The step to improve the center’s energy efficiency, one of many taken in recent years and one that has also been taken by Glendale Memorial Hospital, will save the facility about $225,000 annually, Brown said.
That sum makes up just 5% of the center’s total energy expenditures, because of its 24-hour consumption, but it is still considerable, Brown said.
“It will help — the less money we will have to spend on electricity — because it will save money for new equipment,” he said.
The changes will cost the hospital about $300,000, but the center was able to take advantage of an energy efficiency rebate from Glendale Water & Power for 25% of that total, he said.
That rebate saved the hospital $75,000 in purchase and installation costs and made the changes well worth the expense, he said.
“As far as an investment is concerned, that’s a one-year payback,” he said.
Without the utility’s rebate, it would have taken the hospital almost six months longer to recoup the costs of the lighting upgrade, he said.
“It probably really influenced the quick approval,” he said of the hospital’s decision to go ahead with the changes.
Glendale Water & Power offers similar rebates to residents and businesses of all sizes.
Some companies, like Glendale Adventist, take advantage of the city’s offer to cover some costs of an energy audit to assess possibilities for a large firm’s adoption of energy efficient measures, said Ned Bassin, assistant general manager of customer and support services for the utility.
Those firms that accept the audit are eligible for the utility’s 25% rebate on installation costs of some green measures, like energy efficient lighting, Bassin said.
