THUNDER BAY – Business – Thunder Bay Hydro recognized four local businesses at its 2014 Retrofit Excellence in Energy Efficiency & Conservation Awards. Each business presented with the honour, has demonstrated leadership to save on energy and has participated in the Thunder Bay Hydro saveONenergy RETROFIT PROGRAM over the past year.
The RETROFIT PROGRAM provides incentives for commercial operations to install newer, more energy efficient solutions.
Robert Mace, President of Thunder Bay Hydro stated, “Thunder Bay Hydro is proud to recognize the great things happening in our community and the local businesses who do more to save energy. At Thunder Bay Hydro, we understand that a saved kilowatt has value and it only makes business sense to encourage savings through our programs and offer incentives to those who participate. The businesses acknowledged today, are all committed to operate more efficiently and as a result are feeling the benefits.”
The recipients of the 2014 Retrofit Excellence in Energy Efficiency & Conservation Awards are as follows:
• Badanai Motors
Retrofit Measure: Lighting fixture replacements.
Key Stat: Business is saving 44,000 kWh of electricity annually.
• Dufresne
Retrofit Measure: LED lighting upgrades.
Key Stat: Project cost totaled $32,000; payback period for installation is less than one year.
• LMI Thunder Bay
Retrofit Measure: Old lighting replaced with new more efficient lighting. Key Stat: Business is saving $25,000 on annual electricity bill.
• Smith’s RV Centre
Retrofit Measure: Old lighting replaced with new more efficient lighting Key Stat: Business is saving 35% of total energy use.
Since 2007, Thunder Bay Hydro Conservation has completed over 250 Retrofits in the community, saving 8,600,000 kWh of electricity. This equates to enough electricity to power 900 homes. At the 2014 Retrofit Excellence in Energy Efficiency & Conservation Awards, Thunder Bay Hydro also announced three local businesses that are committed to “Get RETROFIT” over the next year. The 2014 Retrofit Recruits are:
• Airlane Hotel & Conference Centre
Committed to upgrading to more efficient HVAC and indoor/outdoor lighting.
• Dominion Motors
Committed to replacing over 50% of their old inefficient light with more efficient models.
• Naxos Grille & Bar
Committed to replacing old lighting with more efficient and longer lasting LED models.
Jake Allen, Energy Advisor of Thunder Bay Hydro commented, “Most of us need an extra incentive to get in shape and saveONenergy programs provide that motivation. Our new Retrofit Recruits are committed to improving the physical condition of their business”.
“Every year more and more businesses are committing to find new ways to save energy and money for the long-term. We are encouraging other businesses to commit and get retrofit,” continued Allen.
The RETROFIT PROGRAM offers incentives to upgrade to high efficiency equipment such as lighting, motors and heating, and for installing new control systems. Over 130 Thunder Bay businesses have already committed to participate in the program in 2014. Over the last seven years the saveONenergy RETROFIT program has paid out over $1.3 million in incentives to local Thunder Bay businesses.
Get Your Business More Energy Smart
www.tbhydro.saveonenergy.ca/retrofit
Award Winner Testimonials:
“We’ve already experienced a huge drop on our electricity bills. Our biggest cost in regards to energy is our lighting. Dufrense has 800 spotlights in our showroom at 75 watts each— that is a huge amount of energy. In addition, throughout the summer months, each one of the lights generates heat, so the air conditioning has to work a lot harder to compensate. These new lights don’t generate much heat at all, so the air conditioning has to work less and the power consumption is one-fifth of what it was.”
Rob Coffey, Manager, Dufresne
“We changed all of the lights in our shop, body shop and office to energy efficient bulbs. It’s all about cost savings. We had big halogen lights that heated up and didn’t have a great life expectancy. The new fixtures brighten up our space and now we are looking at retrofitting the lights on the exterior of the building. Thunder Bay Hydro made it easy.”
Pat Spina, Sales Manager, Badanai Motors
“Part of my role with LMI Thunder Bay is to diversify the company and identify new business opportunities. We were looking at our internal processes and that involved energy efficiency and what we can do to save money in-house. The Retrofit program just made sense. Not only do we want to make progress with our clients, but internally with our people and our facility. Making progress involves doing things that are proactive for energy efficiency. This was the first step and it just made business sense.”
Roy Summers General Manager, LMI Thunder Bay
“We had some really old technology; they were basically just flood lights, so it wasn’t the best light in the world. We wanted to get rid of the old light because we are trying to recreate a camping experience inside our showroom and you need to have really good light to do that. The first reaction after we upgraded to new lighting is that everybody just loved it. The lights make a world of difference. It is a lot more clean and natural. The retrofit has lightened up the store and really does increase sales because people are more comfortable here.”
Ben Hettrick, Smith’s RV Centre
