After 26 years in operation, RO-MATT has made the move to change over all the high bay lighting in their manufacturing facility in Oldcastle, Ontario, from HID to cost effective LED. RO-MATT started investigating the idea of retrofitting several years ago, but the cost to change over the fixtures and the return on investment made this project a non-starter. “Back then, it would have cost us approximately $90,000 to retrofit our lighting”, Steven Del Duca, President of RO-MATT International explains. “This would have taken 8-10 years to pay back our investment. Now with the advent of more cost-effective solutions and incentives, like the Save on Energy Retrofit program offered by the IESO, it makes more sense to make the move now, more than ever”.
RO-MATT approached several electrical suppliers, to see what product offerings were available. After much investigation, RO-MATT decided to team up with Aztec Electrical Supply. To prove the product further, Aztec and RO-MATT arranged to try a fixture before going forward. Aztec provided the Premise HBX1 Series Monopoint High Bay fixture to replace the previously used 1,000W Metal Halide HID. The results were immediate. The lights are on instantly, rather than waiting 7-15 minutes for the others to warm up, they make no sound and the brightness was at least 2X that of the old bulb. “Everyone was interested to see how well this was going to work, and they were more impressed with the results than expected”, Del Duca says. After a couple of weeks of trial, RO-MATT decided to move ahead and replace the remaining 67 fixtures with the Premise product.
Is it worth it? The short answer is yes. In working with Premise’s ROI and Rebate Specialist directly, RO-MATT was able to calculate and understand the investment, rebate and the savings. They are scheduled to receive a rebate through Save On Energy of nearly 47% on their investment. Moreover, their energy cost should be reduced by almost 75% thanks to the energy efficient Premise LED fixtures. “The total investment should be paid back in about 8 months”, Del Duca speculates.
One further bonus is the lifespan and warranty of the product. HID lighting begins to dim and colour rather quickly and soon after they are installed. RO-MATT was finding that bulbs were burning out and needed changing every year or so. RO-MATT often had several burnt-out bulbs for a long time, because of the cost and time needed to rent an aerial lift and navigate around projects on the shop floor to perform maintenance and changeover. The new Premise lighting has an L70 projected lifetime of 50,000 hrs – that’s more than 20 years of regular use. Furthermore, they back their product with a 10-year limited warranty.
“I wish I could have done this sooner”, Del Duca exclaims, “but it was certainly worth the wait”. The future looks bright for RO-MATT, in more ways than one.