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Wholesale supplier is also a problem solver
May 12 2010
Steve Armstrong, a salesman in Platt Electric’s Kalispell office, sees himself as a problem-solver. Business owners, facilities managers and property owners come to him with a lighting problem that affects their bottom line. He identifies solutions and helps analyze the cost and savings numbers. “I look at each situation from the perspective of the customer. I’m not just out to sell light fixtures,” he said, “ I want to help them save money.”
Armstrong believes customers should be able to save at least thirty percent of their lighting energy cost through an upgrade. In his experience, once customers understand the numbers — energy savings, utility cost savings, and rebate — it becomes a common sense decision. “I talk to business owners in terms they can understand and explain all the ways that more efficient lighting will benefit them and their business.”
His approach is working; last year he did 200 lighting audits, with 60 percent turning into projects. Armstrong’s passion for his work earned him Flathead Electric’s first ever Energy Advocate Award. “He is an advocate for efficiency and he works hard to promote the program,” says Mike Stahlberg, Flathead Electric. “When I look back over the lighting projects done over the last several years, his fingerprints are on a lot of them.”
Current projects include a comprehensive lighting upgrade at Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell. A simple light bulb change from metal halide to compact fluorescent in the airport lobby changed the light level by only five percent but saved the airport more than $16,000 in energy costs. More projects are underway at several private jet hangars, area schools and businesses.
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