Small Commercial Lighting Program

New Energy Conservation Construction Code Issued for New York State

The Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State (ECCCNYS) has been revised, effective January 1, 2008. The Code (labeled “2007”) contains a new set of prescriptive lighting power allowances (LPAs). The Code applies to all new construction, additions, and major renovations where 50% or more of the building’s luminaires are replaced within a twelve month period.

These changes in the ECCCNYS will not have an impact on the Small Commercial Lighting Program (SCLP) criteria under the current Program Opportunity Notice (PON 809). We will continue to use the lighting power criteria that are in the application package, at least through March 31, 2008, when PON 809 expires.

We do urge all SCLP Allies to become familiar with the Code and to design projects that meet the new energy efficiency standards. Allies may have to consider different approaches to lighting design and technology use to meet the requirements of the new code. For instance, here are two important changes in the prescriptive LPAs in the new Code:

The LPA for office applications is reduced from 1.5 watts per square foot to 1.1 watts per square foot.
The LPA for industrial applications, where the ceiling height is greater than 20 feet, is reduced significantly from 3.0 watts per square foot to 1.7 watts per square foot.

Your SCLP Account Manager can assist inidentifying technologies and design layouts that can help meet the new Code criteria. You can obtain a copy of the new Code from the New York Department of State by contacting the publisher, ICC at 1-800-786-4452 or visit www.iccsafe.org/dyn/prod/3800S07NY.html.

High Performance T-8 Fixtures

According to lighting manufacturers, energy-guzzling T-12 fluorescent lamps are still prevalent in commercial buildings. In fact these account for about 50% of lighting applications that could be replaced with T-8 systems. For maximum energy savings, manufacturers now offer High Performance 32-Watt, T-8 lamp-ballast systems that also provide better quality light, and longer lamp life. With only about 5% of commercial lighting systems now using high-performance lamp-ballast combinations, there is a huge opportunity to promote the use of these systems. Many of these products are eligible for financial incentives through New York Energy Smart^SM programs such as Smart Equipment Choices.

More information on High Performance T8 lighting systems is available through the DesignLights Consortium at http://www.designlights.org/hpt8/hpt8.htm.

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) has developed a performance specification for high performance T-8 systems (http://www.cee1.org/com/com-lt/com-lt-specs.pdf ). Note that the performance specification addresses the performance of the lamp-ballast system, not the application. CEE also makes available a qualifying product list (http://www.cee1.org/com/com-lt/com-lt-prod.pdf ). The product list is updated on a regular basis.

Selling the True Value of Lighting

SCLP Lighting Technical Specialist Jeffrey Schwartz recently wrote an article for LD+A decribing the various methods used by end-users to carry out financial analyses of lighting projects. An understanding of this will help SCLP Allies Sell the True Value of Lighting . The article is from LD+A January 2008. Reprinted with permission of LD+A, published by the IESNA.