Today’s successful industrial and commercial businesses strive to innovate, finding new ways to operate efficiently and save money while enhancing worker experience and product quality. One of the areas that’s been proven to make an impact is lighting. Many businesses may be aware of options but unsure of how to implement a solid plan, while others are starting from scratch in their exploration of how lighting can save money and deliver real value. That’s where an Agilix Solutions lighting audit comes in.
What is a Lighting Audit?
A lighting audit, performed by Agilix Solutions, is an in-depth analysis of a facility’s current lighting. We go above the competition to provide the most advanced solution for your business and documents how you can achieve a desirable return on investment. Our complimentary audit can benefit a wide range of customers from industrial to commercial spaces, both indoor and outdoor lighting, and facilities as small as a few hundred square feet, to as large as an urban hospital.
Typically, customers who request a lighting audit are thinking first of energy efficiency. This is a great reason to analyze your current lighting. Once we proceed with our comprehensive process, however, we begin to uncover benefits that go far beyond efficiency. Today, we’ll review that process and outline the real business impact you may experience with a lighting audit and plan implementation.
Our Lighting Audit Process
The Agilix Solutions team approaches all lighting audits from a consultative perspective, and that means we listen first, gather the facts and data we need to address your goals, and develop a plan to help you make it happen:
1. Discovery
The initial discovery phase includes a conversation with the customer. Our goal is to determine what you want to achieve. Key points we seek to understand include:
- Why are you looking to upgrade your current lighting?
- Energy savings, maintenance savings, increased light levels, upgraded look, controls, etc.
- Are you looking to take advantage of local, state and/or federal incentives?
- Do you have areas that require a specific environmental specification?
- What challenges are you facing with your current lighting?
- How is work performed in specific spaces on a daily basis? Are there lighting concerns in these areas? Review the current building layout.
2. Physical Audit
Once we understand your goals and needs, the Agilix Solutions team will walk the space to:
- Document current lamps, fixtures and emergency lighting throughout the interior and exterior of the facility.
- Measure the building and existing light fixtures. We look at the fixtures heights, spacing and current light levels.
- Document the current lighting hours of operation.
- Identify areas that may be appropriate for controls that include: occupancy sensors, dimming, zone control and daylight harvesting.
- Gather current utility bills.
- Analyze maintenance expenditures associated with the current lighting systems
3. Delivery of Audit and ROI Report
Once all pertinent information is gathered and analyzed, the Agilix Solutions team will deliver our audit report. It will detail all areas of inspection and provides options for lighting replacement, retrofits, and control systems available to help you reach your goals. All options are considered, and we approach our report just as we approached the discovery phase – as consultants working to identify the best solution for your facility. In the report, you’ll find:
- Recommended lighting products. This list includes fixtures and controls to help regulate the amount of light based on the time of the day, room/area use, and availability of natural light.
- Photometrics report. This is a layout of your facility with the plotting of new fixtures and foot-candle measurements showing light level improvement.
- ROI report. Because we’ve taken the time to understand your existing energy and maintenance expenditures, we can detail how much you’ll save and how quickly the project will pay for itself. We’re also intimately familiar with various incentive programs, so we’ll include these in your report as well.
4. Lighting Plan Execution
The Agilix Solutions team works with each customer to accommodate their best course of action for lighting plan implementation. In some cases, there may already be funds budgeted to tackle the project in its entirety, or in other instances, we’re helping the customer to plan for a phased-in approach as project funding is approved and becomes available. In either case, the strength of Agilix Solutions’ inventory, warehousing space and logistics capabilities become a great asset to our customers as they journey through the project. Agilix Solutions will:
- Supply the recommended fixtures and controls.
- Recycle old fluorescent tubes and ballasts.
- If needed, we can help with the selection of an electrical contractor for installation.
- We can act as a general contractor for your lighting project. In this scenario, we will turnkey the project on your behalf, including hiring and sub-contracting an electrical contractor for the installation.
- Submit applications for lighting incentives.
- Deliver and stage materials when and where you need them.
- Help with manufacturer warranty issues as they arise in the future.
The Benefits of an Agilix Solutions Lighting Audit
While the process typically starts with a customer’s desire to save money and energy, there are a number of benefits that many businesses are pleasantly surprised to experience:
- Demonstrate cost reduction strategies. Some manufacturers must demonstrate cost-cutting and energy efficiency strategies to their retail partners proving they are working to reduce overhead costs to make their products more price competitive.
- Marketing environmental benefits. By making your facility eco-friendly, you communicate to your customers that you are environmentally conscious.
- Safety. Good lighting is essential for workers to be able to effectively perform their jobs. When a facility has low or poor lighting it can pose a safety risk to workers. We can work with your safety manager to support your specifications or standards.
- A morale boost for the team. A well-lit environment is a more inviting and can help to bolster a work force which, in turn, will promote productivity. Just like a day out in the sun, a brighter environment makes for a mood boost.
- Moving into the future. The latest lighting technology is sure to save you money, but it will also upgrade your facility and make it more in line with best practices. For example, the use of LED lighting can help you save on maintenance costs in the future. LED lights will last longer and require less maintenance as you do not need to change out lamps as often. LED lighting outperforms fluorescent lighting on average by 10 to 25 %.
- Utility incentives. There are many incentives offered by local utility companies which will provide a great ROI once upgrades are implemented.
The Agilix Solutions Lighting Team is ready to help you reach your goals and provide the education you need to make informed decisions about your lighting plan. For more information, or to get started with the process, please reach out to your Agilix Solutions Account Manager, or contact us online today.