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| ** NEW ** Business Lighting Program |
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A new rebate program is being offered through the Take Control and Save Energy Efficiency program. It is the High Efficiency Business Lighting Rebate Program. Lighting is a critical component of every small business. Employees must be able to see to safely perform their jobs, and floor space should be aesthetically pleasing to encourage sales. You may be surprised to learn that lighting can take a larger share of a building's electricity use than any other single end use. Lighting systems produce large amounts of heat as well, and are typically the largest source of waste heat inside commercial buildings. Energy efficient lighting, such as compact fluorescent bulbs, add less heat than inefficient lighting. By decreasing internal heat gain, efficient lighting also reduces a building's cooling requirements. Your business may be spending much more than needed to effectively light your facilities. Significant cost savings can be achieved with energy efficiency improvements, and due to continually improving technology, lighting usually provides the highest return on investment of major upgrades. With good design, lighting energy use in most buildings can be cut in half while maintaining or improving lighting quality. Such designs typically pay for themselves in energy savings alone within a few years, and they offer more benefits in terms of the potential for smaller and less costly cooling systems and more productive work environments. Do You Qualify? Southwest Electric Cooperative is offering this rebate program to commercial, industrial and agricultural cooperative business members. Only members with greater than 10 bulbs or fixtures at their installation site will qualify. The rebate amount will be determined prior to installation and calculated based on an audit of existing and replacement lighting. The total rebate amount is limited to $30,000 per member per year. How Do You Participate? A walk through of your facility must be conducted by Southwest Electric Cooperative to audit the existing lighting inventory. The member will need to fill out the lighting rebate application that will be provided at the time of the audit. Pre-approval is required before you purchase and install the lighting equipment. Once the cooperative approves the proposed lighting, you may install the approved lighting and equipment. After installation, the cooperative will perform another walk through audit to verify the lighting installation. The lighting specification sheets and the receipts will need to accompany the completed rebate application. Rebate amounts will vary depending which bulbs or fixtures you replace your old lighting with. The total rebate cannot exceed 40 percent of the total capital cost of the new lighting equipment. For full business lighting rebate details you may contact one of the Southwest Electric Cooperative offices or visit us online at www.swec.coop. |
