Making the switch to greener lighting: energy savings programs popular with North Bay business.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: NORTH BAY - Ontario Power Authority

When Michelle Justice walks through a North Bay business on an audit she sees a checklist in her head of easy-to-do things for a company to save money on their power bill.

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With dozens of small retailers and manufacturers across the city, North Bay Hydro's Energy Management Advisor has a multitude of companies to visit on her prospect list.

Justice's mandate is to educate businesses on how to reduce their power consumption with some low cost measures. It starts by looking up at the ceiling.

"We're encouraging businesses to change from a T12 (florescent) bulb with standard ballast to a high efficiency ballast and a T8 fixture."

North Bay Hydro provides free energy audit walk-throughs to any business interested in taking advantage of two incentive programs offered by the Ontario Power Authority.

After labour, power is usually the second largest cost to business.

The local utility is cultivating a culture of true believers in North Bay with 92 large and small businesses signed on under two Ontario Power Authority conservation programs. The companies have either completed lighting installations or have signed work orders for this year.

Carl Crewson, owner of canoe, kayak and peddle-boat builder Plastitech, was among the first wave of business retrofits.

More than a year and half ago, his family-run company did a complete conversion of more 100-ceiling lights at the 100,000-square-foot shop. They replaced old and inefficient metal Halide lamps and T-12s in their parts room and assembly areas with noticeably brighter T5s and T8's florescent lights.

"They (Halide lamps) were not very efficient with a slow warm-up time," said service manager George Bishop, who lead the re-lighting effort. "If the power was off, it was slow to recover."

The bulbs in the old lamps also tended to fade badly after a year.

"The trailer factory (built in 2001) was getting like a cave with the lighting that was put in," adds Crewson, who expects to see a four-year payback for his $30,000 investment.

"Physically we do things different," said Crewson. "We don't run several motors at the same time to cut down on the (power) demand."

Already there has been a 10 per cent savings on the monthly hydro bill since the 2007 installation.

Motion sensors for lighting were installed and lower horsepower motors introduced to run equipment. Computers are turned off at day's end, heat is controlled through programmable thermostats, and office lights are switched off...