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Don’t look now, but the season is upon us. This Sunday, November 7, daylight saving time (DST) comes to an end. As such, you’ll need to adjust your lighting schedules to make sure your facilities are safe and bright one hour earlier than usual.
Contrary to popular belief, Benjamin Franklin is not actually the father of DST. He merely gets credit because he published a letter in a Paris newspaper in which he riffed on his famous proverb “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”, and playfully suggested Parisians could save money on candles by waking earlier to take advantage of sunlight.
Source: iStock
In the late 1800s, noted scientists and prominent citizens around the world began promoting the idea of adjusting standard time to account for earlier mornings during summer. In general, the thought was that too many people were “burnin’ daylight” by sleeping too late.
It was in 1908, however, that the first official recognition of an adjusted time schedule was announced for Port Arthur, Ontario. Other towns followed suit, here and there, until Germany became the first country to enact the new time schedule in 1916, as a measure to conserve coal during wartime.
Other countries followed suit, and the United States adopted the convention of DST in 1918. For over one hundred years now, we’ve been “springing forward” and “falling back”. And we’re about to do it again.
That means that beginning this weekend, your lights will be coming on earlier, during a time of day when folks are still accustomed to getting things done. Any challenges you currently face with your exterior lighting will have more witnesses than usual beginning Sunday.
This year, as you’re changing the batteries in your smoke detectors, consider what earlier evenings mean for your business, and for the employees and customers who come and go from your facility.
Take Ten Minutes and See For Yourself
Early next week, you should take the opportunity to do a quick inspection of the exterior lighting at your business. Take a walk around your facility in the evening. Pay particular attention to parking lots and garages, as well as exterior building lighting.
As you walk, pay attention to lights above doors, walkway lights, accent lights, lighted signage, and anything else with a lightbulb or lamp.
How does everything look to you? Are your lights bright and in good repair? Does your sign glow warmly to attract customers?
Source: iStock
Is your business safe and secure now that the nights seem longer? Most importantly, do your employees and customers feel like they are in a comfortable, well-lit environment? Would your friends and family feel safe parking at your business at night?
If you answered “no” to any of those questions, or if you even hesitated to answer, now is the time to make changes. At FSG, we stand ready to help.
Lighting Maintenance
At FSG, we do much more than just install new lighting fixtures. While we can certainly help with lighting upgrades and retrofits, we’re always ready and able to help you maintain your current facility lighting.
FSG delivers world-class lighting solutions through regularly scheduled maintenance programs and fast, effective emergency repairs.
Our maintenance options are extensive and comprehensive, no matter what type of facility you operate. During this time of year, as the evening hours arrive a little sooner, we’re especially focused on making sure your business remains safe and attractive with quality exterior lighting.
How do we do that? Let’s take a quick look at some of the ways FSG delivers excellence in lighting maintenance for your business.
Monthly Reports
We’ve been in the lighting maintenance business since 1982, and as you would expect we have learned some lessons about how to get the job done the right way. Our scheduled maintenance programs take those learned lessons into account and are designed to anticipate lighting problems before they impact your business.
To keep you informed, we provide monthly reports from all of our scheduled maintenance activities. You’ll know exactly how your lights are working thanks to:
- Scheduled Night Drives: FSG crews will come by your business after dark to visually inspect your exterior lights. We look for burned out bulbs, broken fixtures, and any signs of impending problems.
Source: FSG
- Interior Walk-Throughs: In addition to making sure your exterior lights are shining bright, FSG wants to keep your interior lights looking good, too. We will schedule regular walk-throughs that look for existing problems and sniff out future issues.
- Signage Services: What good is a business that customers can’t find? FSG will make sure your sign is a constant beacon with services that fix missing or broken lights, repair minor damage, and keep the sign clean (and free of bird nests).
Long-Term Solutions
When FSG fixes something, we intend for it to stay fixed. Toward that end, we use products that are built to last for years, and we perform our service with industry-best practices that are designed with the future in mind.
But keeping your lights on isn’t just a matter of longer-lasting bulbs and lamps. FSG’s long-term lighting maintenance solutions include:
- Proactive LED Options: LED lights are brighter, more efficient, and easier to maintain than legacy high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting. FSG uses the latest LED lighting technology to keep your business looking good for years to come.
View Some of our Lighting Retrofit Case Studies
- Practical Measures: Less glamorous, but still critical to a successful lighting design are the poles and special mounting assemblies that support many exterior lighting applications. FSG understands how important poles and bases are, and if we can improve a mounting or installation, we will.
- Warranties: You simply don’t have time to manage warranties whenever something goes wrong with your lights. That’s why FSG takes care of it for you. Our experts will help you take full advantage of lighting industry manufacturer warranties.
Top Quality Products Just a Click Away
Many times, our customers want to have access to the latest lighting and equipment so they can do the work themselves. For those customers, our FSG Online Store provides quick and easy access to the very best the lighting industry has to offer. (Lighting contractors are especially fond of our online storefront.)
- Lamps and Fixtures: Our online store is stocked with the best lamps and fixtures from major manufacturers you can trust. We support contractors and small businesses with commercial-grade lamps offered at case prices.
- Ballasts and Drivers: When it comes to legacy lighting systems and the newest LED fixtures, FSG delivers the ballasts and drivers you need to keep your facility’s exterior lighting steady and strong.
- Lighting Controls: Controls such as timers, variable controls, schedulers, and daylight photosensors are the key to truly intelligent lighting. If your lighting solution could benefit from the use of controls, FSG is the expert partner you need on the job.
Set Price Programs
Most importantly, at FSG we understand that a lighting maintenance program that you cannot afford is no good to anyone. For that reason, we have developed set-price programs for our regular maintenance offerings.
Our reputation is built on client trust and full transparency. Here’s how we keep costs under control and keep you happy with your bottom line:
- Set Pricing: FSG builds maintenance agreements that cap costs for routine repairs, such as work on lamps and ballasts.
- Not-To-Exceed Pricing: Stop guessing at what repairs will cost. FSG programs include limits and guidelines for pricing.
- Preferred Pricing: Since 1982, FSG has been building relationships within the industry. Customers with maintenance programs take advantage of those relationships by getting access to our preferred partner pricing.
- Rebates & Incentives: If your maintenance and repairs require new parts or materials, those parts often come with rebates and incentives. There is no need for you to worry about filling out little postcards, however. FSG personnel will do it for you.
Scheduled Maintenance For Every Season
We know that as the time schedule gets adjusted backward this fall, your exterior lighting features will be on display to your customers and employees more than ever. End the year on a positive note with proactive measures that will send you into a brighter 2022 with fantastic, effective lighting for your business.
When you take advantage of the scheduled maintenance programs offered by FSG, you’ll be keeping costs low and removing the worry associated with expensive lighting repairs. Best of all, with FSG you’ll get the best prices available for your lighting products while assuring your facility remains safe, secure, and appealing. Call us today at (877) 293-6689 to find out what FSG lighting maintenance programs can do for your business. If you prefer, you can contact us online to begin a conversation about the best lighting decision you can make for your business.
