An increasing number of commercial buildings owners in California are employing energy-efficient lighting techniques to save money and reduce their buildings’ energy usage. Their actions are being spurred on by regulations like California’s Title 24 energy efficiency standard, incentives from utility companies like PG&E, and the increasing cost of electricity in California during peak hours.
All of this means more work for people like Tanya Pitts—a 32-year-old electrician from Oakland who’s certified in advanced lighting controls.
“Right now I’m working on a hospital in Castro Valley,” Pitts said. “We have low-voltage lighting and lighting control panels. We’re doing a lot of different lighting control systems to conserve energy and light the building up in an efficient manner. This is a brand new building, so it uses all the latest technology in energy harvesting.”
Pitts has become an expert in advanced lighting because she not only has five years of experience working on lighting in high-rise buildings, bio-tech corporations, schools and elsewhere; she also graduated from a cutting edge advanced lighting training program through the University of California at Davis California Lighting Technology Center. The program is a collaboration between Pitts’ union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), its Joint Apprenticeship Training Center (JATC) with the National Electrical Contractors Association and the California Energy Commission, among others.
Advanced lighting encompasses way more than the use of energy efficient light bulbs. It involves installing systems that shut off lighting when it’s not needed and take advantage of natural light. For example, motion sensors automatically turn lights on when someone is in a room and turn off when no one is there. Daylight harvesting panels take advantage of natural light by dimming lights at times when natural light is at its maximum daylight brightness.
Pitts’ local labor union, IBEW Local 595, is a leader on energy-efficient lighting as well as other green technologies. “We have solar training in our JATC; we’re on the front lines advocating for more solar; and we’re a member of the Apollo Alliance. We’re also on the front lines of getting contractors to go green in the lighting sector,” Pitts said.
Additionally, the union encourages Pitts and her fellow workers to get involved with environmental and other community issues. Through Local 595, Pitts sits on the Oakland Housing Authority board of commissioners, where, among other things, she is involved in developing new standards for using energy-efficient appliances in public housing and installing solar panels on Housing Authority buildings.
According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, lighting accounts for more than 40 percent of electricity use in U.S. commercial buildings. If all commercial buildings installed state-of-the-art lighting systems, they would lower U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by about 175 billion pounds per year. That is why Pitts and Local 595 are not only installing these systems—they are training more electricians and contractors to do the same. This fall, Pitts will teach electrician apprentices the techniques she learned in the California Advanced Lighting Controls Training Program.
“It’s definitely encouraging to me that I get to do something that creates less pollution and less waste in the world,” Pitts said. Not to mention more high-quality, green jobs.
