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Yoga facility mixes lights for mood, saves $1,500 a year

Nina Winham
For bchydro.com

Turning an old parking garage into a health and fitness retreat takes vision, and a lot of renovation. Doing it in an environmentally friendly way that delivers on ambience and business needs is part of the challenge.

That was the situation YYoga encountered as it implemented energy-efficient LED lighting while creating a new facility in the heart of Vancouver's downtown core. (About 18 months old, YYoga has seven locations stretching from Whistler to Richmond.)

"There was an existing studio of about 2,000 square feet that we partnered with," says Matt Fraser, YYoga's COO. "The building was an old parking garage that had been turned into office space and hadn't been upgraded in years. We took over the entire floor of 11,000 square feet, combining the existing studio and several different offices. So in the process we upgraded the entire building, to create this urban oasis."

The new space includes three yoga studios, four treatment rooms for health practitioners, extensive washrooms and showers, an infrared sauna and a lounge area with a healthy food bar.

Going green in a big way

With a company mandate to be as environmentally responsible as possible, YYoga worked with the building owner to improve energy efficiency through adding new insulation in the ceiling, and installed an extra layer of double-glazed windows to improve heat efficiency and sound-proofing. The heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system was also upgraded to meet the company's standards for fresh air and efficiency.

The company chose low VOC paints, water-efficient plumbing, couches made with recycled leather, and sustainable building materials. Then came lighting. Combining multiple spaces meant dealing with a variety of existing lights.

"There were a lot of fluorescents everywhere, and then incandescents wherever they could put them – it was a mix of everything, all old stuff," says Fraser. "We took out all the old fluorescents and put in a ton of LEDs [light-emitting diodes], such as our LED track lights, which are great."

However, Fraser says finding an appropriate LED pot light was a challenge. Changing every pot light (about 250 in total) to LED would make it just too... green.

A mix of lights is the solution

"We're looking for a soft light, a natural colour, almost like a candlelight," says Fraser. "We tried to switch all our 60 watt bulbs to these regular five watt LEDs. We put them all in, and we ended up moving them to our hallways, washrooms, and the main area."

Fraser liked the LEDs, but the mood wasn't quite right.  When the light was supplied only by LEDs, staff noticed a greenish tinge to the colour. With a switch to a 50-50 blend of incandescent and LED lamps, the colour is warm and the energy and maintenance bills are projected to run about $1,500 less each year.

"Energy efficient lighting is an emerging field," comments Cristian Suvagau, a senior engineer with BC Hydro specializing in lighting. "A few years ago, the colour rendering of newer technologies, such as compact fluorescent lamps and LEDs, was not as good as what we are used to with incandescents. Now, customers often find that new efficient fluorescents such as T8 tubes provide improved colour rendering over their outdated lighting fixtures. It really depends on the application.

"Sometimes customers do choose to retain a few incandescents to achieve a certain look. Others find that they can achieve the look they want and go with all-high efficiency – it's a matter of researching the products and options available. The colour rendering, types of fixtures, and performance of these new lighting forms is steadily improving.

"The goal is to save as much energy as possible, while providing adequate lighting quality and meeting business needs. At BC Hydro we can help steer customers to the right fit."

Big incentive is key

YYoga's lighting project qualified for a $2,400 incentive from BC Hydro's Product Incentive Program. Fraser says that made a big difference in bringing the project to life.

"The rebate we could get and the payback time were in our spreadsheet, because it was a larger upfront capital expenditure on these [lights]," he says. "Adding that many light bulbs at that cost is not really something you want to look at on your capital cost – you want to bear those in your operating costs. But long term, the savings operationally were great, in terms of how much we could bring down the power consumption."

"Everything we do, we try to think about how it affects the environment," says Fraser, who says he hopes to use more LED technology as it evolves and offers better colour rendering. "We try to make our choices consciously and find the product that's the best long-term solution. It's not even something we have to talk about. It's just how we do things."

Nina Winham is a Vancouver-based sustainability consultant and a frequent contributor to bchydro.com and the Power of Business newsletter.