Major changes in the lighting market in recent years have led to the opportunity to capture deeper savings from advanced lighting controls and systems. While these deeper savings offer significant savings potential, the mass-market lamp replacement opportunity is large and immediate. Additional market and technology information is necessary to understand the appropriate application and program design for different commercial lighting upgrade projects.
Approximately 35 percent of total lighting energy consumed in the commercial and industrial sector is done so by linear fixtures due to their long operating hours and large number of units. A majority of CEE members capture savings from this market opportunity, with 54 members offering four foot linear replacement lamp programs in 2016.
The CEE T8 Replacement Lamp Specification and Qualifying Products List provide a technology neutral basis for identification of high performance energy efficient linear lamp products. A benefit of technology neutrality is that new products can qualify as they emerge, for example, tubular LEDs (TLEDs) for fluorescent applications. Nevertheless challenges for program design and implementation have come along as well. The primary complexity is using TLEDs in a fluorescent fixture that requires programs to consider lifetime and compatibility of lamps and ballasts.
Luckily, your program administrator community has sorted through the options for you. Available in December, the CEE Linear Replacement Lamp Program Guidance provides members with information about the market and opportunity, addresses programmatic considerations and issues that have emerged in linear lamp replacement programs, and identifies references to recent studies, FAQs, and other resources. Intended to accompany the CEE T8 Replacement Lamp Specification, the program guidance document presents administrators with a single resource to understand the opportunity and its application in the commercial lighting market. In the meantime, CEE members can visit the subcommittee page to get a flavor of the considerations.
About CEE
CEE is an award-winning consortium of efficiency program administrators from the United States and Canada. Members work to unify program approaches across jurisdictions to increase the success of efficiency in markets. By joining forces at CEE, individual electric and gas efficiency programs are able to partner not only with each other, but also with other industries, trade associations, and government agencies. Working together, administrators leverage the effect of their ratepayer funding, exchange information on successful practices and, by doing so, achieve greater energy efficiency for the public good.