Lighting audit can lead to big energy savings.

Lighting costs are one of the most overlooked energy expenditures facing building owners today, especially in a market like New York, where older buildings represent tens of millions of square feet of building stock.

At Amtech Lighting Services, a division of American Building Maintenance (ABM), our programs are designed to thoroughly analyze each facility prior to determining a course of action. This analysis includes the location, the surface type, the specifications, and the customer's budget requirements. We then determine the labor requirements to implement the best possible program to meet your needs. Our experience enables us to determine an accurate price, and schedule the work accordingly; area by area, task by task, technician by technician.

Following a review of your current lighting conditions and needs, our Certified Lighting Management Consultants (CLMCs) make recommendations to improve the quality of light at your facility. Our management program is then designed to save energy and long-term maintenance costs. In many cases your new lighting system may result in energy reductions up to 50%. Because Amtech Lighting Services is not a manufacturer of lighting products, we are free to choose the most appropriate and cost-effective technologies from many leading manufacturers.

Amtech Lighting Services is a recognized EnergyStar[R] partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 1999, we won the EPA's "Green Lights Ally of the Year" award. The EnergyStar[R] program is an innovative, voluntary pollution prevention program which encourages Service Partners through the United States to help their customers reduce energy Costs and pollution. EnergyStar[R] is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Recently, Amtech Lighting's work at Food Lion's facilities received the 2003 Energy Efficient Building Award for its retail project of the year, "Case Lighting Retrofit." The award recognizes innovations in building management and energy efficiency throughout North America.

The selection of a partner for your lighting needs can not only make a difference in your facility's appearance, but also in your operating costs. Providing complete, turnkey management of large projects is an Amtech Lighting specialty. We have an experienced project management department that provides direction, support, and communication with both our customers and our partners. They are responsible for directing the service providers, data collectors and invoicing specialists in order to achieve your facility's goals.

Amtech Lighting Services is one of the nation's largest leading lighting management companies, serving over 35,000 locations, with 26 branches and 64 satellite operations across the United States. Since 1957, Amtech Lighting Services has brought a tradition of quality and innovation to the maintenance and retrofit of lighting systems and electrical signs. We continue to redefine and improve our technical expertise and management, learning from our successes and never settling for second best.

Amtech Lighting Services provides a complete range of lighting services, including: Survey, Design, and Installation of Lighting Retrofits; Group Relamping and Lighting Fixture Cleaning; Planned Lighting Management Agreements; Electrical Sign Repairs; Outdoor Lighting Design, Installation, and Maintenance; Electrical Rollout Projects; and Lighting retrofits, with flexible payment options

In addition, our national project management group is available to handle rebate research, rebate filing, and retrofit project tracking. Amtech Lighting wants to ensure our customers are receiving the greatest benefits from the projects we perform. Our lighting efficiency solutions produce dramatic results for our clients, whether applied in a single building or across an entire portfolio. For instance, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York recently realized a nearly 50 percent reduction in their electric costs at their headquarters building at 42 West 44th Street in Manhattan, a four-story, 43,000 square-foot office property built in 1900 and last renovated in 1996. The Association hosts many events at this location, including mock trials, and they wanted to improve the entire building's lighting system and decrease their lighting expenses. Amtech performed and energy audit, discovered they needed to decrease energy output and increase phosphorescence for better light).

The in place F-20/t-12 magnetic fixtures with ballasts were older fixtures that use a lot more energy to maintain good light. Amtech replaced these lights with T-8 electronic ballasts which require less energy and produce better lighting, resulting in an annual savings of nearly $5,000 in energy costs.

On a portfolio-wide basis, the savings can be vastly more significant. When one of the nation's largest privately-owned grocery chains wanted to do something about their energy consumption and improve their profits without compromising customer satisfaction, they turned to Amtech Lighting Services, a company honored as an ally in the Green Lights and Energy Star Buildings programs.

Accepting this challenge, Amtech designed a comprehensive re-lamp, retrofit, and maintenance program. The first phase of the program included the replacement of existing 400-watt metal halide lamps with 350-watt pulse start lamps, and a complete T8 lamp and electronic ballast retrofit for all the fluorescent lighting throughout the 260 store chain. This introduction of pulse start technology has yielded savings of 83 watts per fixture as well as an increase in lighting levels by 27%. Another major advantage to using this pulse-start technology is the 3minute hot restrike compared to the 20-minute restrikes of traditional metal halide lamps.

This upgrade is only the genesis of the comprehensive four-year plan that is currently in motion, the outcome of which will be more than $3 million per year in savings over the four years. Additionally, the new technology will eliminate the release of millions of pounds of carbon dioxide into the environment.

Lastly, the customer will be experiencing altogether a savings in kilowatt-hours of 76 million annually.

Whether you're a single building owner looking to improve your property's lighting, while saving thousands on your annual energy bill, or a major portfolio owner who wants to trim millions off of annual operating costs, partnering with Amtech Lighting Services is an excellent first step in achieving your energy management goals.

HOWARD BROWN 

REGIONAL MANAGER

AMERICAN BUILDING MAINTENANCE.