Pleased with the results, CSU installed 85 I-BEAM LED high bay luminaires. The installation enabled the school to increase the light quality from 25 foot-candles to 100 foot-candles and meet the requirements for Class I televised sports. The new LED lights have an instant re-strike at full illumination, creating minimal interruption during events. Furthermore, CSU is now saving more than $5,000 per year in maintenance costs alone, and has received over $3,000 in rebates from Georgia Power. With the new fixtures, CSU is projected to receive payback in approximately five years.
The LED lighting helped CSU improve the overall gymnasium aesthetics, while helping reduce electricity usage and maintenance time. “At this time, we are pleased to say we have not had to repair any of the new LED lights (1.5 years),” Thomas notes.
“We have had positive feedback from coaches, students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff,” Thomas continues. “We hosted the NCAA Division 2 South East Regional Championship, where we also received great feedback. We are currently looking into replacing the gym lighting in our Student Activity Center with LED.”
Updating gymnasium lighting is just one way to enhance the learning environment, enhance campus aesthetics, reduce energy use and reduce maintenance. There are many other simple ways to update lighting around campus from using light sensors and controls in the bathrooms and hallways to updating parking lot lighting from HID to LED sources. The bottom line is: consider lighting to help enhance your campus aesthetic and reduce the bottom line.
Lighting Upgrade for North Carolina School District Means Saving Energy, Time, Money
Lighting upgrades to reduce energy costs and improve lighting quality is not limited to projects at the higher-education level. Similar projects are easily achievable for K-12 facilities as well. In fact, the Surry County School District in western North Carolina implemented a project similar to CSU, and projects an annual savings of almost $1,350, just from relighting one gymnasium in the district with LED luminaires.
“We continually strive to improve energy conservation—especially to save money for the schools,” says Robert Draughn, Surry County School District director of Plant Operations. “This was the main driver for working on a lighting project as one of multiple district-wide energy-saving projects.”
Originally, the 5,400 square-foot gymnasium at Dobson Elementary School in Surry County was equipped with metal halide fixtures. These fixtures had a significant start-up time, taking nearly 10 minutes to achieve full illumination. Thus, the lights remained illuminated the entire day to avoid restarting fixtures between periods when the gym was unoccupied. This was wasting energy when the gym was not in use.
The school discovered LED technology could save energy and provide the ease of use the school needed—the ability to turn the lights on and off quickly. It installed ten IBH low bay LED luminaires, which not only saved energy, but improved foot-candle levels in the gymnasium by more than 50 percent. The school was able to decrease the amount of time the lights were left on, further reducing energy consumption. Additionally, the LED luminaires were connected to one switch, making it easy for gymnasium lights to turn on or off instantaneously.
“It was very quick and easy to make the transition from metal halide to LED,” Draughn says. Due to its success, the school district plans to adopt LED lighting in nine additional elementary, middle and high schools in the area.