Energy Efficiency for Commercial Customers

It is amazing that I have found three items that will potentially have great effects on saving energy and none of them are for a house!

I know that we have all seen the lights that illuminate parking lots and stadiums and similar areas and these HID bulbs aren’t the most efficient items on the planet.  However it seems that a startup company has developed a digital ballast that allows for increased efficiency of up to 40%.  From the Ecogeek.org website (http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2045/74/)

Excerpt: “While HID lights are pretty efficient, especially when compared with incandescents, they have a few pretty serious problems. They take about 10 minutes to warm up, and they can’t be dimmed. And, of course, no one would complain if they were a bit more efficient.

Well a startup called HID Technologies has developed a new digital ballast for HID lights that fixes all of those problems. The new technology could cut energy use by HID lights by 40%. Altogether this tremendously unsexy technology could save gigawatts of power.

The power would be saved by allowing stores to dim lights on sunny days (in concert skylights), allowing lights to turn on instantly (so they wouldn’t have to stay on all the time), and simply because the new technology makes the lights more efficient, with a 320 watt new HID lamp being roughly as good as an old HID lamp.“

In a similar vein is a new take on a street lamp,  the Prisima. This light has the capability of having adjustable focus elements that allow for more efficient use of the light generated.

The full story is here and it is pretty amazing technology! (http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/the-solar-powered-multi-functional-prisma-street-light/)

Lastly is a story about an energy waster that I had not fully considered, the lowly escalator. I don’t think I can improve on the article found here on Treehugger (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/the-insanity-of-escalators.php).

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