Grants/Funding for Solar Power and High Effieciency Lighting

[Barney47]

We have begun to look at replacing our old fluorescent lights with high efficiency lighting and at the same time would like to consider solar power for our firehouse. Does anyone know of any available PA state or federal funds and/or funding from private/corporate that would be of assistance? Any help would be appreciated!

[LVFD301]

If you have a Coop for your provider often they have grants available for this.

[Andy2802]

Some local power companies have a rebate or incentive program for the installation of high-efficiency fixtures.
It probably won't cover the whole cost, but could save you some money.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Co-ops are a midwest, western thing, no such animals in the northeast. But the providers sometimes have grants themselves, Duke Energy runs one out of NC which ironically is more community support oriented instead of energy related.

PA just had one end through DCNR that was a pass-down from the feds in the stimulus bill. Private foundations are probably the only thing left being the time of year that it is. Your usual suspects of Home Depot, Lowes, and other building supply places have some sort of assistance from free labor to grants. Might be some regular private foundations that have an environmental focus also that would be good for some dough to help out. Just have your estimates ready in case you have to jump quick. I got a price down here for a 3kW solar array of $20k for residential installation. Might be different on commercial and up north, mainly from labor cost differences. May or may not be enough to make a dent in your average usage, definitely get someone to study the building first. Dad's old company is in solar power now and they bought a new tool that takes pictures of surrounding buildings from the potential installation site and uses GPS & terrain info to predict the average efficiency of the solar panels. Plots sun paths, average cloud cover and shadows from surrounding buildings to make that calculation. Neat stuff.

[LVFD301]

Co-ops are a midwest, western thing, no such animals in the northeast. But the providers sometimes have grants themselves, Duke Energy runs one out of NC which ironically is more community support oriented instead of energy related.

So, can I stop paying my electric bills to the 6 coops in PA (out of 13)
or the 2 in NY that are just part of the conspiracy to bleed me dry every
month?

Eastern Maine Electric Coop hits me twice every month.

I think my site in WV is a coop also...

Its funny - they send me all sorts of literature telling me how much coops
save me money, but the bills average about the same between coops, goverment run, and for-profits.

But I digress.

Here in Missouri the local coop is even exchanging incadescent bulbs for CFL bulbs on a one for one basis.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Sure, I don't live there anymore so I don't care if you pay or not. I sit corrected then.

Haven't found them saving anyone any money either.

I've been using only CFLs for almost a decade. I tried the LED replacement bulbs the other week after seeing them at Wally World but their claims of wattage equivalency were a bit off. Problem is they're still directional in nature so the linear nature of the beams don't create any kind of widespread lighting like what is expected from area lights like ceiling fans and whatnot. $30+ price tag on LED spotlights has kept me out of those so far, don't use them often enough to make it worthwhile to replace them. Conservation is the best savings. Amazing how much the bill goes down with a clothesline instead of the dryer. Attic fan worked wonders to cool that and keep the AC from running as much too. Not spending our existing money as individuals and organizations is the best way to find money for other things.

[LVFD301]

I put a LED floodlight at one station, in less than a week half the bulb burned out. Name brand.

I love LED's, but like you are not real pleased with their performance in the household setting. I am sticking with CFL's in those cases.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

I didn't try the indoor floods, just candelabra base for the ceiling fans which are the main lights in every room. They may have been 40W equivalent but we use 75W equivalent CFLs and since 2 of them are offices we need the extra light. Would have been nice to drop down to a total of 6 watts per assembly but they need more work on them before they'll work for me.

I do want to stick them in the bike but online is the only means to find them right now, but with the turn signal relay I'd need a heat sink to draw enough juice to make it flash. LEDs don't draw enough. Not getting into all that. Yet.

[txgp17]

The city put HE lighting in some of our stations years ago, stations that were already 30ish years old. The electrician installing them said it would take 25 years to save enough $$$ to pay for the light & labor expense. The station is scheduled to be torn down and rebuilt before that 25 year mark gets here.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Depends on the move, going from F40 4' tubes (~1-1/4" diameter) to the thinner ones with electronic ballasts (can't remember the name of them, ~3/4" diameter) doesn't take that long to recover the costs. Verizon did some major overhaul of their buildings in Philly in mid-90s. I was in college working the warehouse job at electrical contractor that Dad worked for and I got the fun job of picking up the trash cans and boxes full of the old tubes to bring back for disposal. 18' box truck holds a lot of those, was fun on nice bumpy roads.

[Cappy05]

Depends on the move, going from F40 4' tubes (~1-1/4" diameter) to the thinner ones with electronic ballasts (can't remember the name of them, ~3/4" diameter) doesn't take that long to recover the costs. Verizon did some major overhaul of their buildings in Philly in mid-90s. I was in college working the warehouse job at electrical contractor that Dad worked for and I got the fun job of picking up the trash cans and boxes full of the old tubes to bring back for disposal. 18' box truck holds a lot of those, was fun on nice bumpy roads.

They are T-12

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Yeah, them's the things.

[Limeforever]

Thought they were T-8's, maybe that's the new small bulbs that we are switching everything over too.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

This was 14 years ago so not sure if 8s were out yet or not. Of course folks are finding that better windows with natural lighting is even cheaper.

[Cappy05]

I am sorry you are correct. They are T8. I can't tell you how many times I have got that backwards. I replaced all of my garage and the bays at the station and got them backwards both times then also.