Schools Find Energy Savings in Lighting Retrofits
Environmentalleader.com reported today that educational facilities from colleges to grade schools are finding that they can achieve significant cost savings as well as reduce their carbon footprint [with] lighting retrofits (Source).
As an example, Olympic College in Washington state expects its power consumption to drop by more than 813,000 kilowatt hours per year, while reducing the school’s carbon emissions by 544 tons after it completes its lighting upgrade and retrofit at all three of its campuses. The school expects to offset more than half of the cost of the project through a $226,000 rebate from Puget Sound Energy (Aelux’s turnkey lighting solutions include managing rebate applications in all states where available. Any Aelux team member can assist you in identifying the rebates and financial incentives for which you qualify.) In addition, the school estimates a savings of nearly $5,000 per month in electricity costs on the three campuses.
The Olympic College project [includes] the replacement of current HID lights in parking lots with more efficient fluorescent bulbs. The school will also replace current 32-watt LED lights with smaller 28-watt bulbs, T-12 fluorescent bulbs with more efficient T-8s and use one of the newest technologies in the lighting industry, T-5 bulbs.
Taking energy-efficiency optimization one step further, the new Prairie Point Middle School and 9th Grade Academy in Cedar Rapids, Idaho, has installed a state-of-the-art energy management system and geothermal system. The energy management system will be programmed to shut down systems after hours to decrease unnecessary energy use. The school decreased electricity consumption by nearly 6%, saving more than 2,712,243 kWh of electricity each year. This translates into an estimated $191,172 in annual energy costs, energy efficiency rebates of $380,000, and avoidance of more than 1,948 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
The first step to accomplish comparable savings is to schedule a no-cost audit with a qualified lighting retrofit partner. Qualified and experienced lighting professionals will also accomplish installations without any disruption to student schedules and learning.
