with many companies struggling to handle their escalating energy bills, bristol park industries has found a way to profit from the situation
As many California business owners know all too well, energy bills can be a major drain on a company’s resources. But for Bristol Park Industries, the higher energy bills go, the better it tends to perform.
The Culver City-based manufacturer of energy-saving products has seen its revenue climb faster than the electric bills of many major companies, thanks to its flagship product, the Wattman lighting voltage controller.
The device cuts energy consumption by as much as 35 percent for high-intensity lighting used in parking lots, gas stations and other large areas.
“One of the biggest problems we have to overcome is this idea that it’s too good to be true,” said company President Vladimir Davidovich, speaking of the product’s power-saving capability.
Revenue is expected to reach $1.3 million this year, nearly five times the amount posted when the firm was bought and reorganized three years ago. Just last month Bristol Park was one of just seven area companies recognized by the South Coast Air Quality Management District with a Clean Air Award for the Wattman’s impact on reducing air pollution.
“It helps reduce the amount of energy that is used, and that reduces the amount that needs to be produced by (pollution-causing) power plants,” said Dave Rutherford, a spokesman for the AQMD.
The AQMD board that awarded the honor knew of no other companies in the region with a similar product, according to Rutherford.
Bristol Park is just 3 years old, but the Wattman has origins dating back to the late 1970s. That’s when a couple of electrical engineers, including James Archdekian, now the company’s director of research and development, came up with a related device that primarily provided energy reduction for flourescent lighting.
Archdekian and his partner started a company called Energy Conservation Development Corp. in 1985, which a partnership bought in 1997 to form Bristol Park.
‘Best-kept secret’
Archdekian, former president and chief executive of Energy Conservation, said he is more than happy now to focus on research instead of business development.
“It’s nice to see your baby or invention get popular like this, but there are a lot of (new) things we are working on, and when they come to fruition, we will even have a better piece of equipment,” he said.
The Wattman works on what the company calls “the best-kept secret” in the lighting industry: that high-intensity discharge, or HID, lamps require more voltage to start up than they do to operate.
Unlike a standard incandescent bulb in which a filament burns to produce light, HID lamps work by sending an arc of current through a bulb filled with a gas. The current causes the gas to glow.
The gas-filled lamps may need as much as 15 minutes to warm up. But using patented technology, the Wattman cuts the voltage used after the warm-up period by 15 to 35 percent, while minimizing the lighting loss.
“If you lose 10 to 15 percent of this light, the human eye does not have the capacity to notice this difference,” said Davidovich, a registered electrical engineer. “But you can get 20 to 25 percent savings in electricity.”
Davidovich, an & #233;migr & #233; from the former Soviet Union, was originally brought in to evaluate the potential of Energy Conservation by a partnership headed by Los Angeles real estate investor David Wilstein. The partnership eventually acquired the firm and Davidovich ended up as president.
“The company lacked guidance and financial input, but it looked like a good opportunity,” Wilstein said. “Vladimir was sort of like the front man, who took hold of it.”
Davidovich now runs the company from the headquarters of his engineering consulting firm, Davidovich & Associates. It’s located on Bristol Parkway in Culver City, hence the name.
Ted Tomasek, controller for Toyota of Orange, says the Wattman lives up to its claims. The dealership installed Wattmans at its Orange location in February 1999 after doing a test that found it could cut lighting costs by about 20 percent with no appreciable loss in light output.
“I didn’t believe it at first. It sounds like snake oil, but it’s a real product that does work,” he said. “(We) installed it first on one set of lights at Toyota of Huntington Beach and nobody could tell the difference.”
Under the lights
Officials at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios, a 23-acre facility with 14 sound stages, tell a similar story. The studio installed the voltage controller at one of its 25,000-square-foot sound stages in October 1999.
“It appears the reduction (in energy costs) is right in line with what they predicted, 20 to 25 percent. That’s about $250 to $500 (in savings) a month,” said David Curry, director of lot operations.
The studio now has plans to install Wattmans in its 600-space parking garage in the hopes of saving another $2,000 to $2,500 a month.
Different versions of the Wattman can control anywhere from one to 400 fixtures, with prices running from $3,000 to $15,000 per unit, depending on capacity.
Bristol Park Industries tries to overcome customer skepticism by setting up leasing arrangements and offering to finance installation up front, and also by setting up payment plans based on a percentage of savings on utility bills.
Davidovich says annual returns on investment of 50 percent are common, leaving customers to enjoy the full benefits of lower utility bills after two years. Bristol Park claims the units are engineered to last 25 to 30 years.
The company manufactures the Wattman out of a 6,000-square-foot plant in Long Beach. But with revenue projected to climb past $5 million next year, plans are underway to move manufacturing to a 25,000- to 40,000-square-foot facility and retain the current site wholly for research and development.
Officials also hope to take the company public some time in the future.
