Up to 30% of the energy consumed in commercial and industrial buildings is wasted through inefficient equipment, operational practices, or occupant behaviors. Almost every existing building or facility has the potential to use less electricity. Using energy wisely decreases operating expenses and adds money directly to the bottom line.
Just like for our residential customers, Clallam County Public Utility District (PUD) offers financial incentives to help small, medium, and large businesses eliminate electricity energy waste and save money. Our incentives shorten the payback on your investments in your facility and equipment and help improve your company's bottom line. These rebates aren’t just for for-profit enterprises, so if you’re a school, non-profit, government agency, or any other organization where you don’t consider yourself commercial, you are eligible as well.
LED Lighting
On October 1 Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) increased the incentive for LED tubes from $2 per tube to $8 per tube. For businesses and organizations that haven’t yet made the switch from fluorescent tubes to LED tubes, that incentive increase means that there’s never been a better time to make the upgrade. And the lighting program that we offer along with BPA doesn’t just cover converting from fluorescent tubes to LED tubes. We have incentives that cover upgrading to LED lighting for all interior and exterior lighting retrofits.
Over the past 2 years, Clallam County PUD has helped pay for LED lighting retrofits that have totaled over 1,700,000 kWh, or enough energy to power over 60 homes for a year. Most of those projects were with our large commercial customers. But if you’re a small or medium-sized business we don’t want you to miss out on the energy and maintenance saving opportunities with LED lighting. LED lighting today is really a business case shoe-in. If you are going to buy replacement lights for your interior, exterior, or warehouse space lighting it really doesn’t make sense to keep changing out old and inefficient technology. And we have incentives to help reduce the cost for you. Contact us to learn how you too can participate in our LED lighting program.
In addition to reducing energy and maintenance costs over the long term, good and efficient lighting offers additional benefits for you and your business:
- Visual performance and comfort. As the right lighting can optimize a person’s ability to perform visual tasks, it’s important to carefully review the types of tasks that happen in a space when evaluating a potential lighting retrofit or redesign.
- Positive visitor impression. Lighting has an important effect on a visitor’s first impression of a space. The right lighting can help businesses cultivate the intended visitor experience.
- Safety and security. Both indoors and outdoors, quality lighting promotes safety and peace of mind for visitors. For people approaching a building or using a parking lot, white light with a higher correlated color temperature makes outdoor areas appear brighter and feel safer.
- Alertness, health, and well-being. Lighting can play an important role in improving the health and well-being of workers and students who spend much of their time indoors. New control systems allow a facility operator to control nearly all aspects of the lighting in their building to improve the environment for inhabitants.
Heat Pumps & Ductless Heat Pumps
Heat pumps and ductless heat pumps have long been our most popular residential programs, and we see much less demand for the same technologies among our commercial customers. Because we are hoping that will change, Bonneville Power Administration and Clallam County PUD are now offering higher rebates for these technologies in commercial applications. Currently, we offer from $150 up to $1,100 per ton of cooling capacity, depending on if you’re replacing old electric resistance heating or upgrading to a more efficient new heat pump in a facility where you already have an existing heat pump.
To participate in our commercial heat pump and ductless heat pump program you can look for a participating contractor on our participating installers list on our web page. Participating installers will give you bids that include the rebate amount and will reduce the upfront cost to you to purchase the heat pump equipment. If you already have a relationship with a heating contractor that’s not listed on the list, please reach out to us and we will work with you to ensure that you can get the same rebate amount with the contractor that you already work with.
If you have any questions regarding this article or if you would like to discuss any other energy-saving opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We work for you and want to help. You can reach us via the web, email Utility Services, and phone, at (360) 565-3249.