Subject: Re-using inefficient lighting equipment

From: [email-masked] (Jon McHugh)
Date: 6 Sep 1995 10:35:53 -0400

I would second Nils Borg's opinion that shipping inefficient lighting
products abroad only exports our energy inefficiency problems. If this is
nor unethical, it is pretty close.

This brings up a similar issue - while at Public Service's Energy Edge fair
18 months ago I was asking the lighting management companies there what they
did with their used lamps and ballasts that were generated by the local
demand side management programs. One companies said that they resold them at
discount prices! They were selling T-12 lamps for $0.25 each. This used
equipment helps lower the first cost of inefficient equipment (in this case
in the utilitiy's own service territory). Since this inefficient equipment
has a higher life-cycle cost, and a higher environmental cost, why would
anyone want to see it sold anywhere? This points to a need that demand side
management programs require the destruction of inefficient equipment.

I know it is hard to throw away anything that is still working - it is
counterintuitive that this is the frugal thing to do. In our City facilities
department, the electricians had saved the 10 year old magnetic ballasts
>from  an electronic ballast upgrade so they could reuse them in fixtures that
had failing magnetic ballasts. Throwing these old ballasts in the trash and
rewiring the fixtures to accept a 3 lamp electronic ballast had a lower cost
over 5 years than installing an old free ballast (this analysis included a
6% discount rate and a 0% energy escalation rate). This assumes that either
the recycled replacement ballast or the other magnetic ballast in the
fixture would fail over the next 5 years. The cost of electricity here is
$0.05/kWh.

---------------------------------
       Jon McHugh
 Energy Services Engineer
Fort Collins Light & Power
    700 Wood Street
Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580
 [email-masked]
    (970)221-6395
    (970)221-6619 FAX
    (970)224-6003 TDD