Article from Volume 11, Issue Number 1, 2024

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Energy Efficient Lighting Upgrade

By Eric Hrycyk | Other articles by Eric Hrycyk | Feature

Light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs) were well entrenched in the marketplace by 2010. Many businesses and households were replacing their traditional incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes with the new technology in an effort to save on the cost of electricity.

In 2017, Manitoba Hydro offered a cash incentive to convert to LEDs and the board of the Pointe Riviere Condominium where I live began to examine the consequences of such a conversion.

Our condominium consists of two buildings that meet in the middle to share an entrance, elevator, common room and gym. We have two garages under the condominium units, each with 19 parking stalls. The garages are concrete, with no outside lighting. Each garage was illuminated by 24 light fixtures, each powering four fluorescent tubes. The combined garages had a total of 192 tubes, turned on 24 hours a day.

We contacted our electrical contractor, who gave us an estimate for the work but also suggested that we consider changing the fluorescent bulbs in all of the 24-hour locations. They were in electrical rooms, garbage rooms, the main staircase and two fire staircases and that added 40 additional tubes, increasing our total to 232 fluorescent tubes.

Our electrical contractor installed all of the LEDs at a cost of $6,166.50. Minus the Hydro rebate of $1,500, that came to an actual cost of $4,666.50. The cost savings in the first year were calculated at $1,490 and within three years, our investment was repaid in full.

Although we have not calculated our savings for the last three years, it has been considerable with Hydro rates increasing every year.

There have been other, unexpected benefits:

• Our garages are far brighter. Fluorescent tubes degrade over time and give limited light. LEDs also degrade, but much more slowly, and they maintain their brightness much longer.

• We have not changed a LED bulb since the changeover. Changing fluorescent tubes in the garage and stairways required staff with ladders and was a never-ending job.

The LED bulbs are rated to last seven or eight years and have already paid for themselves. But I expect there will be a time when we will be replacing all of the LEDs with the new “latest and greatest” technology.

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Eric Hrycyk has been a director of CCI Manitoba since the fall of 2021. He and his wife have lived in their condo for more than a decade and Eric has served on their corporation’s board of directors for at least half of their time there, and is currently their president.