Ecmweb 21224 8 Ft Dlc Tube Rebate Promo 0
Ecmweb 21224 8 Ft Dlc Tube Rebate Promo 0
Ecmweb 21224 8 Ft Dlc Tube Rebate Promo 0
Ecmweb 21224 8 Ft Dlc Tube Rebate Promo 0
Ecmweb 21224 8 Ft Dlc Tube Rebate Promo 0

New Lighting Rebate Options Now Available

Sept. 6, 2018
The 8-ft DLC tube category brings end-users further opportunities for increased savings.

Although 4-ft luminaires represent a large portion of the commercial market, many people don’t realize there are 8-ft luminaires available. In industrial, education, and retail applications, 8-ft luminaires are fairly common, some of which are still T12s. That means they present a huge opportunity for energy savings.

Originally, there were few 8-ft LED tubes on the market, so most customers would have had to use a retrofit kit to convert the 8-ft luminaire to use 4-ft tubes instead. This helped customers save energy while also potentially qualifying for rebates if they used DesignLights Consortium (DLC)-approved tubes. In the past two years, more 8-ft tubes have come on the market to provide an option for a direct retrofit without a conversion kit. However, because no DLC category existed, these retrofits often did not qualify for rebates. In fact, there were only 71 utilities in the country that would provide rebates for these non-DLC-approved tubes, and the average rebate was only $3.21.

In April 2018, DLC started accepting 8-ft products onto its qualified product list. Currently, there are just eight models on the approved list, but that’s expected to increase rapidly. The addition of the new category now gives customers these two potential rebate options when they're upgrading 8-ft luminaires.

4-ft tubes with retrofit kit

Average rebate of $9.52

(737 Utilities)

  • Install a retrofit kit in the luminaire to convert the luminaire from using 8-ft lamps to 4-ft lamps.
  • More work to install upfront compared to 8-ft tubes.
  • Most customers find 4-ft tubes easier to ship, store, and install.
  • Many more options in terms of color temperature, lumen output, and wattage.
  • The tubes are usually either Type B (ballast bypass) or Type C (external driver).
    •  Rebate is for each 8-ft tube being replaced with two 4-ft tubes and a retrofit kit.

 8-ft DLC-approved tubes

Average rebate of $6.72

(400 Utilities)

  • Continue to use 8-ft tubes in the luminaire.
  • Tubes can either be Type A (plug and play), Type B (ballast bypass), or Type C (external driver).
  • Type B and Type C tubes still require luminaire rewiring.
  • Gives customers consistency with what they had.

Since the DLC 8-ft category was introduced in April, there are now more than five times as many rebates available for these tubes than previously. Most programs do not have 8-ft LED tubes in their prescriptive programs yet. In those cases, you must use a custom rebate program, which usually means lower rebates and a more difficult process. It’s expected that 8-ft LED tubes will be more widely accepted in prescriptive programs starting in early 2019.

Which is the best choice?

As with many lighting projects, there is no clear-cut answer as to which solution is best for a project. The example below (see Chart) shows a retailer who was considering upgrading its store. Without rebates, the payback for the project was similar for both options. In this case, the rebates were double for the 4-ft option, which offset the extra cost of the retrofit kit and made the payback one year better for that solution.

Young is the operations manager for BriteSwitch, Princeton, N.J. He can be reached at [email protected].

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