LED Retrofit Health ROI? See VitalVio.

At the risk of making you squirm, here are just a few stats on the amount of bacteria that populate the places we frequent:

• Offices: 549 types of bacteria (CBS News)
• Bathroom: 6,267 bacteria/square inch
• Kitchen: 830 bacteria/square inch (WebMD)

Bacteria are a type of germ, and knowing this, you couldn't be blamed for having the feeling that there are just a few too many germs in your space.

While some of us may suffer from a borderline irrational or hypochondriacal "need-for-clean" attitude, especially as the number of people in a space increases, hospital and laboratory administrators are tasked with a legitimate need for minimizing contamination, bacteria and bacterial infections as part of their daily jobs. Not to mention foodhandlers and cleanrooms.

When green building designers are tasked to create something that is attractive, logistically intelligent and clean in these environments, they could look to new LED lighting troffers from Vital Vio.

VitalVio Health ROI Troffers

Every space, indoor or outdoor, and even those wisely outfitted with natural daylighting, can benefit from highly efficient LED lighting.

While we've been replacing our incandescents with compact fluorescent bulbs, LEDs have gotten less expensive, and more effective, at lighting almost any environment. Indeed, because LEDs are so efficient and the prices are becoming cheap, LEDs are projected to grow to $42 billion by 2019 from $4.8 billion today.

Now, imagine if that lighting, without changing any visually noticeable aspect, could suddenly start disinfecting critical spaces as well? That’s exactly what Vital Vio aims to do.

While VitalVio is entering the clinical trial phase, initial studies have found it so effective as to propagate 99.9% reductions in some of the nastiest germs out there - MRSA, E.Coli and Salmonella. According to its Vital Vio VVLD22 spec sheet, it's also effective on eliminating spores.

How does Vital Vio work such magic? In a nutshell, rather than leveraging Ultra Violet light like many traditional disinfecting lights, Vital Vio uses LED lighting to concentrate white light wavelengths that are lethal to bacteria, but harmless for humans, and for safe disinfection in everyday use.

These concentrated wavelengths are capable of zapping a wide range of bacteria – even those commonly left behind after a standard cleaning. What’s more, because the lights are plugged into Vital Vio’s proprietary software, building operators can actually control both the intensity of the disinfection and the color temperature.

Among Vital Vio’s multiple partnerships are those with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York State Center for Future Energy Systems (NYS CFES), and the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center. They’ve also received investment from SOSVentures, as well as Eastern New York Angels (ENYA).

Currently, the Vital Vio team is investigating the efficacy of their products in both the food service and healthcare settings. If Vital Vio is successful, we may be evaluating the health return on investment (HROI) in addition to the simple economic/financial ROI often used when calculating payback for LED lighting retrofits.

Interested in learning more about their innovative solution or opportunities to invest? Discover more details about Vital Vio here.

To learn more about how LEED is incorporating health and physical activity into design, take our free LEED continuing education course on Health and Physical Activity in Green Buildings.