually connects directly to the cooking equipment to ramp up and down based on usage. Both accomplish the same goal, but we personally have found the Franke system to have stronger ROIs.

Finally, the Kitchen DCV system needs to be connected to the HVAC supply for the restaurants. This is incredibly important, as balancing the air is where much of the energy savings comes from. Almost as important, if not more, this will create a more comfortable environment for both customers and employees.

One of the best parts of installing one of these systems? There are strong energy savings for HVAC upgrades, and therefore, often strong energy efficiency rebates. In fact, in Chicago there are ComEd Rebates that cover as high as 75% of the cost of improvements, depending on your number of exhaust hoods and current equipment.  In fact, HVAC improvements are a growing portion of the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program.

Do you lack economizers on your RTU – no problem! There are very generous utility rebates for those as well, and often those make sense to be replaced even if they are only 6-10 years old with a CEE Tier 2 level energy efficient RTU with SEERs as high as 16.1.

Walk in Cooler and Freezer Efficiency

Making your walk-in cooler or freezer more efficient can save you money on energy costs and extend the life of your equipment. Here are some tips to consider:

Doorways and Seals:

• Doors: Ensure doors close tightly and automatically with self-closing hinges or door closers. Install air curtains or strip curtains and doors to minimize cold air loss when opened.  Verde can offer these to our commercial customers at no charge via Commonwealth Edison Rebates in Illinois.
• Seals: Inspect door seals regularly for tears, cracks, or icing, and replace them promptly. Apply lubricant to keep them supple and airtight.  This is no different than your home – air that leaks out is wasted energy.

Temperature Control and Maintenance:

• Thermostat: Check your thermostat’s accuracy and set the optimal temperature (typically 35-38°F for coolers and -14 to -8°F for freezers). Avoid unnecessary temperature fluctuations.
• Defrosting: Regularly defrost your evaporator coils (typically monthly for freezers and bi-weekly for coolers) to maintain efficient heat transfer. Consider automatic defrost systems for convenience.
• Airflow: Ensure proper airflow around condenser coils by removing obstructions and keeping filters clean.

Storage and Organization:

• Minimize door openings: Organize products efficiently to minimize the time doors stay open. Label shelves for easy access and reduce time spent searching.
• Fullness: Aim for 70-80% capacity to allow for proper air circulation and efficient cooling. Avoid overloading shelves.
• Spacing: Keep products away from walls and evaporator coils to allow for optimal airflow.

Additional Strategies:

• Lighting: Use energy-efficient LED lighting and turn off lights when not in use.
• Floor drains: Keep drains unobstructed for proper condensate drainage and prevent potential leaks.
• Preventive maintenance: Schedule regular professional maintenance by qualified technicians to ensure optimal performance and identify potential problems early.
• Invest in upgrades: Consider energy-efficient upgrades like high-efficiency freezer and cooler motors, variable-speed drives, and heat reclaim systems.  Often, incentives can cover a huge portion of these costs, since they mean big energy savings.  More savings typically means more rebates and incentives.

By implementing these tips, you can significantly improve the efficiency of your walk-in cooler or freezer. Remember, small changes can add up to big savings in the long run!

Don’t Forget about LED Lighting in Your Restaurant

We focused on HVAC and advanced measures for saving energy for your restaurant, but don’t forget about one of the most basic energy users in your restaurant – lighting. LED lighting is crisp, saves energy, reduces maintenance, and has one of the fastest Return on Investments in the industry.

In the culinary world, presentation is key. Beyond the artistry on the plate, the ambiance of your restaurant plays a crucial role in crafting a memorable dining experience. And in this symphony of sights and sounds, LED lighting emerges as the conductor, orchestrating the atmosphere and influencing everything from guest mood to food perception.

First and foremost, LED lights shine a spotlight on sustainability. Compared to traditional incandescent bulbs, LEDs boast superior energy efficiency, consuming up to 75% less energy. This translates into significant cost savings on your electricity bill, leaving more resources to invest in the heart of your restaurant – your culinary creations and staff. Moreover, the extended lifespan of LEDs (lasting up to 25 times longer than incandescents) reduces waste and minimizes maintenance needs, making them a responsible choice for the environmentally conscious restaurateur.

But beyond saving green, LED lighting lets you paint your restaurant with the perfect shade of green (or any color, for that matter!). The versatility of LED bulbs allows you to customize the ambiance with an array of color temperatures and dimmable settings. Create a warm and inviting glow for intimate dinners, or switch to a cooler, brighter light for bustling lunches. You can even incorporate dynamic color-changing LEDs to set the mood for themed nights or special occasions, transforming your restaurant into a vibrant canvas for culinary expression.

Finally, LED lighting elevates the presentation of your culinary masterpieces. Their crisp, bright illumination showcases the vibrant colors and textures of your dishes, making them even more mouthwatering. Unlike traditional bulbs that emit harmful UV rays, LEDs protect your precious ingredients and artwork from fading or spoilage, ensuring your guests witness the full visual artistry of your menus.

In conclusion, LED lighting is not just a cost-saving measure for restaurants. It’s a powerful tool for creating a captivating atmosphere, fostering sustainability, and showcasing your culinary creations in their best light. So, dim the old spotlights and step into the vibrant future of LED lighting – your guests, your pocketbook, and your dishes will thank you.

Will a Heat Pump System Work for my Restaurant?

In the bustling world of restaurant kitchens, where sizzle meets chill, finding the perfect climate control solution can be a culinary conundrum. Traditional systems often leave both wallets and plates cold, but a new contender on the block is whisking away the heat – and the doubts – with eco-friendly efficiency: the heat pump. Let’s explore why this innovative technology might just be the secret ingredient your restaurant needs.

Firstly, heat pumps dish out savings like nobody’s business. Unlike energy-guzzling furnaces and air conditioners, they’re efficiency powerhouses, transferring heat rather than generating it. This translates to significantly lower energy bills, leaving more dough for menu upgrades and kitchen experiments. The cherry on top? Their dual heating and cooling abilities eliminate the need for separate systems, streamlining maintenance and reducing clutter in your back-of-house symphony.

Beyond cost-cutting, heat pumps are champions of sustainability. They ditch the fossil fuel fumes for environmentally friendly electricity, significantly lowering your restaurant’s carbon footprint. This aligns perfectly with the growing demand for conscious dining, attracting eco-minded customers and aligning your brand with green values. Plus, with heat pumps whispering instead of roaring, your neighborhood will thank you for the noise reduction, allowing your culinary artistry to take center stage.

Finally, heat pumps are masters of adaptability. Imagine zoning capabilities that keep the kitchen cool while the dining area basks in a warm glow. With strategic placement and ductwork, you can create ideal microclimates for every area, ensuring comfort for staff and diners alike. Plus, newer models handle kitchen heat like seasoned chefs, working overtime to ensure your culinary masterpieces stay fresh and your guests comfortable.

So, ditch the energy drainers and embrace the future of sustainable and efficient climate control. Heat pumps aren’t just a smart investment for your wallet and the planet, they’re a recipe for satisfied customers, happy staff, and dishes that truly sizzle. Bon appétit!

Considering any of these for your Illinois restaurant – then get a free restaurant energy audit via Verde so we can start on the journey together.

If you get a chance to read through the breakthrough Future Energy Jobs Act, which is the funding and baseline for the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program, you will find that the state of Illinois is committed to supporting Low Income Energy Efficiency program improvements.

In general, lower income populations, both commercial and residential, pay more as a percentage of their income for electricity usage.  This makes sense since electricity in your home or business is a necessary evil – and just keeping the lights on cost some basic level of funding.  Those with less money will likely pay a greater percentage for this baseline since their overall income is lower.

As a practitioner of energy efficiency in Illinois, I would say that qualitatively I have seen lower income businesses and churches pay more for electricity than wealthier businesses and churches of the equivalent size.  I imagine this is because there is less capital to invest in improvements like LED lights, Smart Thermostats, and upgrade HVAC equipment. For this reason, I am personally excited that more emphasis will be placed on low-income energy efficiency improvements in Illinois – because the needs are greater.  

Multifamily Low-Income Projects

Multifamily projects are a great place for energy efficiency projects as they often contain a great deal of 24-hour lighting on the inside, and exterior security lighting on the outside.  We love doing work for long operating hour locations for two reasons.

First, the long hours mean that the Return on Investment for any capital improvement is faster.  If you reduce 100 watts and it costs a set amount of money – that payback will be faster the longer it is used.  24-hour operations in the common area can make paybacks 3-4 times faster a normal commercial space and make energy efficiency project very cost effective.

Second, the long operating hours also mean that the energy savings will be greater.  This might seem redundant to the first point, but it is different. Verde believes in what we do, that reducing energy is important for our collective society to be undertaking.  If we have the opportunity to work with a business and reduce 100W or 1000W, we get more excited about the latter. That’s just who we are.

Low-Income Businesses and Nonprofits

Low-income businesses and nonprofits in Chicago are often doing important community building in Chicagoland.  We love reducing their energy, so they can do more of what they are doing for the community. Whether they are providing fresh fruits and vegetables to a neighborhood as a for-profit or helping connect kids to after-school programs – we are all stronger when they are spending more of their money on products and programming than electricity.  

Churches

For the past 6 years, Verde Energy Efficiency Experts (previously known as Verde Sustainable Solutions) has worked with several hundred churches.  There is a natural synergy with working with community places of worship, as they tend to (in general) believe in protecting the environment. They also understand that there is a lot of money available and that you often just have to be in the right place at the right time.  

Unfortunately, churches often have low operating hours when they are stand-alone religious buildings.  Often, we see a combination of schools, soup kitchens, or other community building and our combined effort on energy efficiency is deeper.

2020 Updates on Low Income Energy Efficiency

There is a new program for distressed public sector communities – the Distressed Community by Comed. This program focuses on utilizing labor available in towns, and provides free distribution of LED products. Ask the program, or reach out to Verde, to see if your community falls into the zip codes eligible for this program.

In 2017, Franklin Energy administers the pilot “Multi-family Energy Savings Program” to focus on reducing energy in the Multi-family building space in Chicagoland.  This program is one of the rare partnerships between electric (ComEd) and gas companies (People’s Gas and North Shore Gas) in Chicagoland, and is an important pillar of the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program.  Due to the overwhelming success of the multifamily energy efficiency pilot program among property managers, Trade Allies, and proven energy savings, this program is back for 2018 and expanded in scale and impact.

According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), comprehensive, cost-effective upgrades in multifamily buildings can improve efficiency by 15-30% , representing an annual sector-wide savings of almost $3.4 billion.

The Multi-Family Program is broken into two categories – market rate and Income Eligible.  For this comprehensive program to work, the program must have access to within the units for the entire building to upgrade.  Need some help from one of our energy efficiency analysts to help engage your building – hit us up!

Market Rate Multi-Family Program

Market Rate applies to any building that is non specifically subsidizing low-income residents.  This would include all condominium buildings, as well as apartments that are market rate for their tenants.  Often, the property manager or a condo board member is the right person to contact Verde about this program.

Income Eligible

Income eligible, or low-income, are multi-family buildings that serve tenants that are low income.  These buildings are not necessarily located in a certain geography, but instead have a focus on providing subsidized rent or services specifically for low income populations in Chicagoland.  Property owners or managers are the best contacts for this, and we partner with Elevate Energy to deliver this ComEd rebate. 

Program Specifics

This program combines energy efficiency improvements in the common areas of multi-family buildings with the opportunities available in the apartments or condominiums in the building and may include:>

In-Unit Offerings

• ENERGY STAR® certified LEDs
• Advanced power strip
• Programmable thermostats
• WaterSense® certified shower heads
• Faucet aerators for bathrooms and kitchens
• Hot water pipe insulation

Common Area Offerings

• ENERGY STAR® certified LEDs
• TLED lighting
• Exterior and garage LEDs
• Programmable thermostats
• LED exit signs
• Occupancy sensors

2020 Program Updates

In 2020, there is a copay for T8 to LED conversations that are Type C. This is important, since this program frequently was oversubscribed and not available year round. There are times that a Type A (instant discount) offering would make more sense than a Type C, so get a free energy efficiency assessment to determine your best offering.

If you own and operate a business in Chicagoland, you likely fall into the Small Business Energy Efficiency Program, small business grants or rebates as a benefit that is available to all commercial customers. This program is one slice of the greater ComEd Energy Efficiency Program
in Illinois and is designed to help businesses move forward with efficiency improvements through rebates and incentives.

First – why would ComEd share rebates with businesses to help them use less energy? Isn’t that against their business model since they get paid for the electricity we use? While that is true that ComEd benefits from the greater amount of electricity that we use financially, they are also required by the Future Energy Jobs Act law to spend a significant amount of money annually on energy efficiency. Since 2007, Illinois has been collecting a tax on each residential, commercial, and public sector’s electric bill and spending that on energy efficiency.

ComEd, like most utilities, differentiates commercial customers by the amount of electricity drawn at any one instant. Unlike a kWh (kilowatt-hour), they do this by kW (kilowatt). I imagine this helps them stabilize the grid by understanding how many businesses are drawing large amounts of power at any instant, although this classification may have less importance today with the advent of the smart meter.

For commercial customers that are classified as Small Business (0-100 kW), they are eligible for the Small Business Energy Savings Program. Since this classification is about how much energy is drawn, and not how much revenue is earned – this can lead to very large businesses qualifying for this program (so the name can be misleading). Here is a list of likely candidates that will qualify for the 0-100 kW classification, but the only way to really know is to check on your utility bill.

This program has been designed to really encourage businesses to move forward with energy efficiency, with very generous incentives. I like to think of it as designed for organizations that do not have a person dedicated to evaluating investments to see if they make sense to move forward.

Target and Walmart likely has a whole team dedicated to evaluating LED lighting for their parking lots, stores, and thinking about how that investment can benefit the company. A small business does not – it usually has an owner that is stretched thin and makes most decisions. With large incentives that cover huge portions of the cost, it can make moving forward with energy efficiency a “no-brainer”.

The core offering of this program is a $.85 per watt reduced incentive on LED conversions.For example, a 4 lamp 4 ft T12 troffer is considered to have 164 watts in energy usage. If you install a 36 watt LED fixtures in its place, your incentive would be 164 – 36 = 128 * $.85 per watt reduced = $108.80 of incentive.  In addition, they offer incentives on occupancy sensors, photocells, and advanced lighting controls.  In fact, Evokits are the most popular product we install and include an additional $75 per fixture for daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors.

However, once you get past lighting, the program actually gets more interesting.

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is a common energy hog for restaurants. The program incentivizes EC motor upgrades, as well as evaporative fan speed controls – which only make that fan run when the evaporative cooler is calling for cooling. This can combine to improve the efficiency on a shaded pole motor by 90%.

HVAC Incentives

HVAC incentives are also very popular in this program, and there are incentives of up to $400 per ton to encourage folks to take their current rooftop HVAC unit and upgrade to a CEE tier 2 energy efficiency RTU. Since our most commonly replaced units are 10 tons, that is $4,000 on incentive. When you combine this with a DCV Economizer and Advanced Rooftop Controls, it can cover almost 50% of the new unit replacement.

A few products can be provided to the customer at no cost, and those are the following:

If you have not participated in this program before, it might be because it sounds too good to be true. Well, as an active trade ally for the past 5 years – I can assure you that it is true. In fact, I can assure you that your neighboring businesses have participated and even your competitors. Yes – your competitors might be using less electricity and having a competitive advantage over you!

One caveat – this program is run through a closed network of trade allies. You must work with one of these highly trained partners in order to receive these very generous incentives.

How do you find one of those partners? You already have – just give us a call.

In 2016, Illinois passed an ambitious piece of legislation called commonly as the Future Energy Jobs Act that aggressively expanded the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program.  This act recently went into place in Illinois in January 2018, and with it comes a new certification for energy efficiency companies in Illinois.

The Energy Efficiency Measures Installer ” is a new ICC certification in town.  Ever wonder if your company you might choose to do business is a fly by night company – possibly previously working under a different name and might not be trustworthy?  The Energy Efficiency Measures Installer certification will tell you that the company has the proper business entity structure to do work in Illinois.

This certification is the responsibility of Program Implementers of ComEd, such as Nexant, DNV GL, Willdan and Franklin Energy to assure.  While not the responsibility of the commercial customer or public sector customer receiving a rebate check, it is a good idea to check certification before getting started with your Trade Ally.

You can check your current Trade Ally on the ICC Website, or reach out to Verde Energy Efficiency Experts – as we were one of the first Illinois companies to get certified.

2020 Update – Comed and the energy efficiency community now refer to Trade Allies as “Service Providers”.  So keep that in mind as you navigate this space, or reach out to your favorite Service Provider or Trade Ally – Us!

One of the most popular programs (it even won a big award this year!) in the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program over the past 10 years has been the Instant Discount program.Previously known as the Business Instant Lighting Discounts Program, the Instant Discounts program is designed to help commercial customers acquire discounted energy efficient projects without jumping through any hoops.

This program has been widely popular over the years, and contractors to property managers in Chicagoland have replaced a ton of lighting to LED via this simple program for ComEd rebates. Here are a few highlights for 2018.

LED Tubes

LED Tubes are by far the most popular product in this program. This program supports Type A and Type B tubes, which I’ll describe below. If you are interested in Type C Tubes (new LED driver included), then you’ll need to participate in the Small Business Offering or Standard Energy Savings programs.

• Type A – Type A tube replacements have a $4 instant incentive and usually cost between $6 and $10 without a rebate. This type of tube is designed to be used with an existing electronic ballast, so really you are just removing a T8 fluorescent lamp and installing a 10-17 watt Tubular LED product. Our preference these days is a 4000k 13W Philips LED tube for office settings, or a 16.5 W HO 5000k Philips LED tube for warehouse or manufacturing settings. Both are eligible for the $4 instant discount.  Note that T5 Type A lamps have a $5 Instant Discount.
• Type B – Type B tube replacements also have a $4 instant incentive, and usually cost between $6 and $10 as well. The advantage of this style is that the hot and neutral wires are directly wired to the sockets of the fixture, so there is no need for an external ballast or driver. While this keeps material costs down, it does create a bit more labor costs than a Type A. For this reason, we typically recommend Type A through the instant incentive program.

Screw in LED Lamps

Screw in lamps (PARs, MRs, BRs, G25s) have been the base of much of the savings in the energy efficiency world for the past 10 years. Today, while a lot of our marketplace are LEDs, there is still a lot of work to be done. If you have any of these lamps not converted to LED in your commercial setting, these are among the best ROIs available and are low hanging fruit. In fact, property management groups can save almost $5 per year by replacing a 13 watt CFL with a 9 Watt LED A lamp, and this is prevalent throughout a lot of multifamily buildings in Illinois.

• Par16 and Par20 – $6 off
• Par30 – $8 off
• Par38 – $10 off
• Mr16 – $3 off
• Decorative (B12, B11, candle bulbs) – $3 off
• Directional Reflector lamps (BR30, R20, Br40) – $4 off

Already sounding good to you? Shoot us an email to ask for pricing and quantities.

Trim Kits

We absolutely love trim kits at Verde – they are very versatile and really improve the quality of light that comes out of a fixture. Trim kits typically replace a Br30 or the ever challenging PTL fluorescent lamps. They are typically a bit labor intensive, and while there are energy savings, this is more about upgrading the look and feel of spaces. The instant incentive for this fixture is currently $10, an increase from previous years and one of our most successful products.

Exit Signs

Exit Signs are a great opportunity for energy efficiency, and as this former firefighter can attest, an important consideration for your building. Current LED products last up to 100,000 hours, which can avoid fines and safety concerns with exits being improperly lit.

• Screw in LEDs (white and red lamps) are available with a $5 per lamp rebate
• Hardwired LED replacements are also available with a $20 per lamp rebate. Labor is often higher with this replacement, but it is required in signs where there are currently PTL style lamps.

New to 2020 – HID LED Products

This year, ComEd has begun providing incentives for “corn cob LEDs” or HID replacements. While this product can be challenging to use at times to get a good light output, it is versatile and good for many applications.

• Mogul Base (E39) over 100 watts – $55 rebate / lamp
• Mogul Base (E39) less than 100 watts – $25 rebate /lamp
• Standard Base (E26) – $20 rebate /lamp

Wall Packs/Fixtures

• $12/fixture under 50 watts
• $20/fixture 50 to 99 watts
• $50/fixture over 100 watts
• $10/fixtures for Energy Star fixtures less than 40 Watts
• $25/fixture for Energy Star fixtures greater than 40 Watts

Pin Based LED

• $5 per lamp for 4 Pin-base LED
• $5 per lamp for 2 Pin-base LED

HVAC

Brand new to 2020 is an instant discount on high efficiency commercial RTU equipment.  While not as significant as Small Business Offering incentives, it is an easier way to get new equipment at a discounted price.

Please reach out with any questions, and as Verde Energy Efficiency Experts is a 2018 Instant Discounts Distributor – we are happy to help you with any product purchases. Come pick up lamps at our warehouse today, or better yet, enjoy a free site visit from our energy efficiency analysts to make sure your product color temperature and wattage selection is right from the get go.

In the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program, there are a variety of players that make up the huge machine that delivers rebates and incentives to customers.

In my opinion, the most important player in the rebate game is the trade ally.  A “Trade Ally” is a partner that communicates the efficiency program to the customer.  In this case, we are talking about commercial customers, so businesses that use electricity and are eligible for rebates when they reduce energy.

Trade allies have a lot of requirements, and each program has their own levels of requirements for entrance.  The utility programs often offer this form of distribution of rebates, as it is easier to educate a pool of 200-300 contractors, as opposed to educated 200,000 – 300,000 commercial customers.

The most restricted program is the Small Business Program, which is a closed network of Trade Allies.  This means that any electrical contractor cannot just participate in the program – they need to respond to an RFP and be picked through a competitive bidding process.  The benefits of working with these trade allies are higher incentives and a higher expected level of customer service. Verde has been a proud partner and trade ally in the Small Business Program since their 5th program year – please let us know if we can meet you for a free energy efficiency assessment.

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The Instant Discount program also has a selected group of distributors that can offer their rebates and is not available to all companies.  Verde is fortunate to be a distributor in the Instant Discount Program.

The Standard Program is open to all Trade allies that meet a minimum level of training in the energy efficiency program.

The Multi-Family Energy Savings program also has a closed network of trade allies, which are carefully screened for those that can work in common areas of multi-family buildings.  Verde enjoyed participating in this pilot program in 2017, and have great hopes for the savings that can be found in 24-hour common areas. This program provides rebates in conjunction with People’s Gas and North Shore Gas Rebates and requires access to in unit improvement in lighting and reduced water usage.

The best part of the way this utility program operates is that if you don’t find a good fit with one particular trade ally, you can always reach out to more.  There are lists throughout the program web information, or you can call and ask for a referral from ComEd at 1-855-433-2700.

In 2016, our legislature did the impossible in Illinois – they passed a meaningful law.To show how remarkable this is, at that time, Governor Rauner and the legislature had been in a budget stalemate for two years.This law passing required a compromise between a huge utility monopoly, a democratically controlled legislature, and a republic governor.

This law, commonly referred to as the Future Energy Jobs Act, provides the architecture for the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program in Illinois. It was a strengthening of an existing energy efficiency law in Illinois, which was passed in 2007. The FEJA act not only improved the state of energy efficiency in our state, but it also went further to include renewable energy (solar PV production).

How did this law pass at such a time of indignation and fighting in our state?There were two key words – jobs and nuclear.

Jobs

There was a huge coalition the pushed for training and job promotion around the already successful energy efficiency program in Illinois.In fact, my company had grown from just myself in 2010 to almost 25 energy efficiency jobs today, and we are 100% built out of this ecosystem from this law.Clean Energy Trust reports over 100,000 Clean Energy Jobs in Illinois in 2018. In a state that had struggled to recover from the Great Recession, this was an important topic of conversation among both parties.Ultimately, this is what I think drove Governor Rauner to support this bill.

Nuclear Power

Illinois has long produced a higher percentage of their power from nuclear energy than a majority of states, with almost 60% of electricity coming from Nuclear power plants in Illinois.While this source of electricity creates no carbon, there is some large debate about the environmental impact of nuclear power.

Exelon is the parent company of ComEd, our local utility monopoly in northern Illinois.Exelon has long had an aggressive nuclear portfolio and recently has had financial constraints after the US has failed to address a carbon tax or cap and trade legislation as expected.Exelon had been seeking financial support from the state to keep two nuclear power plants open, and this law was the opportunity to negotiate those terms.

There were also the normal and expected players at the table that helped negotiate this law, including environmentalists (Environmental Law and Policy Center, Elevate Energy), Democratic and Republican Politicians, as well as black and latino representative groups.

The law increased the already $240,000,000 of annual spending by ComEd in 2017 to $1.4 billion over 3 years from 2018 to 2020.On top of that, there is a minimum of $180,000,000 of spending for renewable energy – strengthening and hopefully fixing our existing renewable power standards.

With any compromise – it isn’t perfect.However, I was personally surprised when this law passed and I feel that nuclear power is an important part of curbing climate change. If electric vehicles continue to penetrate the marketplace, we will need consistent nighttime energy production to charge those batteries, and maximizing existing power plants that do not release carbon is a great plan.In addition, the technology to offset usage to lower cost and lower usage times of day will continue to develop and nuclear power helps support those.

Did you know that Illinois has real-time pricing for residential electricity?Check out more information and sign up at ComEd Real Time Pricing.I’ve used it for about 2 years and have saved around 10% compared to normal pricing by doing simple changes like running the dishwasher and washing machine at night, as well as setting back the AC during surge pricing.

Commercial energy efficiency improvements are a core pillar of the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program in Illinois.  All businesses and public sector programs are available to participate in the Standard Program for energy efficiency program.

While businesses that are rated 0-100 kW are eligible for their own programs for small business and small facilities public sector, they are also able to participate in the standard program for business energy efficiency if they prefer.

The Standard program is very versatile and does not require the usage of an ICC Certified Trade Ally to install the product. However, it might be helpful to purchase your products through an Instant Discount distributor such as Verde Energy Efficiency Experts to make sure the products you are installing are Design Light Consortium approved, as are often required for the incentives.

This program’s incentives, while lower than those targeting smaller facilities, are targeted toward larger facilities that often have a dedicated person to maintain supervision and staff on hand to replace lighting fixtures and advanced controls.

2020 Highlights of the Program include:

Lighting

• $.50 per watt reduced incentives for LED lighting, including Type C Tube and Driver installation
• $ .18 per watt controlled daylighting plus occupancy controlled sensors
• Made in Illinois bonus of 10% on any fixture that is at least 50% manufactured and/or assembled in Illinois
• Opportunities for higher incentives for advanced lighting controls scenarios

Refrigeration

• $4 incentive per square foot walk-in cooler and freezer strip curtains
• $60 incentive per EC Motor installed in walk-in cooler and freezers
• $90 incentive per EC Motor installed with evaporative fan speed controls for walk-in cooler and freezers
• $100 incentive per beverage machine controls

HVAC

• $50 per ton of new rooftop HVAC unit installed
• $50 per ton controlled of economizer installed
• $10 per bathroom exhaust fan sensor installed
• $40-$75 per HP controlled Variable Speed Fan

Compressed Air

• $20 incentive per high-efficiency air nozzle
• $100 incentive per no loss condensate drain
• $75 per HP – Integrated VSD on a new air compressor

Want to know your specific eligibility and where you can save energy?  Hit us up and schedule a free energy efficiency walkthrough, which will share a customized report with all of your eligible ComEd rebates.

Smart thermostats have a lot of features and look nice, but do they do anything valuable? When I recommend them during my work in the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program, it’s for more of these reasons than just the ComEd Rebates.  In fact, smart thermostats, sensors, and control systems can have the greatest impact on a business in terms of long term energy savings.

1. Reducing Your Energy Bill

Heat loss is a non-linear function – that means when it’s cold outside, more heat leaks out of your building when it’s 72° than when it’s 58°. The opposite is true in the summertime. So, leaving your building to the elements when you’re not using it will save you money. An intelligent thermostat can sense occupancy and follow a pre-programmed schedule, allowing you to tell it when you use your space and letting it learn how often you stick to that predetermined schedule. When it senses you aren’t around, it will lay off the heat or cool and save you some money.

It’s worth noting that a perfectly programmed programmable thermostat will save just as much as a Nest or Ecobee thermostat. The difference is that programmable thermostats need to be adjusted based on the season, and I don’t come across many business owners to find the time to do so. If you’re on a budget, put in the work – it’s the most cost-effective solution.

2. Giving You Control

If you manage multiple properties (franchisees, real estate managers, corporations, governments, etc.) you can’t manually control the setting of every thermostat in every building across your portfolio. Many (possibly all) smart thermostats come with built-in software that allows you to display operations and diagnostics on a central dashboard that you can look at on a computer or phone. The value here is that you can see the operation of all your heating/cooling systems instantly and succinctly. You can compare energy management strategies or make sure one rogue employee or tenant isn’t overriding a thermostat and costing you money.

I think if you have 5 or more buildings to manage, or the buildings are far enough apart that monitoring these systems in-person isn’t practical, this is a useful feature and is often overlooked.

3. Convenience

An intelligent thermostat saves you energy by turning off when it senses your buildings are unoccupied, but it also makes your life a bit better by anticipating when you will arrive and heating or cooling ahead of time. This is the reason I personally switched to a smart thermostat; the fact that it would automatically reduce temperature while I sleep and then reheat my apartment in anticipation of me waking up is so nice. (Now I have radiators – boooo!)

This is particularly valuable for low-use, high-volume rooms… church sanctuaries anyone? Rather than showing up 2 hours early to turn on your heating system, you can schedule services into your thermostat and it will automatically bring the room to a comfortable temperature in preparation. The same concept can be adapted to a gymnasium, theaters, conference rooms, exhibition halls, etc. Not applicable to everyone, but if it does apply, don’t overlook the value here.

4. Aesthetics

If you are into design, or care about atmosphere to enhance your brand and build top-line revenue, you might find a smart thermostat is a sleek centerpiece for your interior. I can’t recommend much here since my sense of style is about equivalent to an alpaca.

You’ll pay a premium to look good, but when has that ever stopped you before!

5. Preparing You For The Future

The wave of “smart” products is in its infancy, I assure you. Soon, your microwave will talk to your sink, which will just be finishing a conversation with your lightbulbs. Everything is going to be interconnected and something will need to be the central hub for you to interact with all of these fancy gadgets. It will likely either be something voice-based that you can yell at across the room, or it will be your thermostat, which you can easily walk up to and adjust.

They say old dogs can’t learn new tricks, so you may be better off learning how this stuff works now rather than waiting 5 years to figure it out. By then, it may be too late, and you’ve already boxed yourself into being an old dog. I certainly don’t think this is a good reason to go out of your way and get a smart thermostat, but it may be just enough to push you over the edge if you’re on the fence.

Really there are two questions here regarding Smart Power Strips:

• Is it worth the money to replace all of my existing power strips with a smart power strips?
• If I’m already buying a power strip, is it worth paying for a smart power strip over a regular power strip?

Let’s start with the second, because it’s the easiest. Smart power strips won’t cost you any more than a regular strip. They’ll both hover around 10-15 bucks. It’s going to vary depending on where you are buying, but these are approximates. So yah, if you’re going to be out of pocket for a new strip anyway, get the one that is going to pay for itself.

The first question is more complicated, and will depend on your specific case. Put simply, a smart power strip saves you money on utilities when more things are plugged into it. They also save you more money when the things plugged in draw a lot of power when not being used, which is considered vampire power.

Here are some hypothetical examples:

With only 1 laptop plugged into a smart power strip, you’ll offset about 16 watts of power when used properly. Over a year that will accumulate to 68 kWh. This will cost different amounts in different parts of the country. Here in Chicago, with electricity rates averaging $.11 per kWh, that amounts to $7.69 in energy savings. If you spent $15 to replace your power strip, you won’t be getting that money back for 2 years.

However, imagine a pretty common case where a workstation has a desktop computer, monitor, and personal printer plugged into the same power strip. When asleep, a desktop computer draws 21 watts, a monitor draws 1.4 watts, and a printer draws 5.3 watts, for a total of 27.7 watts. Using the same assumptions of usage, that will add up to 121 kWh and $13.30 of savings. So you’re looking at a 1.1 year payback.

Smart Power Strip Payback Analysis

It’s up to you to make up your mind as to whether it’s worth investing into something that has a 1.1 year payback. As a rule of thumb, anything less than a 1.5 year payback is what I find the market aligning in being an appealing payback. But I understand that saving $13 per year isn’t all that exciting.   Certainly, it will not urge you to go out of your way to get a new power strip. However, you are managing a school, library, or office with many, many computer stations.  Then, those savings add up to something more exciting.

Additional Benefits

There are tons of benefits to smart power strips, often they exceed the energy efficiency savings.  Primarily, they just plain add the benefits of regular power strips – more outlets on a single location.  In fact, I have one in my garage right now and my PHEV plugged into one outlet, with a smart power strip plugged into the additional. This takes my two outlet garage and gives me 8 total.

Additionally, smart power strips have surge protectors inside of them, adding additional value to everything plugged into it.  This protects from surges in electricity, which can destroy delicate equipment that does not have its own internal surge protection.

Incentives

If you own a business, your local utility may offer incentives around smart power strips.  In Chicagoland, our utility is Comed and offers a $30 incentive around installed smart power strips for small businesses.  While not the biggest drawer of power in your business, this small incentive offers both savings and added value to your operating income.

These incentives can help you make work stations more comfortable for your staff, providing extra ability to charge and have devices at their space, while even potentially lower overall energy usage.  Designed for the desktop computer set up, we have seen businesses get a lot of value out of this small piece of energy savings equipment.

In summary, my answer for the first question is split down the middle. If the payback is reasonable, then go for it. If you have a lot of power strips to change over, then you should consider the cost. But if you are looking to replace one or two power strips, you’ll find some more exciting opportunities for energy savings in your lighting, refrigeration, or HVAC equipment.

LED lighting has seen tremendous growth over the past several years, especially in Chicagoland, where we are supported by some fantastic ComEd rebate programs and incentives to help make LED conversions affordable. These rebates are a line item tax on all of our utility bills, and will lead to almost $400 million in incentives and rebates paid toward energy efficiency projects in Illinois in 2018. Yes, you read that right!

Outdoor LED lighting conversions took a while to catch up to interior LED options for a variety of reasons. However, you may remember noticing about 3 years ago the increased brightness of gas stations throughout the area. Gas stations were some of the first to embrace LED lighting canopy lights, as safer and more inviting places to fill up for gas actually drove more revenue for brand gas stations. Companies like BP and Mobile provided support for their individual station operators to upgrade to LED lighting, often using utility lighting Chicago rebates.

Most of our customers make decisions based on energy savings and ROI (Return on Investment), and unfortunately do not receive improved revenue with improved lighting like the gas stations. These Chicagoland businesses must make their investment decisions based on energy savings. However, we see a lot of unexpected benefits of our customers converting to LED, and here are a few.

Improved Safety

Well lit parking lots are safer for both patrons and employees of businesses. One employee told us her 20 second walk to her car after the parking lot was upgrade to LED lighting removed a major daily anxiety event for her!

LED light has the benefit of being a directional light, meaning that pole lights in a restaurant will put the light on the ground below, with less light being cast about the general area. This can lead to improved light directly where employees and patrons need it – not in the ally or grass behind the parking lot.

Dark Sky Compliant

An increasing concern in our society is how we impact nature around us. The beautiful orange glow you see as you approach Chicago shows how much we have developed and built up our environment, but it also has negative impact on our natural species. Birds, bats, and others benefit from a darker sky, which LED can improve.

The dark sky compliant fixtures that we install provide more sustainable solutions than just energy efficiency. It can help our native species, our gardens, and provide safety without compromising our natural partners in crime.

Less Maintenance

Outdoor maintenance is just a pain – often expensive to get to high places, and often lights need maintenance in the winter when snow and sleet is common. It is also when light is most needed for a business, when the sun is setting at 4:30pm or 5pm. LED lighting contractors in Chicago that provide business lighting services are often expensive to contract, especially when lift work is included.

LED fixtures come with an incredible longevity – and if you replace the entire outdoor lighting at one time (hopefully in the summer!) you will find years of benefits. This leads to less maintenance expenses on the business – and more money for employee gifts (suggested an anonymous employee).

Less Vandalism Concerns

Glass fixtures and lamps can be easily broken with rocks, basketballs, or other means. Yes, basketballs in Chicago breaking outdoor lighting fixtures is a real thing that we see.

New fixtures can be housed in an durable housing, with little or no lens that can be broken. LED fixtures are often a durable plastic that are virtually impossible to break, unlike older metal halide and other HID fixtures. Even if the outer plastic housing outside is damaged, the LED will still continue to provide lighting.

No Ballast Required for LED Lighting

“Do I need a ballast for LED lights” is one of our most common customer questions. LEDs use a driver, and not a ballast, to drive the LED light output. Metal halide, sodium vapor, and other HID ballasts are notorious for not only high maintenance – but also a loud and annoying buzzing sound as they age.

LED fixtures have an internal driver inside of them, which can last 70,000 hours. With 8,653 hours in a year -that is a long time before maintenance will be required. Even if the light is on all night (half the year), the driver would last 14 years. Philips makes excellent drivers, although there are many manufacturers that continue to drive the market toward improved lifetime usage.

Dimmability

Combined with the right LED driver, a LED can smoothly dim from 100% to 0% light output. This creates some new options for outdoor lighting, especially when combined with motion sensors.

We recently completed a project for the catholic Archdiocese in Joliet that combined new LED pole lights with occupancy sensors, dimming the lights down to 10% when no one was present. This keeps some level of safety and security at all times, while maximizing energy efficiency.

Since the fixtures we installed were 100 watts, they were only using 10 watts a majority of the night. This took the original energy savings from 250 watt metal halides down another 90% further, when no one was in the parking lot.

One even further benefit – LED drivers are often limited in lifetime because of heat generated. Since dimmed LED lights create less heat from the driver than full usage, you will find an even longer lifespan on products with sensors and dimmed usage.

Electricity is impossible to see, so it’s difficult to figure out how much is being used when you turn on lights or play video games. In fact, you even waste a little electricity when that stuff is off.

Many household appliances, electronics, and even some light fixtures operate in a standby mode when they are off. In this mode, appliances will still draw a slight amount of power. For example, energy vampires like TVs and game consoles often have a standby light to remind you that they still exist. Drawing a little power also “keeps the engine warm” so to speak, and allows these electronics to boot up to full operation more quickly. For example, my Xbox asked me if I would like it to go into standby instead of turning off so that it would boot a few seconds faster. (Obviously I declined!)

To stop this phantom power drain is simple – cut it off! You can unplug devices or plug them into a power strip and turn off the strip. Both actions cut the device off from the grid and truly turn them off. But that requires work and saving the planet just isn’t worth it. Instead, a smart power strip is going to automate this process for you. That’s right – hold my beer, it’s time to save the environment!

A smart power strip works the same way a normal power strip works; it has several outlets, a surge protector, and a short power extender.

The difference is that it also has the ability to sense whether or not electricity is flowing through the outlets and will cut itself off from the grid if it senses that everything is turned off. Simply put, if you turn something off and it’s plugged into a smart power strip, like this Tier 1 Advanced Power strip by Tricklestar, it will turn all the way off and you stop paying for it.

If you want to learn how much you can save, check out our other blog post, or do some research and run some calculations yourself. This will help you do that.

I recently had the opportunity to visit a lot of our international manufacturing partners for LED Lighting in Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen is a fascinating town, one of the 14 cities with more than 5 million people. I was born in 1978, and at that time, Shenzhen had around 30,000 people. Today, the city has over 12 million and continues to grow at a staggering pace.

It borders Hong Kong, and was designated a Special Economic Zone in 1980. Its location next to the metropolis of Hong Kong, along with its unique status by the Chinese government, has driven it to incredible growth. In fact, everyone I met had grown up in another area and no one had parents or grandparents that were born in Shenzhen that I met

Expectations

I expected to see large smoke stacks and huge building cranking out large amounts of products in a single day. I expected a lot of poverty, as well as poor conditions for employees. I have dealt with Chinese companies for about three years, and had a lot of assumptions of what I would find based on what I have read and seen in the media. What I actually found was quite different from what I was expecting.

Let me turn the tables a bit and ask you a question, buster. Do you currently have linear fluorescent fixtures in your office lighting? You do? Well badda bing bada boom, there you go.

You have successfully identified the absolute best place for linear LEDs. And ya know what else, smarty pants? You have also identified the worst place for linear fluorescents. Two birds. One stone.

I have heard people comment about how fluorescent lights give them a headache or bothers their eyes. Doesn’t sound crazy at all. Think about it. A fluorescent light is a big ol’ tube filled with gas molecules jazzercising over your head. Those excited little electrons are bouncin’ all over the place. As those suckers age, you are going to get an annoying flickering of light and a change in color. Not to mention a hum as soothing as your 7 year old niece learning the recorder.

A linear LED, however, is made up of a strip of little dots housed in something that’s almost identical to a fluorescent T8 lamp. Each dot contains something like a little teensy weensy toy train track. And, just like that track your neighbor needs to stop playing with because he’s an adult, the train runs the same direction every time along the same path. Pretty predictably. Electrons are doing the same thing on each one of those little dots. Running a very consistent route. Unlike your neighbor’s track, which gives off weird smells from those liquid engine smoke drops, these dots give off a steady light. No flickering. No color change with age. And best yet, no hum.

Commercial refrigeration represents about 7% of total commercial building energy usage in the U.S. In supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, refrigeration, hospitals, and hotels can
account for half of the total energy usage. But, by applying these 5 tips you can cut your energy consumption and keep a little more cash in your pocket.

Install an auto door closer. When rushing around a commercial kitchen, checking to make sure the walk in freezer or cooler door is latched shut is the last thing on your mind. Auto door closers ensure the refrigerator/freezer doors are completely closed. Not only does this help prevent food from spoiling, but also keeps that cold air from spilling out.

2. Install strip curtains. Every time the walk in cooler door is opened, a rush of cold air floods out, and air from the outside world infiltrates in. Strip curtains create an extra barrier that will help keep that cold air in, and the warmer exterior air out. Estimates put strip curtains effectiveness rate at 65%.

3. Upgrade to EC motors. EC motors can be up to 70% more efficient than old motors. To learn more on how they work check out our blog, “What is an ECM Type Motor”

4. Switch to LED lights. LED lights are some of the most energy efficient products on the market. LED lights also thrive in cold conditions, making them a perfect fit for refrigeration.

5. Utilize night covers. Open display cases drain energy, and should be covered when not in use. Utilizing night covers keeps the cold air contained, which means the motors will not have to run at full capacity when the establishment is closed.

The water fountain spigot kind of acts like a ballast in this situation. A ballast regulates the current that’s coming at a lamp. It gives an initial burst just to get things going, then it makes sure the electric current is controlled and steady. Not getting the lamp’s shoes all wet. A ballast for Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights is not required – instead a driver is required.

There are two types of ballasts we deal with for existing fluorescent lights- magnetic and electronic. The difference is the mechanism they use to transform the incoming voltage.

• Magnetic ballasts – heavier than bad news on a rainy day. Average 3.5 lbs. These bad boys are also why you associate a “humming” noise with fluorescent lights – they have a transformer consisting of a magnetic core and wire wrapped around it.
• Electronic ballasts – use solid state circuitry to operate – no hum. Lighter and more efficient, they have been encouraged by energy efficient legislation dating back to the late 80s.

Alright so now that we know fluorescent lamps are like toddlers that need their food blended before they can eat it, what about LED lamps?

“LEDs are from the future! Surely they don’t need an archaic metaphoric blender!”, you say.  LED lamps and fixtures use a different type of power source, in what is referred to as an LED driver.  The driver converts electricity to DC, which is required for the diodes to operate.  

Some LED drivers are external and wired to the fixture, and some are internal in the lamp or tube.  This can create issues and confusion, especially since some ballasts can then drive internal LED drivers.  

Type A – ballast for led lights compatible

Can LED lamps work off of existing ballasts?  Yes, if they have an internal driver than can work off that ballast.  Philips, for example, has designed a tube that is compatible with an existing electronic ballast. Cue buzzword plug-and-play. Super cost effective because it brings down the labor cost of changing the fixture.  This is referred to as a Type A lamp, and can come with a $4 to $5 Instant Discount.

This solution is ideal for well maintained electronic fluorescent ballasts.  If ballast are less than 10 years old, or there are staff on hand that can change a ballast, this is a good opportunity.  Energy savings can be achieved quickly, with lower labor and material costs.  

Type C – Driver, not ballast for LED

If you don’t have tubes that are compatible, then you will need an LED driver.  You do not need a ballast for LED lights, but instead a driver.  This is called a Type C application, with a tube and driver that work together.

Verde often uses this approach to replace T12 magnetic ballasts, as well as older T8 systems with aging electronic ballasts. The Type C system will typically last 70,000 hours in a system, so there is a huge benefit to replace the entire system at one time.  This can be more expensive due to the higher labor costs, but this can at times be offset by incentives from the local utility.

Type B – Hard wire to socket

Finally, there are hard wired fluorescent LEDs, which take 110v electricity right to the socket.  These lamps have a driver inside the tube.  These are called Type B applications.

This system approach is increasingly popular around the country, as it removes a failure point (ballast or external driver) from the equation.  However, it is commonly faced with safety concerns, and has less incentives available in some utility programs.

Conclusion

So, the moral of the story, kids….you’re going to need some way to control the current coming into your LED tube. It all depends on the type of tube ya got.  If you need an energy efficiency expert, you should talk to someone hooked up with your local utility so they can advise you on the right approach. Depending on your labor force, price, and current pain point – as well as the incentive available, this can really change.  

Inventory is a huge challenge for a growing business, and I have been surprised to find that it has been harder than I expected to manage in my growing enterprise. Too much inventory on hand – it ties up cash flow. Too little inventory on hand – customers get angry and it also ties up cash flow.

I’d like to share my experience on this topic and hopefully help someone avoid some of the mistakes that I have made (although I am a firm believer that the experienced lessons are stronger than any other form – so don’t be afraid to make mistakes as they make you better). I also find this important internally, as I recently returned from a visit to all of our vendors in Shenzhen, China.

I imagine that tied up cash flow in any business is a challenge, but it is particularly debilitating for a growing enterprise. I have found the best solution for Verde is to really stay on top of our cash flow is with our Line of Credit from our banking partner, and we currently use Kurt Wheeler from MB Financial. You have to find a banker that shares your vision for growth, and really take time to understand your business and how you operate. We have tried a lot of banks to this point, and while I philosophically wanted to bank with a small bank – MB has been ideal in helping us grow and increasing our LOC before we need it.

Letter of Credit

MB has also introduced the idea of a Letter of Credit to us, which shows a lot of value in international import to the US. Overseas firms can charge 30% at the time of order, and 70% at the time of shipment. Since an order can take up to 60 days to arrive by boat (35 days is average for us), this can mean a business is outlying cash 3-4 months before the material arrives. If you are a fast growing business, this really provides constraints around cash flow, even if you are getting a great deal on overseas products.

Chinese firms charge this up front fee for several reasons, both for their own internal cash flow as well as concern about US firms not paying once the product leaves their facility.

However, a Letter of Credit will address both of those concerns. Since the US bank is guaranteeing payment, it lets the Chinese firm “borrow” on that cash before it actually arrives. It also provides security to both parties that the payment will be good and allows for greater trust.

I find that our two largest manufacturers from China, Green Inova and Topband, both are large companies that have been in manufacturing for 10 years or more, and really have a high level of quality in their manufacturing. They both find the Letter of Credit to be a rare requirement from a US importer, but both see the value of it in providing a deeper partnership and trust.

Inventory Amounts

First, I’ll start with some experience we have around keeping proper inventory around.

As I said, too much inventory ties up a ton of cash. We have a great product from TopBand that replaces a 2×4 troffer with a new LED fixture. The best part is that it uses the existing troffer structure, leading to less waste overall and an incredibly fast installation. However, it can be incredibly hard to forecast out 4 months in advance to know how many of that particular fixture will be sold. Introduce several color temperatures and wattages, as well as 2×2 fixtures, and you’ve got a real challenge on your hands.

We have both sold what we have on hand (after a large delivery arrives), as well as tried to order based on forecast. To be honest, neither has worked particularly well. We have also tried ordering a steady supply monthly, with the expectation that we could increase or decrease after some time based on inventory numbers in our warehouse, and that didn’t work either. Three months our orders arrived within two weeks of each other, so instead of getting 200 at a time over 3 months, we received 600 within two weeks.

I have learned that sometime, less expensive inventory is not the right answer, even if the cost is 30-40% of the cost of US branded products. It all comes down to someone taking the risk of paying for the manufacturing, and storing it in the US in warehouses (yours or your vendors). Since the LED market in particular changes so rapidly, with 200 lumens per watt on the horizon, no one wants to take this risk.

Some of our product line, specifically High Bay LED fixtures with sensor built in, can take 45-75 days to arrive after order. We don’t have to pay for the product until Net 60, which is a huge benefit, but this forces us to reevaluate how much we stock of those fixtures. In some of these fixtures, equivalent Chinese manufacturing can save 75-80% off the cost, making that decision to pay and import from overseas much easier.

There is basically a rule of thumb that you can get two of three of the following: quick speed, low cost, and high quality. You can likely get two of those three from one vendor, but you’ll never get all three. Your cost to borrow money, as well as the speed in which you need products, will likely dictate those.

LED Fixture Quality

Interestingly, almost all LED components and products are manufactured in China or Asia, despite the manufacturer’s name on the box. As you get to know different products, you’ll see that they all steal from each other, or purchase the fixture exterior, driver, and LED chips from other vendors, eventually assembling them in their facility. In fact, most of the facilities that I have visited were a single floor of a 8-10 story warehouse facility, where they assemble their products and ship them out.

Quality of the facilities that I visited did vary greatly, however. One of our manufacturers, Green Inova, had a pristine facility and very high quality of process and engineering. In fact, I noticed that the sales team walking around with me had a personal relationship with many of the factory workers, and it was no surprise that they have consistently outperformed all other manufacturers in regards to LED or driver failure. In fact, we don’t have a documented case of a fixture failing after installing thousands of their fixtures.

We did find one manufacturer partner that always had great pricing and a US warehouse, but their quality has been inconsistent. When I visited their manufacturing facility , I found that it was not well run, and had no consistency in what products they were manufacturing. In fact, they didn’t even seem to be making the products that they actually sell, which led me to believe that they were using other manufacturers to make majority of their products. We will no longer be purchasing from them, as the transparency is important to me.

When you find a great vendor, I think that it justifies taking a larger risk on their inventory, since the quality is high and the product will continue to be sold with confidence by your sales team. Good inventory is always less risky than bad inventory.

Fixture (Product) Size

I think about this way more often than most people in my position, as we have historically had a lack of space in our warehouse. We have doubled every year in both sales and inventory volume, and we have also doubled in warehouse size for the past 4 years in a row. However, the timing is not ever smooth and we constantly run into space issues. We always value size of our products in how much inventory we take up. One of the benefits of LED evolution is that sizes continue to decrease.

We currently have about 2,000 square feet of warehouse, which is not a lot, but we do have as much height as we would like as our old Chicago Warehouse building has a gigantic crane and 30 ft ceilings. Smaller products are less of a challenge for us to store. We could purchase 1,000 A19 LEDs, and they would take up the same space as 20 High Bay Fixtures – literally.

Large US Manufacturers as Partners

Our current preferred US manufacturer is Philips. They simply have the best drivers, a great brand, as well as top of the line sensors and advanced controls. Advanced controls are a huge challenge to do well, and often cost a ton of money to commission (or install and program). Philips allows you to do this with a remote control on their spacewise products, or an android app on the EZ Sense controls, so we have trained our installers and analysts to excel in this skill.

We have purchased from TCP, Lithonia, Cooper, Archipelago, and Jarvis Lighting, and feel after all of these years of operation that Philips has the best product. They don’t always have stock easy to get your hands on, but their quality and pricing is better than any other combination. Again, the old adage is you can only get two out of three – and I’ll take quality and pricing over speed in most cases, especially if I can address the speed through our own internal inventory.

We recently took a large inventory of the Philips Fluxstream with built in daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors, because those products had a good price, did not take up a lot of space relative to other products, and had a long lead time. It made more sense to stock up and let the sales team benefit on the quality of the product and its benefits, as well as the high rebate available from our local utility, so we could install as soon as necessary for customers.

In fact, I just had the (rare) pleasure of spending the day at an install with our team while we installed Verio Graphics, where we installed 11 of these Fluxstream fixtures replacing a variety of metal halide and T12 fixtures. After we were done, the space looked brighter, used less energy, and could not have been completed by our deadline for the utility incentives if we had not ordered the inventory back in September.

Bulk Purchasing

Bulk purchasing is seductive – I have made my fair share of mistakes over the years. I find that you end up selling what you have, instead of what is best for the customer, when you have large inventory of specific products on hand. In fact, often bulk pricing is available toward the end of popularity of products, which I have noticed that some of our competition will stock and push for customers.

I still remember my first bulk purchase, almost $20,000 of inventory, which was delivered on Jan 2, 2014. Three days later, our local utility rebate ran out of money and was suspended until June 1st, and I was forced to hold onto that inventory for 5 months. During the next 5 months, we didn’t lay off a single employee, but that decision to invest in inventory really made that more challenging than it should have been. I’d invest in people over inventory, and once you buy that inventory, you often can’t return it.

We have made numerous bulk inventory purchases since that date, often getting steep discounts from manufacturers to do so. I encourage new businesses to take small risks and experiment, but keeping a good deal of caution in your approach. I have learned to take larger risks on our most popular products, like this Cooper occupancy sensor, which has a technology that is a bit more stable and predictable. We generally aim to have inventory on hand for no more than two months, but this type of product that is so commonly used by our customers, is easy to purchase in bulk with confidence. It also uses us very little inventory space, which is an added bonus.

International Shipping

If your inventory depends on international shipping, which a portion of our does, this is a key consideration for inventory solutions. After all, inventory will not be in your warehouse until you receive it after it is shipped properly.

We currently use Astomar Logistics to help with our importation of international products. While we have done both in-house importing, as well as used the logistics of our suppliers in the past, having a US firm that knows logistics has been a great safeguard. They might cost a little more (although I find that they are overall cheaper than other options often), but can help in the time of an issue.

Customs and international shipping are easy until they are not – meaning that you can import 25 shipments without an issue, but the time inventory is paid for and “lost” for 3 months is the one that will haunt you. Trying to deal with language barriers with China, especially around an issue that is out of the hands of your manufacturer, will be a nightmare without the proper support and plan in place. I don’t feel that this is one place to skimp on professional services, even if it adds to the cost of the material.

Air shipping is a viable option for small and light products. We currently air freight about half of our Chinese made products, as they arrive about 20 days faster than container shipping via ocean. All things being equal, I prefer cargo container shipping, as there is a lower carbon impact of this style of shipping vs by plane. However, sometimes speed is essential and is offset by the higher economic costs of shipping by plane.

Forecasting

We have tried several types of forecasting, and in general, I am not a big fan of forecasting.

We have tried forecasting based on our previous 3 months of sales history (quickly changing product line made this unsuccessful), ordering products based on confirmed sales (led to long wait times and upset customers), and trying to order two months of expected inventory (also unsuccessful as led to too much inventory across the board).

We are currently using a complicated process that looks at our main products and over supply those that have long lead times. Any products that arrive quickly and are rather inexpensive, we are decreasing in our
inventory.

We also are trying to decrease our number of SKUs. We sell a lot of LED tubes, as they are often a great offering to our customers. We offered a 14 Watt Philips tube as well as a 16.5 Watt Philips High Output that is slightly more expensive. We offered 4000k and 5000k for color temperature of both products. I recently decided it made more sense to only offer the 4000k in the 14 watt, and the 16.5 watt in the 5000k, as someone that wanted more light output likely wanted a brighter color as well. This may not work 100% of the time, and we may occasionally need to order a couple dozen 5000k 14 watt TLED tubes, but it has helped our strategy.

If you offer more options to customers, it may not actually lead to a better customer experience if it leads to longer wait times.

Invoicing Times

Finally, one important lesson that we learned this year was invoicing times. We often have projects completed, but not finally invoiced, for several days. When we started tracking this number, the median was as high as 4.5 days in certain months. This could be due to many issues, including long lead times on certain products, overscheduling, resolving scope of work questions, and a myriad of other issues.

After tracking this, we were able to cut this down to 1 day on average (or median). It is amazing how much this has improved our operations, as inventory challenges are all about cash flow. Improving the process after the install actually helped free up cash for taking slightly stronger positions on inventory, which in turn sped up invoicing. Tracking this to better understand it, eventually helped us find and make improvements.

In my energy efficiency firm, we mostly focus in terms of ROI on energy efficiency regarding lighting, refrigeration, weatherization, smart thermostats, and computer management. However, HVAC systems are much more complicated, and most of the considerations on whether to repair or replace fall into the new equipment warranties and repair – basically how much future maintenance costs are avoided by replacing an entire unit at one time. So instead of simply focusing on ROI, our customers focus on maintenance and other factors than just energy savings. Here are 9 that you should contemplate, hopefully before your rooftop unit heat exchanger goes out in the next cold spell.

1. Your Unit Needs Expensive Repairs

If you are due for a new heat exchanger, compressor, or anything significant to keep your unit running and your customers and employees comfortable, it is obviously time to weigh the cost of that repair vs a complete replacement. Unfortunately, that choice often comes in an urgent time, like in the middle of a cold or hot spell when your customers will suffer with any delay in service. In this case, the ROI must be calculated quickly and usually tends toward repair in an emergency. The best way to avoid this sunk cost of repair into an older unit is to plan for a replacement in a shoulder season (spring or fall) to avoid an urgent repair.

2. Your Unit Lacks an Economizer

Economizers are an amazing feature on rooftop units – they bring in fresh air when it is cooler than inside (when the thermostat is calling for cooling) or it is warmer outside (when the thermostat is calling for heat). While this seems like it would rarely happen, it is frequent for restaurant kitchens with tons of cooking heat. I’ve been on hundreds of McDonald’s roofs in the late fall or winter, and it is not uncommon to have the air compressor running on a day that is 50 degrees.

A well tuned Economizer will open in this situation, and bring in fresh 50 degree air instead of running the air compressor to remove the heat from the many grills and cooking units in the indoor area. If you lack an economizer and have a kitchen, you should consider replacing your unit with a new unit with an economizer.

3. Your Economizer is Not Functioning

In the case that you have an economizer but it is not running smoothly (and this is incredibly common), you should consider repairing your economizer with a reputable HVAC company and get your unit back to its designed condition. However, it is common for HVAC technicians to not fully understand how economizers work or how to repair them, and then will solve the problem by keeping the economizer permanently open or closed. This will either defeat the goal of the economizer, or permanently let in overly hot or cool air and significantly increase your energy costs. For this reason, make sure to talk through this with your HVAC contractor before you call them out, so you are sure they are comfortable working on this type of equipment.

4. Utility Rebates are Available

Incentives are likely available for your commercial property if you replace your existing unit with a more energy efficient version. In Chicagoland, we receive incredible utility incentives for early rooftop unit replacements for “Small Businesses” classified as 0-100kW peak usage on their electric bill. Those customers receive a rebate of $600 per ton for CEE Tier 2 energy efficient units. This is a significant rebate and can almost cover the cost of a new unit, significantly shifting the ROI for a new replacement. Larger commercial customers (100kW and above) still receive a rebate of $100 per ton – helping to push the ROI to a shorter time period on a significant investment.

5. You Want to Save Money For Years to Come

In this scenario, it is time to replace your unit for a top of the line unit. New energy efficient units can save $900 to $3700 per year in energy savings, and if you are looking to invest in your business for the long haul, replacing your unit for energy savings will lead to great returns on capital.

6. Your Space is a Low Usage Facility

If your business rarely needs air conditioning and heat, then it is likely better to simply repair your unit. Find a better way to invest your capital, like in motion sensor for lights or smart thermostats to better monitor and control your HVAC system. Low usage means that your unit will not be needed as often, making the ROI on a new unit longer and less likely.

7. You’re a property manager or building owner bringing in a new tenant

Leased property tenants are often responsible for taking care of their units, and rarely take proper care of the equipment. New tenants taking over spaces are often concerned about existing equipment, and there are frequent complicated terms in a lease and their negotiation.

We have found many of our property management companies take advantage of the generous rebates to replace the HVAC system for their new tenants as a part of the lease negotiation, leading to a win win for the property manager and the tenant. The tenant is more likely to stay in the space for a longer time period, and the landlord gets their contribution to the new lease covered by 20-60% by the utility rebate.

8. You Want to Do Your Part for Environmental Stewardship

After upgrading your exterior lights to LED, interior to smart and controller LED fixtures, and refrigeration improvements if available, you need to look past the low hanging fruit to deeper investments for energy efficiency.

In this scenario, you should replace your existing and go for the highest efficiency rated unit that you can find. Since space heating and cooling is the number one usage of energy in commercial spaces, it is the best thing you can do to be green in terms of long term investment of your physical building.

9. You Have a High Occupancy in Your Space

High occupancy can lead to high CO2 inside, potentially leading to suboptimal conditions for tenants. For this reason, new rooftop units (RTU) by code are often required to have CO2 sensors integrated to their economizers. If your building has high occupancy, like a movie theater or other dense office space, a CO2 integrated unit with an economizer might make a replacement the right option for your building.

There are lots of sustainable solutions that you can do as a business owner. Most of the decisions do not solely get based on what is good for the environment (and that’s OK), but instead what removes pain points for a business owner. Here are a few common approaches that I see our customers undertake and why.

LED Lighting

While one of the most common energy efficiency services, LED lighting removes a pain point that is not exclusively high energy bills. Older and inefficient lighting has to be more frequently, while LED lighting can last over 50,000 hours. I know that a business owner will be eager to upgrade to LED lighting when they have a high percentage of lights out – this tells me that they may not have access to the tools and staff that can address burnt out ballasts and lamps. LED lighting incentives available from the ComEd Energy Effiiency Programcan help offset the costs to replace older lighting.

Refrigeration Motors

Walk in cooler and freezers use a huge amount of energy in restaurants and can cause a high electric bill. However, that isn’t the main reason that we see many of our customers jump on EC motors. While EC motors do use a fraction of the energy of the original shaded pole motors, using utility rebates to replace your entire cooler and freezer motors to Electronic Communicated motors avoids the fear that a motor will stop working in the middle of the night. Older motors are a constant source of maintenance, and new motors likely will last 10 years or more without repair. Nothing keeps a restaurant owner up more at night than a failed Walk in Cooler or Freezer, since so much of their ability to serve their customers are perishable and stored inside that unit. If you have walk in coolers or freezers, lets talk about how the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program just increased their incentives around EC Motors.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats are great way to address a high electric bill, along with high gas bills. Not only to they outprogram programmable thermostatst, but they also have motion sensors that detect movement to set back temperatures on days that you are not occupied.

Have a cold employee that sets the heat up to 75 degrees, and not only is a ton of energy being wasted, but customers could be too warm as well and not stay as long to shop. Having access from a Nest or Ecobee Smart thermostatfor commercial spaces can really make a difference when it comes to keeping an eye on the business from afar, and making sure customer comfort and energy savings comes first.

Rooftop HVAC Unit Upgrades

Many of our customers upgrade their HVAC rooftop units to Tier 2 energy efficient units. While the energy savings are significant, the main motivation is removing the expense and concern around older rooftop units. Brand new units come with the state of the art equipment, economizers, and are warrantied. The best part for business owners – utility rebates can cover a portion of the cost, as much as 70% in Chicagoland for small business classified customers.

We’ll compare two big name smart thermostat brands, which are a smart sensor for your home or business to help control energy cost. While there are options outside of what I’m mentioning, they will likely fall in line with the pricing of the models I will discuss.  We will discuss what smart thermostat cost in both material and labor.

Nest comes in two varieties, Nest and Nest E. The standard version will give you a broader color palette to choose from and a crisper display, but is otherwise identical to the economy version. They will run you $249 and $169 respectively.

Ecobee comes in four varieties (3 residential and 1 commercial), ecobee4, ecobee3, Smart SI, and EMS SI.

The Ecobee4 matches the Nest at a smart thermostat cost of $249.  However, the Ecobee4 comes with a remote sensor. The Ecobee3 is a later version and besides being out of date, is otherwise identical to the 4th gen. The Smart SI on the other hand lacks the sleek design and comes with fewer built-in features than the Ecobee3. Despite this, at $179, it will cost you more. Probably best to pass on this one.

While your choice will ultimately come down to which smart home company you want to pledge allegiance to (Nest is part of the Google suite, and Ecobee compatible with Amazon’s Alexa), my vote for best value is the Ecobee4. And this is coming from a guy who installed his own Nest. In my opinion, the remote sensors that work with the Ecobee are more than just cool. They are practical for optimizing comfort and efficiency. In addition, I think Amazon sits comfortably poised to dominate the voice-activated world and I would bet on any hardware that incorporates their OS.

The Installation

Good news here – you can probably do this yourself and save on your smart thermostat cost. The Nest is incredibly easy and intuitive to set up. So long as you can match colors and patterns, pulling that old thermostat off the wall and fiddling with the wires is actually not very difficult. (I’m color blind and I managed!)

Ecobees are similar in set-up but prefer to draw their power from their own designated hard line instead of stealing from the HVAC system. Doing so will give the thermostat more reliability, but if you don’t know how to run new C wire down from your HVAC unit to your thermostat, you’ll really want to call a professional. Hiring a pro will cost you $100 on a good day but can push you past $200. It’s a bummer, but you can’t do it and it needs to be worth the installer’s time.

The Set-Up

There’s no physical cost here, but you’ll be spending precious time to get everything hooked up to your wi-fi, set your preferences, and tweak the scheduling. A basic set-up is going to take you 15 minutes, but a deep dive to really set your comfort preferences and occupancy schedule may take an hour or so.

However, even if all you do is hook the thermostat to the internet, it will eventually program itself. It’ll just be a slightly bumpier road as it learns your behaviors.

The Bottom Line  – Smart Thermostat Cost

If you go the absolute most economical route

1. You’ll choose the Nest E,
2. You’ll Install it yourself,
3. And you’ll let it program itself.

You’ll pay $169 and about 30 minutes of your time.

If you want the best – Smart Thermostat Cost

1. You’ll choose a Nest or Ecobee4,
2. You’ll let a pro install it,
3. And you’ll pour extra time into programming it.

You’ll pay $349 – $449 and about 1 hour of your time.

Tube LED or not Tube LED…That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to change a ballast or….I’ll stop there.

When staring at a fluorescent fixture you will typically be staring at either T8 or T12 tubes.

Few distinctions:

• T12 fluorescent tube – Big dude. Diameter of a delicious sausage. Invented around 1930s (Yup. That’s how advanced they are.) Needs to run off of a magnetic ballast.
• T8 fluorescent tube – Much skinnier than it’s cousin. More like a hot dog if we’re going to stick with the cylindrical food analogies. Popular in the US starting in the early 1980s. Runs off an electronic ballast.

The difference in ballast, among some other logistical differences, is a key actor in whether or not you just“plug and play” with an LED retrofit or if you have to completely change everything when retrofitting.

Things that can’t run off of a magnetic ballast:

• T8 tubes
• LED tubes (TLEDs)
• Your cat

PSA: Mixing cats with electricity is not condoned by Verde Energy Efficiency Experts or their employees.

Some people try to just stick a T8 next to a T12 and let me tell you….your T8 is not going to be happy about that. Anytime you need to retrofit a T12 fixture you are always going to take that magnetic ballast out of there.

On the other hand, if you have yourself a T8 situation, that means there’s an electronic ballast in there. The least labor-intensive option for you then is to get an LED tube light that can run off of an electronic ballast. In the biz these are called TYPE A. Type A’s are easy – look at the ends of the tubes in the picture. You can see how it could easily fit where a T8 once lived. Similar looking ends, similar tube diameter. Type A tubes can live a happy life running off an electronic ballast.

Their cousin is the TYPE C tube. The Type C can only be happy if it’s got an LED driver in place of a ballast. Once you remove a magnetic ballast then you can put an LED driver in its place and get yourself some good ol’ Type C LED tubes.

If you’re lighting up your business with T12 or T8 fluorescents, you might be qualified for a utility rebate or incentive!It all starts with a FREE assessment. Or, if you live and work in Chicago and care about energy efficiency and sustainability, join Environmental Chicago and be a part of the movement.

There are many different types of electric motors, but there are three types used mainly in HVAC refrigeration applications.

The microprocessor allows the ECMs to more precisely control eddy currents

Eddy currents are naturally created magnetic fields in processor controls that counteract what the machine is trying to accomplish. In traditional motors the eddy currents cannot be controlled, and therefore the machine must work harder because it is also working against itself.

Check out this graph showing how the two types of motors compare in energy consumption throughout a typical day.

The microprocessor is also programmed with the capability to retain constant parameters in changing environments.

For example, traditional motors are built to fire at one speed all the time. If it is 2 am, and no one has opened the cooler door in five hours, a traditional motor will still be working just as hard as if it’s the holiday season, and every baker is constantly in and out of the cooler trying to keep up with the 50,000 baklava order demand.

ECMs can be equipped with controls.

This allows the motor to sense inactivity each night, and will automatically decrease the fan speed. Or it can sense when it’s baklava crunch time, and will fire the fans on high to accommodate the load. Matching the speed of the motor to the environmental fluctuations enables the motor to operate as efficiently as possible, and therefore leads to energy cost savings.

There are many pitfalls to owning and operating a business, and one of those I see most often is the difficulty to maintain outdoor lighting. Most businesses can internally change an incandescent or fluorescent lamp, but maintaining outdoor lighting is more complicated. Traditional outdoor lighting consists of a high intensity discharge bulb and ballasts. Often requiring a lift or extension ladder to reach, these lights use a ton of electricity and can last 5,000 to 20,000 hours However, as the ballast is worn, that life span can decrease significantly.

LED lighting replacements for metal halide exteriors have incredible benefits, some of which are more obvious than others.

Longevity

The main benefit that a business will enjoy is the longer lift of LED fixtures and replacements. New fixtures can last from 50,000 hours up to 100,000 hours, and really that longevity is only limited based on the quality of the driver. This is so key when businesses can spend hundreds of dollars for service companies to come and change a HID or ballast frequently, as sacrificing safety or visibility for a business is not often an option.

Energy Efficiency

Energy savings is also a key component of LED lighting performance. Typical exterior LED lights use 20-30% of the wattage of comparable traditional fixtures. This can lead to incredible Returns on Investments (ROI), even without incentives from utilities. As an incredible bonus, the lumens per watt of these outdoor fixtures continues to increase, and in 2017 we seem to be on the precipice of 200 lumens per watt.

Since exterior lights are often left on for longer hours, especially in our cold and dark winter nights in Chicagoland, the energy savings is even more important.

Brighter, Crisper Light

Exterior LED lighting is also available in a higher kelvin color temperature, creating a brighter and crisper light. This is obvious to the eye, if you’ve seen a store with new LED lights next to a store with older lighting. People also describe this is daylight, but we feel that the ideal color temperature in Chicagoland for exterior lighting is 5000k.

It literally can make a business feel more inviting and approachable, and is noticeable as you drive down a street in your town. In fact, I remember years ago as gas stations in our area were converting to LED and you could notice the difference that LED had on the approachability of certain gas stations. It felts safer, more inviting, and likely had increased sales definitively from this investment.

Advanced Controls

Finally, exterior lighting with LEDs pair great with advanced controls. Photocells and occupancy sensors are better partners with LED, as the drivers are more responsive and the lights turn on instantly and can dim. Often, we see businesses add occupancy sensors to exterior lighting to add a layer of safety or additional ways to check footage of security cameras.

Buzzing Ballasts

One final note — older lighting ballasts are incredibly difficult to maintain. Often, you will hear a loud audible buzzing sound near older exterior lighting. What better way to discourage customers to your business than a loud and irritating sound as they walk in from the parking lot? Replacing the lamp will not fix this, but a new LED fixture or solid retrofit solution will. Converting to LED will not only solve all of the above issues and enjoy a lot of the benefits, but it will also pay for itself in energy and maintenance savings.

Incentivizing your sales team is the best way to grow your business, hands down. However, the sales commission structure can be one of the most difficult and nuanced components to get right in a business.  I share this after my experience in starting a growing a sales team.

At Verde, we are very transparent in our sales commission agreement between our energy efficiency analysts and the company.

Base – provides security

It is important to provide a base salary for a sales professional, since it can take a while to ramp up and become successful. Even for the fastest learner, they need time to train and learn.

Providing a base can also help smooth out normal business cycles, which happen to almost any industry. For our company, we often have deadline around increased utility rebate fiscal years. This can lead to wild variations in income for the analysts. Therefore, the base can provide stability throughout the year.

In our sales commission structure, we have a base of $52,000. Once this is repaid to the company by selling $104,000 of gross profit work (to essentially repay the company for their salary), the sales commission is 7% of gross profit.  

We strive for 50% gross profit on each job, although some jobs are higher and some jobs are lower.  In fact, our gross profit for HVAC replacement rarely exceeds 20%.  We previously paid commission on total revenue, which created a lot of overall issues.  Connecting gross margin or profit to our commission more tightly aligns the company and the seller on the project.

Finally, we put a lot of time and thought into the $52,000 base salary. We did not want to make it too low, where there were times that people could not make rent or take the bus.   We also attended a Junto Institute training on sales that really focused on the higher desire of the average millennial to have stability over high earnings. This really changes the dynamic of the modern seller, especially those that are mission focused like our overall company.   

Additionally, we also did not want to make the base too high, where we make people comfortable with a mediocre compensation. Attracting and retaining highly impactful salesmen and saleswomen is the goal, whereas people that are not ambitious will not be attracted not succeed in this compensation plan.  We also really appreciate the fact that new analyst repay their base salary before earning commisions, which makes it easier to hire and train new analyst (with less risk)

Sales Commission Structure – Rates

I feel very strongly that good incentives for sales professionals should increase after a certain level is met, not decrease. This seems counter intuitive to people when I explain it.  However, it rewards high achieving individuals in the organization. It also makes people hungry when it is most important, when they have already delivered to the company.

One bonus feature of this is that it also keeps talented folks – the ones that deliver most the organization also receive great compensation. That is important since keeping great people is one of the most important challenges for a company.

After a sales person hits a certain level of sales, their gross profit commission rate goes from 7% to 14%.  We really want those that are hitting their stride to really go after it when they hit their momentum, and believe in setting the 

Commission Not Based on total revenue

In our business, we have decided not to base commission on total revenue, which was a shift from our past in 2018 and 2019.   In general, the ol d sales commission structure on revenue helps drive top-line growth, which a salesman or saleswoman could control. However, we hope our move to being paid on gross margin will help both parties grow stronger and be more aligned.

In addition, this provides a unique value to our customers. Since what we sell (energy efficiency) has a key indicator of ROI (return on investment), the sales rep is motivated to sell based on what brings down the ROI.  This does not always align with what is most profitable to our company. Ultimately, we hope that this provides continuing value to our customers, both helping the company and the individual that completed the sale.

We also track and make public internally the P&L or profit and loss of each job. We work this information as a team, making sure we learn from our mistakes and grow.  We look for ways to improve in our efficiency through number of installers, product selection, incentive basis, and other creative ways to manage the costs of the project.  With the analyst/seller completely involved, we hope to drive profit up and not through higher client costs, but through efficiencies.  

Sales Commission Structure – Challenges

One of the key challenges that we faced in our structure is that sales commissions were initially compensated too soon.  We paid commission as soon as the project was closed with the customer. However, in our business, we often have to wait for the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program to approved utility incentives for our customer and their project.  This can take anywhere from 10 days to 25 days. In addition, some of the more complicated lighting controls and special order products can also lead to delays.  Our normal backlog of work can range from 20 days to 60 days.

Basically, we were writing commission checks to our energy efficiency analysts long before we received any revenue. In our current growth trajectory, we noticed that this was unsustainable.  At the very least, it was an added financial burden on the company.

We made a switch to account for half of the commission at the time of sale.  This provides some instant gratification).   Additionally, we pay half of the commission at the time of installation and invoice. One downside of this is that it creates added work for the analyst to account and reconcile projects.  Eventually as we scale, we hope to have some custom built software in place shortly to make this seamless.

While best practice is to pay sales folks when the company gets paid, we do not implement this.  We continue to update our sales commission structure, so this and a higher base are both currently being considered.

Solar Commission Structure

Many of our pier companies ask us about a solar commission structure for sales. Solar in Illinois is really challenging, so I will provide some insights without complete advice. Verde has completed one solar sale (an approximately $500,000 system), so we have some experience.

Solar is similar to energy efficiency, but with some minor differences. First – solar is typically larger in scale. Our average energy efficiency job is $18,000 – while solar is much larger in revenue.

Additionally, solar has lower margins if subcontracted. When margins are solar, commissions are smaller. We have a similar challenge around HVAC commissions. Our COGS margins are closer to 15% of HVAC projects, whereas our core projects of lighting and refrigeration have COGS margins much higher. For that reason, it can be a challenge to keep commissions consistent through different job types.

Finally, solar projects have a greater cash flow from the client to the project. If they do not chose a solar PPA to finance the project, a business owner must put out a lot of capital expense to pay for this. The benefits of the solar will come in tax credits, savings in energy, and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Grassroots Selling of Energy Efficiency

Verde sells energy efficiency. We are not a not for profit, nor are we a government agency. Therefore, we must sell to survive.

I think of our sales team as a grassroots organizing campaign of energy efficiency analyst, whose roll is to get out in the streets and educate and convince folks that energy efficiency is important. I liken us to early campaign staff in Iowa for a Presidential nominee. We must get the word out to succeed. Of course, money helps compensate and motivate – so we hope our sales commission structure does motivate folks so we can accomplish our mission as a company.

In 2007, Illinois passed a law to tax customers and spend that taxation on energy efficiency. ComEd, People’s Gas, Northshore Gas, and Nicor Gas all spent incentive and rebate money out of the tax collected on each utility bill. This spending ultimately reducing energy usage with each tax dollar spent. This program through the electric utility was branded the ComEd Smart Ideas Program. Now referred to as the Comed Energy Efficiency Program

How to ComEd Smart Ideas Energy Efficiency Program Came to Be

In December 2016, Illinois doubled down on this successful ComEd energy efficiency program and increased this spending to almost $400 million annually. This law is commonly referred to as the Future Energy Jobs Act. This law was passed by an unlikely coalition in Illinois – Exelon (ComEd’s parent company), environmentalists, groups focused on job growth (including Governor Rauner), as well as other small groups.

Job growth in Illinois due to this ComEd rebate program is significant, including Verde in Chicago. All of our team of Chicago energy efficiency experts have jobs from this spending. A significant amount of our revenue is generated by partnering with ComEd on various programs for business. In fact, not to braggadocious but we were awarded the 2017 ComEd Trade Ally Partner of the Year award recently.

Different Types of ComEd Rebates in Illinois

There are a variety of ComEd rebate programs, including those for businesses and residential. Business energy efficiency rebates focus on LED lighting, and refrigeration improvements (including EC Motors with Evaporative Fan Speed Controls), HVAC, smart thermostats, and compressed air measures. The ComEd Smart Ideas energy efficiency program and incentives help reduce the cost to upgrade to energy efficiency measures. The rebates cover 50-75% of the cost of upgrades. Up to 100% of the cost for some items are possible for businesses classified as 0-100kW in their usage.

Residential rebates include free energy audits, refrigeration recycling programs, and smart thermostat discounts. There are additional incentives, such as new appliance incentives. There is also a marketplace to purchase reduced price LEDs and Smart Thermostats available to ComEd residential customers.

Why You Should Get an Assessment for the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program

ComEd spends this money because it is required by law. However, they do support this program fairly enthusiastically because of the goodwill generated for their customers through this program. Since we all pay into this tax program, if you do not participate, you are funding your neighbor’s energy efficiency. In fact, if you operate a business, you are funding improvements to your competition. So please reach out to us today for a free energy efficiency assessment.

HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) are an important part of every home and business. They allow us to sit comfortably even when the conditions outside are bitter cold or sweltering hot. These systems can also gobble up a lot of energy, sometimes accounting for as much as half of our energy use. Yeah, definitely hungry machines. However, do not fear, because there are ways to significantly save on your energy bill each month dealing just with HVAC systems alone. Let’s explore how.

Smart Thermostat or Programmable Thermostat

Installing a smart or programmable thermostat will cause your existing equipment to run less. This will maximize your current systems efficiency, as well as lead to less maintenance as it will be used less – less usage of the heat exchanger, compressor, fan and all of the equipment.

Check Those Filters

It’s hard to remember to check a HVAC unit’s filter — I mean, it’s not exactly the top thing on everyone’s “to-do” list — but it’s an important to check your filter every month. Summertime and wintertime especially, since we tend to blast the heat/cool air during this time.If you happen to win a three month excursion

So why do you have to actually come home from Maui to change the filter? Why do they matter? Well, a dirty filter will significantly slow down the air flow and make your poor HVAC

system work way, way harder than it has to. When it works harder it wastes more energy, meaning it wastes more money. Basically, it’s like wearing an air-restricting mask while you run. Can you do it? Yes. Do you want to? Definitely not.

Duct, Duct, Seal

Ducts are the part of your HVAC system that distributes the conditioned air throughout your home or business. Leaks, holes, and improper working ducts can attribute to 20-30 percent lost air within the typical home (imagine the lost air in a business, oy). “How will I know if I have a faulty duct?” you might ask. Here’s how:

• High summer/winter utility bills
• Difficulty heating/cooling rooms
• Rooms that are stuffy
• If your ducts are located in an attic, crawlspace, or garage
• Tangled/kinked flexible duct

Voilà, you are now that much wiser in ducts.

Update That Old Thing. Treat Yourself.

If your HVAC system is older than your kid born in the 90’s, you might want to consider replacing it (the HVAC unit, not the child). A system over 10 years old should be checked by a professional HVAC contractor to see it’s performance. If it is not performing efficiently, consider replacing it. This investment could potentially save you more than 115 dollars annually on your energy bill. Ca-ching!

HVAC systems are truly a gift, so show them you appreciate them by keeping them clean, changing their filters, checking their ducts, and updating them when necessary.

You take the good, you take the bad,you take them both and there you have, the Facts of Light? No? It’s a little more complicated that that. Today we’re talking about Lighting Facts, that label you see one some lightbulbs, manufacturer collateral or in store displays. It looks more like something you’re going to eat rather than something that’s going to screw into a socket. Believe it or not, not all LED Bulbs are created equal, and you should pay attention to the lighting facts label on a product when making informed purchasing decisions and to be sure you are choosing the right bulb. The U.S. Department of Energy created the Lighting Facts program so that manufacturers of LEDs could substantiate claims of light output and quality, and consumers could make sure the LED’s they purchase meet their expectations. Much like comparing calories on a nutritional facts label, the most important facts of the LED are measured.

Lighting Fact Labels Measure;

• Lumensindicate light output. The higher the number, the more light is emitted.
• Lumens per watt indicates efficiency. The higher the number, the more efficient.
• Wattsindicate the energy required to light the product. The lower the wattage, the less energy is used.
• Correlated Color Temperature indicateslight color. “Cool” colors have higher Kelvin temperatures (3600–5500 K); “warm” colors have lower color temperatures (2700–3000 K). Cool white light is usually better for visual tasks. Warm white light is usually better for living spaces because it casts a warmer light on skin and clothing. Color temperatures of 2700 to 3600 K are recommended for most general indoor and task lighting.
• Color Rendering Index(CRI) indicates the effect of the lamp’s light spectrum on the color appearance of objects. The higher the number, the truer the appearance of the light on objects. Incandescent lighting is 100 on the CRI.
• LED Lumen Maintenance(optional) Listed as a percentage, this metric estimates the amount of light the LED light source is projected to emit at 25,000 hours at a given ambient test temperature, compared to its initial light output. This percentage is based on LM-80, in-situ temperature performance, and TM-21 projections.
• Warranty(optional) Partners provide a link to detailed warranty information.

Now you’re ready to use the Lighting Facts guide to assure you’re buying the right bulb for your application. When it comes to quality LEDs, you’re going to get what you pay for. It’s best to go with known brands, those that participate in the Lighting Facts program, and are Energy Star partners. Consulting with lighting professionals to be sure you’re using the correct LED solutions for the right applications will also help to be sure you’re making the right choices to illuminate your business. Our Verde staff are experts in the field of energy efficiency and would love to get your business going on huge savings! Reach out to us today to see what we can do for you.

I haven’t see a lot of content on respect in the business world. Empathy, hustle, equality get plenty of coverage, but I think we need to flesh out what respect is beyond the obvious “it’s good.” Ultimately, if you embrace respect as a tool in your EQ toolkit, you will unlock your potential to make genuine connections with other people, which is the key to “manufacturing” luck.

Let’s start with the fundamentals. Here is my definition: understanding the true value of something and treating it as such. And my definition of luck: an instance in which the context around a person allows him/her to achieve something that an individual without that context could not achieve

So when we say that we have tremendous respect for a mentor, we mean that we truly understand the value of their influence on ourselves. When we respect our parents, we mean we value the sacrifice they made to raise us, feed us, shelter us, and love us. Disrespect is the opposite. Showing someone disrespect means that we do not value them, as a master might treat a slave or a country might treat an enemy in war time. (Look at wartime propaganda and how the messages often describe enemies as animals to dehumanize them and strip them of their intrinsic value.

But it’s more complicated than that, isn’t it… There are over 7 billion people on the planet, 300 million if we’re thinking local. No one has the mental capacity to reflect on and determine the value of so many people. So it’s simpler (dare I say a shortcut) to lump people together into two groups, an inner circle and the others. It’s a ubiquitous quality of human nature. Look anywhere: black, white, male, female, democratic, republican, gay, straight, well dressed, casual, athletic, overweight, young, old… These divisions exist solely because one group disrespects the other.

Disrespect comes about in two ways though and we need to make that distinction. First is through understanding, that is if we don’t understand something’s value, we may not treat it appropriately. The second is through treatment, when someone understands your value but doesn’t acknowledge it, or antagonizes you anyway. We’ve all been on the receiving end of that mistreatment. But the ugly truth is, no matter who you are, we are actively grouping people we interact with into categories of the inner circle and the others.

So let’s attack understanding. You disrespect your coworkers because they are difficult to work with. Do you understand what their jobs are, what their obstacles are, what their ambitions are, what brings them fulfillment? Now are they really that different? You disrespect your parents because they don’t let you do things and stifle your creativity. But do you understand their sacrifices, their wisdom about what it takes to earn a living and find happiness, what mistakes they made along their journey? Now are they really that unfair? Once you’ve asked those questions and you understand that context, now you can start to behave in a way that aligns with their narrative. That’s how you turn disrespect into respect.

And it turns out, you’ll be much better off. Because what do you think happens when Elizabeth gets a promotion, she needs a #2, and you’re her only coworker that understands her and treats her with respect. What do think happens when you tell your spouse of a deep ambition of yours and before he can even offer a response you have already addressed his concerns because you respect how he wants to live his life. The answer is good things happen to you. Most people call that lucky. It’s actually the direct result of mutual respect. (Scientifically proven in fact. Check out chapter 2 of Eric Barker’s “Barking up the Wrong Tree.”)

To understand this better, notice that the key word in my definition of luck is context. You and I don’t have control over many of the variables around context, and let’s not discredit the immensely difficult circumstances many people need to overcome, but one thing we can control is how much exposure we have to context. I dig into the stories of success people constantly, it’s my obsession, and everyone tells the same story. If it weren’t for their willingness to talk to new people, collaborate on new things, or explore new ideas, the lucky breaks they got would never have come their way. Deploying respect daily is a tangible way for you to broaden your context and manufacture your own luck. As Gary Vaynerchuk puts it, “karma is practical.”

As a final point, let’s also identify that it’s okay to disrespect people or things that present zero value. Negative thoughts, abusive relationships, air pollution are a few things that I identify as having zero value and I don’t respect them. It’s all about building your context, right? It’s like gravity – build a life on the right values and that’s what you’ll attract.

If you found this reflection valuable to you, I have one last request for you. I believe that your greatest miscalculation is of the value you place on the planet. Value the earth. Understand all that it has given you. Understand that it is your greatest asset and treat it that way. Audit your business, your organization, your life and eliminate all of the waste you can. If you do this, not only will you see real, perpetual cost savings, but you will insulate yourself from the inevitable end of our linear economy.

If you don’t know where to start or don’t know how to balance sustainability with your other goals, I completely respect that, and I can help.

Most of us have heard of LED lighting, but many may not know much about them. Let’s start the conversation about LEDs and why they are the true shining stars in energy saving.

1. The Light-Emitting Diode (LED) was invented in 1962 by Nick Holoynak, Jr., and have gone on to grow in popularity
2. The savings for LEDs are momentous. It is estimated that by 2027, the annual energy savings from LEDs could save the equivalent of 44 large electric power plants (1,000 megawatts each). These electrical savings equal out to more than billion
3. LEDs life is also worth praising. Traditional light bulbs dwindle in comparison with longevity, with LED boasting more than a 25 times longer life. If you’re running LEDs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it comes out to an additional three years of life.
4. Most non-LED lighting has to reflect the light to specific locations by utilizing reflectors and diffusers in order to trap the light, resulting in more than half the light potentially never leaving the fixture. LEDs are different since their light is emitted in aspecific direction. This helps utilize your energy most efficiently.
5. Putting LED into a close-to-home perspective: If the U.S. switched entirely to LED lights over the next two decades the energy savings could amount to $250 billion, and reduce our electricity consumption for lighting around 50% while eliminating 1,800 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

There. You’re now an LED expert! These facts are bound to pop up in a trivia game someday, so when you win that million dollar prize, you’re welcome!

To learn more about how these lightbulbs work, journey over to our postThe Facts of Light: Understanding Lighting Facts Labels.

Increased profitability can be found in a variety of unexpected places in your business. How can we be more energy-efficient? Here are a few sustainable solutions that you might not have thought about in how we can be more energy efficient and grow the bottom line of the business that you operate.

Thermostatic Controls

It still surprises me how many businesses in Chicago do not have programmable thermostat in their business. Dropping your heat down in the winter, or raising the temperature in the summer, during non-business hours can lead to dramatic energy savings. Smart thermostats can take you even into deeper savings on high electric bills in the summer and high gas bills in the winter.

Smart Power Strips

Computers and their associated equipment have some exciting features these days – low energy usage sleep settings, as well as more energy-efficient screens. When you combine these with a smart power strip, one that cuts the power to accessory items when not in use, you can find a little more profit in your business with a pretty low cost move.

Daylight controls

In stalling LED lights is a must, both to save energy on the business and labor side. However, one new trick that really takes profitability to the next level are sensors that control both for daylight and occupancy. If there is enough daylight in the room that lights don’t need to be on, our latest fixtures will only provide a small amount of additional light, if any. One extra benefit of this is dimmed fixtures will actually create less heat on the LED driver, leading to even longer lasting lifetime usage than planned.

Weatherstripping

Yes, a very low cost item like weatherstripping can really impact your businesses bottom line. Reducing the energy usage in summer and winter not only makes your business more comfortable for your customers, but also saves energy business costs and will lead to increasing profitability.

Many of these items are supported in cost through your local utility energy efficiency program. Ask an expert on our save energy solutions team for more information on savings potential, your out of pocket cost, and any associated rebates available to you. Hint Hint – weatherstripping an smart power strips are likely available to you at no cost if your business kW usage is under 100kW. If you operate a business in Illinois and want more information, don’t be shy!

Sustainability is the new black- a phrase I’ve heard from multiple friends and classmates over the past few years. The word ‘sustainability’ has become a major buzz word in many different realms- political, corporate, and even individual. But what does the word really mean?

Contrary to popular belief, which is mostly what sustainability is portrayed as in the media, the word isn’t mutually exclusive to the environment. The one major theme each of my sustainability courses throughout college and graduate school shared was this: sustainability doesn’t just encompass the environment, it also has social and economical dimensions as well (mic drop!). These three realms work together to keep every aspect of businesses and life growing and prospering. Without one aspect, the other two will flounder.

For any business owner, this can a lot to think about, on top of the many day-to-day issues and obstacles every business owner already faces. The idea of sustainability in all its glory can be intimidating- where does one start? This is where Verde comes in. From our energy efficiency analysts to our operations team to our installation crew, we’re experts at taking whats existing, tweaking it a bit, and making businesses and lifestyles as a whole more sustainable.

The updates Verde makes to a business, whether it be new freezer motors, LED lighting, or an HVAC unit, always encompass every dimension of sustainability. By installing new, more efficient measures, it’s obvious that energy is being saved. This makes a business more environmentally sustainable. Less kWh are being used every minute, which in turn also saves money on the business’s monthly energy bills. This is where the economic dimension comes in to play. With less money being used towards energy, and more money being available for other areas of the business, social sustainability starts to prosper. Owners are able to put more money into aspects of the business they’ve never been able to before, most likely benefiting the people involved, both employees and customers. On top of this, the solutions we install tend to make for a more inviting work environment. Whether it be a new HVAC unit that keeps the business at the most comfortable temperature for customers and employees, or the new lighting that makes it easier to work and showcase products- the people involved with our projects are only happier when we’re done. This is where the social aspect comes into play for Verde, which is what our staff thrives off.

The next time you make an energy efficiency lifestyle change, ask yourself how your actions are affecting all three dimensions of sustainability. You’ll be amazed to see how closely they work, and how much they rely on each other. You’ll also feel even more pride in your positive actions.