South Cariboo Business Centre has recently undergone a major lighting retrofit that has reduced its energy consumption by 75 per cent, but it didn't cost building owner Konrad Schmid-Meil a cent.
This is because he took advantage of a BC Hydro Power Smart Alliance program that reimbursed him for all of his material and installation costs - and then some.
Furthermore, his lighting bills will drop to a quarter of what they were before.
Schmid-Meil says BC Hydro told him he could expect to save about $7,000 in annual lighting costs in the building.
"Other businesses in the community should consider doing the same thing because it doesn't cost them anything and the savings ... are really huge."
After hearing about the program from the Building Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia last summer, Schmid-Meil explains he discussed it with Steve deGraaf of LifeLine Refrigeration & Electrical, who arranged to become certified in the alliance program.
Schmid-Meil says once the program application is approved, the material has to be purchased and installed up front and then takes about six to eight weeks for reimbursement.
"Actually, you get more money back from BC Hydro than you spend. [That is because] every kilowatt that you save here, they sell it to the United States for more money."
He adds the program also potentially saves the Crown corporation "billions of dollars" for building new power plants a decade down the road to meet the province's growing energy needs.
For the past 20 years, Schmid-Meil says, all the hallway and lobby lights in the building were on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as only the offices had switches.
Now, motion sensors keep lights off anytime during night or day until a person is detected within range.
The new lights are more than twice as bright, and healthier, too, as the old ballasts contain toxic elements, Schmid-Meil says.
The 1,544 fluorescent T14 light tubes were replaced with 772 new T8 tubes, he explains, also reducing 772 ballasts to 386 new T8 ballasts.
This left a very large pile of old lights that Schmid-Meil notes he is currently storing as no recycling options exist for commercial customers until they begin this July.
Many other commercial light tubes and ballasts have been going directly into the landfill, he adds.
A new, high-efficiency HVAC system for heating and cooling was also installed, which Schmid-Meil expects will add significantly more savings in his building overhead costs.