ARRA provided $250 million for a new program called the Green Retrofit Program (GRP). It will provide grants and loans on a competitive basis for owners of properties assisted with project-based Section 8, Section 202 (elderly), or Section 811 (disabled).

The grants or loans can be used to make energy and green retrofit investments and to ensure the maintenance and preservation of the property. In return for the added assistance, owners must agree to extend affordability period for at least another 15 years. Owners must spend funds within two years.

The Office of Affordable Housing Preservation (OAHP) in HUD's Office of Multifamily Housing administers GRP.

HUD Notice H-09-02, issued on May 13, 2009, announced that HUD will begin accepting GRP applications on June 15 on a first-come, first-served basis.  GRP grants or loans can be up to $15,000 per unit.  Projects are expected to be completed within 12 months and in no event should work extend more than 24 months.  Though the GRP is a distinct program, it shares some elements of the existing "Mark-to-Market Green Initiative". In some instances, OAHP may make Green Retrofit funds contingent on the owner's agreement to a Mark-to-Market debt restructuring.

HUD's ARRA Energy and Green Retrofit webpage,
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/

•  HUD's GRP Overview
  http://portal.hud.gov/

• HUD Notice H-09-02 implementing GRP,
  http://portal.hud.gov/pls/portal/docs/
  
  
• HUD's Green Retrofit Program (GRP) Powerpoint from May 13, 2009 - Added   5/20/2009
  http://portal.hud.gov/portal
  
  
• Questions and Answers - Added   5/20/2009, http://portal.hud.gov/pls/portal/
  

HUD's OAHP webpage, www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/omhar/index.cfm

HUD's Office of Multifamily Housing webpage, www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/hsgmulti.cfm

Energy and Green Retrofit Section of the ARRA Statute, http://www.nlihc.org/doc/Green-Housing-Retrofits-ARRA.pdf

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MaxximaStyle offers a wide range of LED Lighting covering the transportation, interior, industrial, emergency and personal lighting markets.

LED lamps are revolutionizing the lighting market and applications since they emit a very intense glow which is brighter than incandescent lighting.

They consume one-tenth the power consumption of conventional bulbs and due to their long lifetime, rated at 100,000 hours, LED lamps severely cut down on bulb replacement activity resulting in huge power and labor savings.

 LEDs also provide an added benefit of emitting negligible amounts of heat cutting down on expensive heat shield installations and in the case of interior lighting air conditioning requirements. The ubiquitous incandescent light bulb is on its way to becoming a relic as the gas lanterns it replaced more than a century ago.

www.maxximastyle.com

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Current market-ready or near market-ready uses of LED lighting include:

Commercial Signage: Commercial signage often operates 12 to 24 hours per day, consuming about 2% of the total electricity in the United States. Fluorescent signs currently account for about 48% of this market, with neon signs holding about 41%, and the remainder of the market dominated by incandescent products.

Institutional, Industrial and Commercial Lighting: LED products can have a significant impact on energy use in airport, ports and roadway lighting, where conventional fluorescent- and incandescent-lit signage is heavily used.

Retail Lighting: LEDs offer unprecedented flexibility in colors and configurations to lighting designers in creating displays and “moods” in retail settings.

Key resources pertaining to LED technology:

• LED Lighting Systems, 2003 (47 pgs.), by John Bullough
• Information from ENERGY STAR about high efficiency exit signs and traffic signals
• Information from the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on LEDs in transportation applications and exit signs
• Specifications on LED traffic signals developed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)

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Solid-state lighting is the first genuinely new lighting technology in more than a century. The light emitting diode (LED) lighting systems, which reduce electricity consumption by up to 85%, have proven to be very effective in applications where brightness, visibility and long life are important, such as in exit signs and traffic signals. New uses for LEDs include small area lighting, such as task and under-shelf fixtures, decorative lighting, and pathway and step marking. Industry and government are researching solid-state technology for general illumination in residential and commercial settings.

Technology Options

LEDs are highly efficient semiconductor devices. They can emit considerable amounts of light from small inputs of power. For instance,

LED traffic signals use between 6 to 25 watts

while

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Universities around the world are switching to LED lighting to help save energy, reduce costs and protect the environment.

The LED University™ program
is an international community of universities working to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient LEDs. Goals include:

• Increase energy savings
• Protect the environment
• Reduce maintenance costs
• Provide a better quality of
  light for improved visibility
  and safety

Learn more at www.LEDuniversity.org

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A wide variety of organizations have discovered how LED lighting technology can reduce energy and maintenance costs.

LED lighting is currently being used in workplace installations, including:

• Overhead lighting for conference rooms and office spaces
• Recessed lighting for hallways, bathrooms, breakrooms, and more
• Exterior lighting for parking lots, walkways and entrances

Check out the featured installations and discover the potential savings achieved by installing state-of-the-art LED lighting.

Learn how LED lighting is lowering lighting costs for a variety of workplaces:

Better Day BP

Cree, Inc.

Friendly's Restaurant

The Prairie School

Sentry Equipment Corporation

Learn more at www.LEDworkplace.org.

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Feb  2007 - LEDtronics® announces EXL-W Series White Exit Light LED Bulb that is bright, safe, and maintenance free.

The EXL-W Series exit light LED bulbs provide a great alternative to your conventional 15T6 or 20T6 incandescent exit sign bulbs. The flame resistant polycarbonate resin construction of this LED bulb allows for great durability and visibility in bright light when it may be too light to see your typical bulb light up.

With the EXL-W series exit LED bulb, you can rest assured it will remain brightly lit to guide your way out in situations such as heavy smoke.

Not only that, but the EXL-W series LED requires no extra wiring to install and has a 5-year warranty in case of malfunction. Furthermore, the low power consumption saves you money while keeping you safe and your exit door locations well lit!

These White Exit Sign LED bulbs come in base options of S6 Candelabra Screw, 15mm Intermediate Screw, and 15mm DC Bayonet. Regular 15mm Intermediate Screw Bayonet Base EXL-W LED bulbs use only 2.20 Watts of energy while the replacement LED T6-15mm Bayonet Base uses 1.10 Watts of energy. All series EXL-W LED bulbs light up on 120V and put out 12 Lumens of unfiltered light.

Solid-state design renders LEDs impervious to shock, vibration, frequent switching, and environmental extremes.

With an average lifespan of 50,000-plus hours (5 years), white LED bulbs operate more than 20 times longer than the equivalent incandescent bulb! Savings from reduced maintenance costs and downtime quickly return the capital investment expenditure! LED lamps produce almost no heat and require 80% - 90% less operating power than equivalent incandescents, making them as friendly to the environment as they are to the operating budget.
Founded in 1983, LEDtronicsâ leads where others only follow when it comes to designing, manufacturing and packaging state-of-the-art LEDs to meet the world’s constantly changing lighting needs.

For additional information on how to incorporate EXL-W Series Exit Light LED bulbs into your product designs, contact

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Since 1983 LEDtronics has been a leader in designing and manufacturing environmentally friendly low power usage, long life LED bulbs and LED lamps as direct replace to incandescent bulbs.

They focus on delivering LED lighting solutions and products of consistently high quality and strive to exceed  customer’s expectations with new designs to meet  future lighting requirements.

They make the following claims on their website:

• Our rugged LED bulbs last 100,000 hours, over ten years, which greatly reduces maintenance and replacement costs because LEDs are virtually immune to shock and vibration.

• Our LED bulbs use a fraction of the electricity (LED lamps use 80% to 90% less energy then the incandescent lamps they replace) necessary to light an incandescent bulb; they significantly reduce power consumption to help achieve energy conservation goals.

• LED bulbs also remain cool so there is no excessive heat buildup, which can influence building air conditioning costs.

Why LED Bulbs:

•	Last an average of 100,000 hours (or about ten years). 50,000 hours for White LEDs
•	Withstand shocks, vibrations, frequent switching and temperature extremes that rapidly incapacitate fragile incandescent lamps.
•	Reduces maintenance and replacement costs
•	Are 10 to 50 times more energy-efficient, thus reducing your operating costs by up to 90%.
•	Produce little to no heat, cool to the touch, so they are safer then traditional lighting products

CONTACT INFO:

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Earning the ENERGY STAR

• Exit signs that have earned the ENERGY STAR operate on five watts or less per sign, compared to standard signs, which use as much as 40 watts per sign.
• When installed throughout a building, qualified exit signs can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in energy and maintenance costs. One sign alone can save about $10 annually on electricity costs and can last up to 10 years without a lamp replacement, compared to less than one year for an incandescent.
• Signs that have earned the ENERGY STAR are tested for visibility factors, and come with a five-year manufacturer warranty.

Remember, saving energy prevents pollution.

There are more than 100 million exit signs in use throughout the U.S. Typically lit by incandescent bulbs, these signs consume 30-35 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) hours of energy each year.

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The EPA provides resources designed to assist procurement officials in smart purchase decisions.

Product Categories

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=bulk_purchasing.bus_purchasing

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Staples’ energy policy is rooted in its commitment to protect natural resources through sustainable business practices. This commitment covers four major areas:

• Purchase and promotion of products containing post-consumer recycled materials,
• Energy conservation and renewable-power procurement,
• Recycling initiatives, and
• Environmental education to build awareness among associates and consumers

Staples opened its first “green store” prototype in 2003, in East Wareham, Mass. It was built from the ground up to be as energy efficient as possible, starting with the materials used in its construction. Several of the lighting designs to save energy include:

• T-8 single-lamp fixtures with dimmable ballasts (work in con-junction with skylights)
• High-efficiency pulse-start parking-lot lights
• LED signage
• Back-room motion sensors

Energy planning is carefully integrated into Staples’ organizational model. The chain’s energy team, in place for many years, develops strategies for each component of energy management on an annual basis.

Staples joined EPA’s Green Power Partnership Program in 2002, with a commitment to purchase 2% of its total energy load from green or renewable power sources by the end of 2003. The chain made good on its promise and then some. Currently, renewable power accounts for 10% of the chain’s total annual
U.S. electricity consumption, making it the largest purchaser of green power in retail

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EPA will suspend the ENERGY STAR Exit Sign specification effective May 1, 2008. In EPAct 2005, Congress passed a new minimum federal efficiency standard for electrically-powered, single-faced exit signs with integral light sources that are equivalent to ENERGY STAR levels for input power demand. EPAct 2005 references the ENERGY STAR Version 2.0 specification. All exit signs manufactured on or after January 1, 2006 must have an input power demand of 5 watts or less per face.

If all U.S. companies switched to ENERGY STAR qualified exit signs, they would save $75 million in electricity costs.

Remember, saving energy prevents pollution.
There are more than 100 million exit signs in use throughout the U.S. Typically lit by incandescent bulbs, these signs consume 30-35 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) hours of energy each year.

Energy Star maintains a Manufacturers List of Energy Star Partners

A few of these 61 EXIT SIGN manufacturers listed for California locations  include:  Active Safety Corporation, American Permalight, Bright Path Lighting, DMF Lighting, EEMA Industries/Liton Lighting, Facdir, inc., Glow Zone, Nora Lighting, Orbit Industries, Pacific Lighting/Utopia Lighting, Sun & Stars Lighting, US Energy Technologies

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