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Typical Questions We Are Asked About Lighting Maintenance/Relamps Those people who are new to facilities management, energy management or have only recently become responsible for their company’s lighting system usually have similar concerns and questions. Below are a few of the most common questions with answers that will help you with a basic understanding of lighting retrofits.
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| Is Lighting Maintenance Just Changing Lamps When They Burn Out? | ||||||||
| Back to Top | No. Lighting maintenance can be much more than just changing burned out lamps. Lighting maintenance can include replacing ballast, fixtures, transformers, contactors, group relamping, timer resets or other system related support for both exterior and interior systems. | |||||||
| Is My Company Big Enough To Employ NES Lighting Maintenance Services? | ||||||||
| Back to Top | While most all companies should have a plan for handling their lighting maintenance, not all companies are positioned to take advantage of the services of a lighting maintenance provider. Large and small box mutli-facility retailers with a regional or national presence are best postured to reap the benefits of a maintenance program. Large commercial properties can also benefit from a lighting maintenance program and save in manpower expense by employing NES. | |||||||
| What Are The Benefits Of A Lighting Maintenance Program? | ||||||||
| There are many benefits that companies can realize from a lighting maintenance program when properly executed by a professional lighting partner. Below are examples of some of the benefits............ | ||||||||
Major Reduction In Emergency Calls - Especially for small box retailers, scheduled inspections/maintenance calls coupled with a group re-lamping program can result in a major reduction in the number of "emergency" calls related to lighting. In the absence of a program, many store/facility coordinators will often delay requesting a paid for service call until the level of pain is high enough to warrant a visit. At this point it usually becomes an "emergency" or at best, a dedicated service call from a local provider. In addition, the local service provider often has to make multiple trips to the location because they are not equipped with the correct components to complete the repair the first time there. These dedicated calls and frequent multiple visits typically result in greater costs than the costs of scheduled maintenance visits. With a lighting program, the maintenance contractor will also stock the truck with items commonly used by the customer's sites which eliminates many return visits. |
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Reduced Cost Of Materials - Companies developing regional or national programs for lighting maintenance provide and opportunity to leverage the material volume so that the Lighting Partner can provide better end user pricing. This eliminates high material prices often seen when local providers have not been able to negotiate the same pricing levels that national and regional players have. Material cost reductions also result from the ability to predict and stock items on trucks and at distributors that will be needed on a regular basis. |
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| Predictable Cost - Not only should the overall cost of lighting maintenance go down, but these programs can also make budgeting and planning more predictable by setting rates for inspections, material, labor and also by setting the frequency of site visits. Over time the historical data can prove invaluable in budgeting and predicting future costs. | ||||||||
Single Point Of Contact - Providing a single point of contact for the administration of lighting maintenance can also reduce or limit the amount of overhead necessary to support your company's facilities. Companies usually find that is difficult to staff and expensive to maintain internal facility coordinators who solicit and select vendors on a local basis. The lighting maintenance program can eliminate this headache and allow a company to put more focus on their core enterprise. |
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| Improvement In Light Levels - Fluorescent and HID systems utilize lamp technologies that result in efficient use of electricity for lighting, however, one of the biggest illumination problems faced by companies using these systems is light levels. This is usually because the owner only replaces lamps as they fail. Fluorescent and HID lamps gradually grow dimmer during use but may not fail until well after they should have been replaced. A maintenance program can include scheduled cleaning and group replamping of all fixtures which will get the lighting output back to where it should be. With HID, the initial relamp can often double lighting levels from the pre-relamp state. Don't get "lured" into expensive solutions for increasing light levels unless you have explore the impacts of relamping first. | ||||||||
| Improvement In Light Quality - Establishing a lighting maintenance program and using a professional provider can better ensure that the bulbs and ballast being installed are consistent with the design specification of the customer. This will greatly reduce or eliminate having a mix of lamp colors in the ceiling and ensure that the merchandise or work space is getting the intended benefit from the lighting system. When a facility is maintained by a route technician stocked with the right product, it is easy to have what is needed to properly replace failed bulbs. When this is not the case as when using a larger number of local providers, the customer often ends up with a mix of lamp colors in the ceiling or the wrong lamps altogether which creates a negative aesthetic impact and can result in increased lamp failures. | ||||||||
| Back to Top | Reduce Workers Compensation Issues - If facilities have chosen to replace lamps with sales associates or staff normally tasked with activities less risky, the company will most likely have higher workman's compensation rates if the insurance company realizes that employees are up on ladders changing bulbs. Employing a lighting maintenance company can help avoid accidents to employees, help avoid certain worker's compensation claims and help keep rates contained. |
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