Devman Company Saves Energy And Reduces Costs Of Lighting Medical Buildings

The Phoenix-based is a full-service real estate brokerage firm that specializes in providing property management, development, sales and leasing services to owners of medical care facilities. They manage more than 400,000 square feet of medical office space and have found that changing lighting fixtures can reduce operational costs and save energy.
By replacing incandescent light fixtures with fluorescent fixtures and fluorescent retrofit kits, the DevMan Company has been able to significantly reduce the operational costs of lighting and cooling the buildings it manages. A fluorescent flood light fixture, for example, has a much longer life span -lasting up to five times longer than incandescent flood lights. This not only saves the cost of replacement lamps, it also saves the labor and maintenance costs of replacing them. In areas where light fixtures are hard to reach, such as exterior lighting on second and third floors, maintenance costs can be high if a scissor lift or other equipment must be rented to change the bulbs.
Fluorescent lamps also use less energy, yet generate the same amount of light. In addition, they burn cooler, thus reducing inside air conditioning needs which are significant in medical facilities where more lighting usually is required, or in warm climates where air conditioning is a must.
Upgrading existing fluorescent fixtures with new technology, such as electronic ballasts, also can reduce energy usage. The electronic ballasts generate less heat which gives them a longer life span and also lowers air conditioning costs. Fluorescent flood lamps for exterior and interior lighting are available as a complete individual system containing an aluminized glass reflector, a ballast adapter and a fluorescent lamp. These preassembled units simply screw into any standard incandescent socket, making installation easy.
In addition to general office lighting, the DevMan Company is in the process of retrofitting all indoor “exit” signs to fluorescent bulbs to achieve additional savings. Since these signs stay on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the savings are expected to be significant.
“In our experience, we have generally recaptured our investment in the new, more expensive lighting fixtures in the first year. Savings in future years are expected to be significant. A recent retrofit of an 1,800 square foot medical suite which had an inordinate amount of incandescent flood lights, for example, will yield savings of about $1,500 per year,” said William E. Molloy, DevMan partner.
