These products are environmentally attractive because they need to be replaced less frequently or their maintenance has very low impact, both of which can reduce costs as well as environmental impact.
Robust answers on typical service life of products can be hard to come by, however. In GreenSpec we reserve this criterion for products where the material is clearly more durable than alternatives, such as an exceptionally traffic-resistant polyurethane floor finish. We refer to standardized tests for durability when they are available and appropriate.
We also consider “appropriate durability”: long life is more important in a building envelope than in interior finish materials that will be replaced for aesthetic reasons. Here, reduced maintenance can be particularly important. An example is resilient flooring that doesn’t require regular waxing: an unnecessary use of resources and a health hazard.
Greentorch LEC Exit Sign
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With energy-consuming equipment, such as water heaters and refrigerators, we have good data on energy consumption and can set clear standards accordingly. In some product categories—clothes washers, for example—Energy Star standards were adopted because those standards provide a high enough threshold to represent just the very top segment of the product market (less than 10%). In other product categories—e.g., refrigerators and dishwashers—we set a higher threshold than ENERGY STAR: for example, exceeding those standards by 10% or 20%. With lighting and lighting control equipment, certain generic products qualify, such as compact fluorescent lamps and occupancy/daylighting controls, while in other categories only a subset of products qualify. In some cases, products that meet the energy efficiency requirements are excluded, because of evidence of poor performance or durability. Microturbines are included here because of the potential for cogeneration (combined heat and power) that they offer.
Greentorch LEC exit signs are lime green light-emitting capacitor (LEC, also known as electroluminescent) exit signs with a current draw of 0.2 W. The signs are available in black or white housing, with 6" letters. The sign will remain lit for up to two hours on nickel cadmium (NiCd) batteries which, according to the company, last 10 years and recharge in 24 hours. According to the company, the sign lasts longer than 30 years without replacement.
Because exit signs must remain lit 24 hours a day and because commercial buildings may include so many of them, this emergency lighting is a small but significant component of commercial lighting energy use. Many older exit signs still in use are illuminated with incandescent lamps or CFLs, but such products can no longer be sold new.
The vast majority of new exit signs today use LEDs and consume 1.8–5.0 W. Federal regulations now require that LED exit signs use no more than 5 W per illuminated face, and the Energy Star program no longer includes exit signs. Because LED exit signs have become standard, GreenSpec no longer includes these products.
GreenSpec only lists exit signs that consume 0.5 W or less. Such products today rely on electrolumenescent light using LEC (light-emitting capacitor) technology. Such products generally have longer lifespans than LED products, and their light output is inherently uniform and a highly visible green. (LED exit signs with uniform light are typically edge-lit, which may result in moderate loss of efficacy.)
Photoluminescent, or “glow-in-the-dark,” exit signs are available, but these signs can actually increase energy use because they require light for charging—see The Evolution of Exit Signs (and Why the Latest is a Bad Idea) in EBN.
All fluorescent lamps contain mercury. When replacing CFL exit signs, ensure they are disposed of appropriately.
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