Mark Ulmschneider, owner of Unit 517 at the Antlers, must have been reading my mind.
After converting the majority of lighting in the common areas of the Antlers to the newer, more efficient and long lasting LED lighting, it’s now time to consider the same for our individual condominiums. I thought it best to start replacing the halogen type bulbs first because availability is quickly becoming non-existent.
I did a walk through of all the units and counted only the halogen-par type bulbs in each. Some of the units have only 3 recessed in the kitchen and others have over 40 throughout the condominium. Total for all the building is over 950.
That’s a lot of light bulbs and remember, it does not include the standard incandescent bulbs in the lamps and chandeliers (let’s throw another 1,000 in when those are counted).
Having a discussion with Mark this past winter about the replacement and conversion of all lighting over time, he said “Why don’t you just go ahead and do my whole place. It’s all got to be done eventually anyway, doesn’t it?”
So that I did. Twenty-six LED’s were swapped out at a cost of $565.
I must say that the quality of the light is nearly identical to the original and one would be hard pressed to notice any difference.
I talked with Mark the other day and explained that although LED lights use less energy, the savings on his monthly utility bill would not be that significant. But I do have every intention to track his Holy Cross bills in the future and find out just how much he actually does save over time.
Important as any energy savings are, just as important is the impression the Antlers leaves on future guests. More emphasis is put on green initiatives in our industry these days and staying abreast with these changes is no longer a choice, but a necessity.
Also, this conversion is guaranteed against failure for at least 5 years and replacing burned out light bulbs dozens of times every year is now a task in the past (at least in unit 517).
Thanks Mark for moving forward on this.
Now we need to come up with a plan to replace the other 939 lights and a 1,000 more after that. (Actually, we are putting some thought into this and we’ll be asking for your feed back soon.)
Greg