Inglewood Private Hospital

The story

"Switching to energy-efficient lighting not only provides impressive energy cost savings, but also makes our facility more comfortable and safer for our elderly tenants."

— Hassan Hemani, Director, Inglewood Private Hospital Ltd.

The situation

Inglewood Private Hospital Ltd. is a 235-bed long-term care facility located in West Vancouver owned and operated by Unicare Homes. Like other health care facilities, Inglewood faces the constant challenge of finding ways to reduce operating expenses amid rising health care costs, while improving patient and client care at the same time.

Recognizing that energy use offered opportunities for reducing operating costs, Inglewood turned to BC Hydro and became a Power Smart Partner in 2003. After carrying out a successful lighting redesign project in 2004, Inglewood's senior management realized that it made business sense to make the facility even more energy efficient – and discovered opportunities to do so, particularly in the area of lighting.

Director Hassan Hemani contacted BC Hydro and learned about the Power Smart Product Incentive Program, which offers financial incentives to organizations that replace inefficient products with energy-efficient technologies, including lighting products, energy controls and many others. Working with BC Hydro, Hemani determined that Inglewood would qualify for Power Smart incentives, which would improve the project payback, making it more cost-effective and attractive. He put together a business case for a lighting upgrade, and senior management and the parent company approved the project, which was implemented in 2005.

The solution

Inglewood's lighting retrofit involved:

• Replacing 200 incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). CFLs use up to 75% less electricity and last up to 10 times longer than incandescents.
• Replacing 60 T12 fluorescent lamps with energy-saver T8 lamps and installing standard instant-start ballasts. T8s produce more light per watt than conventional T12s and they're 25 to 35% more efficient, which translates into lower energy costs.

Inglewood qualified for Power Smart incentives totalling almost $700, which lowered the project's payback and made it a more cost-effective investment. Inglewood and Unicare were so pleased with the results of the installations that they are looking into opportunities for similar Product Incentive Program projects at their peer facilities.

The benefits

Energy savings

As a result of the lighting retrofit, Inglewood Private Hospital has reduced its annual electricity consumption by 105,000 kilowatt hours. This translates into cost savings of more than $5,000 each year. As well, because the energy-efficient technologies last longer, maintenance costs for replacing lamps are reduced.

Enhanced comfort and safety

The energy-efficient lighting provides improved comfort and safety, which is an important benefit for Inglewood's population of older tenants.

Reduced environmental impacts

Lower energy consumption results in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced environmental protection.

Contact us

Find out how Power Smart can energize your bottom line. Call us today at 604 522 4713 in the Lower Mainland or 1 866 522 4713 elsewhere in B.C.