Traditional lighting technologies like pulse start metal halide, T5HO and induction used to receive hefty rebates. At the time, these solutions offered significant energy savings to customers and their rebates could range from $30 to $150 per fixture. Rebate programs have started to move away from these traditional technologies as LEDs prove more energy efficient, according to the latest report from BriteSwitch, Princeton, NJ, a service provider that streamlines the rebate process.
While the dollar amounts of the rebates for these products have stayed relatively consistent, the number of available rebate programs has dropped by 30% in the last year alone, BriteSwitch said. Some programs have even gone as far as removing all lighting products except for LEDs.
BriteSwitch also reported that rebate amounts for LED lighting have begun to level out after declining by 10% to 20% per year over the past few years. The average rebate fell only 1% across all product lines, though specific products have changed more. LED linear tube replacements (aka TLEDs) dropped by 19% and screw-in HID replacement lamps by 35%, moves BriteSwitch attributed to decreases in the marketplace costs of those technologies. In contrast, rebates for LED downlights and linear panels (2x4's) went up 5% and 10% respectively, the company said.