If you are like most people, when you hear the word “audit,” you may imagine the IRS coming over and rifling through all of your financial information. However, there’s nothing to fear when it comes to a lighting audit. In fact, this is actually a good thing.
For commercial property owners, facility managers and others who are in charge of a large facility with industrial style or commercial office lighting, conducting a lighting audit is the first step in figuring out the type of lighting retrofit options that are available.
Put simply, during a lighting audit, a lighting expert will come to the facility and conduct a lighting audit report. The information gathered I then used to determine what happens next.
Why Conduct a Lighting Audit?
If it is time to retrofit the lighting in any facility, there’s no shortage of reasons why it is such a good idea to conduct a lighting audit. For example, in industrial facilities, the audit will help to determine the proper amount of light for the various work areas in the location.
If a lighting retrofit is being considered for an office or a commercial space, the audit is going to determine if a certain part of the building could benefit from recessed troffer retrofit kits while another would be better with linear indirect pendant lighting. Even if there is adequate lighting in the emergency stairwells, installing new LED stair lights can help to reduce the total power needed to light up these spaces that are usually vacant.
The ultimate goal of the lighting audit is to help the person designing the lighting for the building to figure out what they are starting with. From this point, they can figure out what efficiency measures to use and then be able to calculate the expected savings.
Recap of the Importance of a Lighting Audit
If you still aren’t convinced a lighting audit is necessary, consider this:
- It can help your company save energy and money by determining the best solutions
- You can see how each area of the facility is used so that under- or over- lighting scenarios are fixed
- Because the lighting in a building demands about 39 percent of all the power used in an office number and managers need to take steps to reduce this amount
- It’s important to understand what fixtures can stay in place, and what older equipment needs to be replaced with a more energy-efficient update
- To help improve the facility’s image by showing the company is “going green”
The lighting audit is essentially the inventory that will help a designer understand what’s going on with a facility’s lighting system right now and help them know how to make changes that will benefit the company as a whole.
As you can see, a lighting audit can be invaluable. If you have never had one done on your facility in the past, now may be the time to call and schedule an appointment.