Energy-efficient lighting article in Distributed Energy magazine, by Don Talend

1. CHP • Lighting • Wind
September/October 2010
www.distributedenergy.com
FUEL CELLS
not just for
backup
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2. 10 • www.distributedenergy.com
Two case studies indicate that energy-efficient lighting
upgrades can result in a rapid financial payback.
W
hen planning a major
marketing tactic, it
always helps to cal-
culate just how much
the new endeavor will
impact the organization’s bottom line—
and how quickly. Such was the case when
Ampro Sports Inc., Primos, PA, recently
upgraded the lighting at an athletic field-
house it had built in order to grow aware-
ness of its brand and forge stronger bonds
with customers. The upgrade to a new
energy-efficient lighting system was expect-
ed to deliver a nearly immediate return on
investment. Ampro’s experience is a good
example of the impact that increasing light-
ing efficiency can have on an organization’s
finances.
For 35 years, the company has pro-
vided sportswear to athletic teams as well as
T-shirts and promotional items for orga-
nizations. According to Gary Huddell, the
company’s president, the market for team
uniforms changed during the 1990s, when
offshore manufacturers began to dominate
the market for large-volume orders. As a
result, Ampro still met demand for relatively
small order volumes, but no longer fully
utilized its 100,000-square-foot production
facility, half of which is used for production
and about one-quarter of which is devoted to
a warehouse addition.
“We found that, although the ware-
house had plenty of product in it, we really
weren’t utilizing it to the extent that we
should have,” says Huddell.
Back in 1996, Huddell had an idea that
would both address the utilization problem
and give the company a marketing boost:
use some of the facility floor space for a
sports facility. The idea came from one of
the company’s regional sales representatives,
Huddell recalls.
He adds that the existing facility lent
itself to an athletic field.“The way we
configured the facility, it had poles, but each
section was about 12,500 square feet,” he
says.“We knew we could open up space as a
playing field.”
Such a move was expected to strengthen
bonds with customers and grow awareness of
the Ampro brand.
“For us, it was just a natural,” says
Huddell.“We’re actively involved with local
teams, and this gives those teams the option,
when it’s snowing outside, to call Ampro and
ask for the facility for two hours.” The Phila-
delphia Area Disk Alliance—an organization
consisting of leagues in sports such as disc
golf and ultimate Frisbee—is another major
user of the facility.
In sales and marketing, perception is
reality. So Huddell paid particular atten-
tion to ensuring that the playing surface and
lighting provided the athletic teams using the
facility with a positive experience. The first
order of business was settling on a quality
playing surface.
“If we were going to try and build the
space, obviously the space was an issue, the
netting was an issue, padding was an issue,
but the floor was the biggest issue,” he says.
“The lighting was probably secondary to
the quality of the turf.” A cushioned nylon
monofilament fiber turf product designed
for both fast play and durability, called Pure-
grass, was installed on the field.
Next came a decision on lighting. The
facility was equipped with what was con-
sidered state-of-the-art lighting back then:
400-W metal halide fixtures. Huddell notes
BY DON TALEND
Reaching
Breakeven
With Little
Delay
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3. 12 • www.distributedenergy.com
that both adequate illumination and energy efficiency were priorities,
so he researched stadium lighting. He told his sales representative that
he wanted daylight-like illumination 4 or 5 feet from the ground. This
request resulted from a concern about lacrosse matches, which are char-
acterized by a heavy ball hurtling through the air at high speeds—and
roughly head height.
“One of the things that some indoor practice fields are notorious
for is poor lighting or poor turf,”points out Huddell.“In our minds, we
wanted to make sure we didn’t come out of the gate with poor lighting
and/or poor turf. We were afraid to make an investment in a light that
was fairly expensive as far as face value cost per fixture, unless we knew
for a fact that it was going to work.”
In terms of energy efficiency, the fixtures were some of the best
available at the time, Huddell notes. The field illumination they pro-
vided was adequate; however, they created a slight humming noise, and
the bulbs and ballasts needed to be replaced a little too often for Hud-
dell’s liking. Huddell points out that the company’s third largest expense
is lighting.
In mid-2009, the decision was made to upgrade both the quality
and energy efficiency of the facility’s lighting. According to Huddell, an-
other major aspect of the decision was fixture durability. LEDs and T5s
were considered but, ultimately, not selected. A relatively large number
of LEDs would be necessary to illuminate the field, Huddell recalls.
The T5s would have to be replaced about once every two years, he
adds.“The T5s were, in my mind, a difficult solution, because we netted
the area under the lights, and we didn’t want to have to cut through the
netting and replace the bulbs—that’s incredibly time-consuming and
expensive.”
Full-spectrum Lighting Chosen
Eventually, the 250-W EverLast Induction Lighting EHB-GC-250-W
from Full Spectrum Solutions Inc. was chosen.
“One of the things the EverLast light does is provide full-spectrum
lighting,”says Huddell.“It’s diffused—it’s not a beam of light, but overall
light that really fills the space—it blends it all together.”
In addition to providing the desired light quality, the new fixtures
promised to be much more cost-effective to operate than the existing
metal halides.
“When we looked at what the lighting would do, and the tax ad-
vantages of installing and investing in the lighting, there were multiple
factors to the decision,”says Huddell.“One is that these lights last for
about 100,000 hours, so they are not going to burn out, and I don’t have
to get up into the netting to get to them.”
Suncoast Solar Power/USA Energy Management LLC was hired
as the lighting provider. The company is known for an energy-efficient
lighting retrofit at the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA—as discussed
at www.distributedenergy.com/september-october-2009/efficiency-in-
novation-retrofits.aspx—and its partners, Nicholas Ferraioli and David
Cooper, have formed a new venture, the USA Green Energy Mall, www.
usagreenenergymall.com, a“virtual storefront”for building owners
interested in equipping facilities with green lighting.
Thirty fixtures were specified for the fieldhouse, and 15 more were
specified for additional warehouse space to be utilized in future capacity
expansion. Also replaced were three 250-W exterior lights, with three
100-W induction floodlights, and three 250-W wall packs, with three
100-W induction wall packs. According to a 10-year energy and main-
tenance savings projection by Ferraioli, the new lighting system will
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4. September/October 2010 • 13
reduce the power density level per square foot from 1.33 W to 0.55 W,
and save Ampro a total of more than $292,500. The expected annual en-
ergy cost for the new system over that period is about $5,127, compared
with about $27,232 for the existing system—yielding a savings of about
$22,105. Over 10 years, the projected energy savings is about $221,047.
Significantly, the new lighting will allow the facility to qualify for a
federal Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction of 60 cents per
square foot, which was established by H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of
2005, and added to United States Code Title 26, Internal Revenue Code
Sec. 179D, for a total of $14,580. This credit is anticipated to increase the
total financial valuation of the lighting retrofit to $307,157.
“Now we know that we’re saving a lot of energy,”says Huddell.“We
know that the lights are going to last 100,000 hours, and we’re excited
about that, too.”
Regarding the warehouse lighting,“We got the light level quality
to where we wanted it to be—we added full-spectrum lighting, which
is supposed to be much healthier for people when they’re indoors all
winter long. I can’t say that my warehouse guys will be running around
a lot more happily, but when you click those lights on, number one, they
don’t hum like the other lights. They come on instantly, and they heat
up in a minute or two. With the metal halides, you’d see nothing for a
couple of minutes.”
Huddell fully understands that, adjusting for inflation, the initial
cost of the new system was probably higher than that of the existing
system. However, using Ferraioli’s cost-of-ownership estimate of about
$70,425 for the entire system over 10 years, a payback period of about
one calendar quarter, is a reasonable expectation.
“The lighting doesn’t represent the bulk of what we use in terms of
energy, but I knew that the investment that I was making in the lighting
was offset by the savings,”says Huddell.“The huge thing is the main-
tenance issue.You can’t undervalue that sort of a savings.You’ve got a
high-reach truck and it takes two people to get up and down and work
on the lights. We’ve sealed those lights with a net, and we don’t expect to
have to work on them for 10 years.
“There were so many compelling arguments for me to make this
choice,”continues Huddell.“Eliminating the hum, the durability—there
were so many compelling factors, that it wasn’t a difficult decision.”
Retrofit Assists Hospital’s Electrical Savings
A major aspect of remodeling the fourth floor of the Medical Center of
Aurora, CO, in late 2009, was upgrading the lighting system in terms of
both illumination quality and energy efficiency. The 30,000-square-foot
floor, which houses the trauma, neurological, and orthopedics medical
specialty units, was upgraded with 131 specialized medical lighting fix-
tures that are expected to significantly contribute to an overall savings
of $90,000 that the project is expected to yield in electrical costs
in 2010.
Greg Menke, the center’s director of facilities management, notes
that his experience as a custom homebuilder was useful in focusing on
hospital lighting energy efficiency since he began working at the hospital
in early 2008.
“I was fairly knowledgeable about energy and consumption,” he
says. “When I came to the hospital, one of the things I started doing
was replacing all of our old fluorescent four-bulb light fixtures with
two-bulb T8s with inverted reflectors. Not only did I get more light,
but I also reduced energy costs by about half. I’ve gone through a
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5. 14 • www.distributedenergy.com
pretty systematic program of changing out probably 75% of the
lights in the hospital.
“When we went through this remodel, I did it with the goal of
using LED technology where it made sense, as well as efficient light-
ing of other sources,” he adds.
Menke also decided that the fixtures above the patient beds
needed upgrading. The existing fixtures, which served as combina-
tion room, exam, and general reading lights, were deemed unaccept-
ably expensive, difficult to access for maintenance, and cumbersome
to operate.
“One of the criteria that I was looking for was simplicity, not
only from a maintenance point of view, but also installation and also
from a care point of view,” says Menke. “I needed some kind of exam
light and some kind of room light that gave us options for patient
reading, general lighting, and for some uplighting. I used LEDs
specifically for exam lighting—I put three in the ceiling, but they’re
not on all the time.”
In addition to having three Prescolite #D6LED-120V-6D9-WT
fixtures installed in each patient room ceiling on the fourth floor,
the facility selected Waldmann Lighting Company’s Derungs Medi-
cal Lighting Dlite amadea fixtures for other applications in patient
rooms such as wall and reading lighting. Menke reports that the
fixtures meet the desired daylight simulation on the remodeled floor,
which is intended to improve patients’ comfort and ability to heal
quickly. The lights’ reflector technology is built into a relatively small
footprint and designed to reduce luminance on the walls for more
consistent lighting and lessen glare, reflection, and shadows.
“My intent all along was to create more of a residential environ-
ment,” he says. “We’re trying to warm the place up with colors and
use technologies like lighting and other materials to make it feel
more hotel-like and more residential, and less like an institution. I
think we were able to accomplish that.”
In order to achieve the desired feel, Menke says, he focused on
the lights’ Kelvin ratings. “I was trying to have a more consistent
Kelvin rating on all of our lights,” he points out. “I think we accom-
plished that. I tried to get more of a daylight feel in all of our rooms
with our Kelvin ratings. It’s been proven through some research that
people heal better in more of a daylighted environment.” The facility
chose 4100K, which provides a relatively bright, white light.
Menke acknowledges that improved patient comfort and recov-
ery through improved lighting quality is difficult to measure.
“There are so many factors, and you’re dealing with people who
have multiple issues,” he says. “To the degree that we can use lighting
to increase depth perception and awareness, I think we accomplished
that very well. I can’t say for sure that it’s had a positive impact, but
the lighting of the rooms gives us exactly the dynamic we want.”
Light Output Up, Energy Use Down
Just as importantly, the new lighting systems are more cost-effective
because they are more efficient, Menke argues. “Between the lighting
systems, I was actually able to increase my number of footcandles at
the exam level by 50%,” he says. “I actually increased my light out-
put, as well as decreasing my energy consumption.”
Significantly, the facility was able to standardize with a single
fixture in all of the patient rooms on the fourth floor, regardless of
whether the rooms accommodate one or two patients, with Dlite
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6. 16 • www.distributedenergy.com
amadea Bed 2x54 Ws. This fixture is also standard in the hospital’s
cardiac, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, and pediatric units.
The fixture aesthetics were a major priority as well, and the
wall lighting system fulfills that requirement, Menke adds. “We were
really going after aesthetics. The look was very important to us as
well—ease of cleaning, ease of changing the light bulbs, and then
aesthetically, how it fit in with our design parameters for the entire
floor.”
The slender, low-profile design of the fixtures is a key to their
adhering to the aesthetic priority, according to Menke. Additionally,
the single wall mounts minimize the number of connections. “We
know that, between the lighting changes we’ve done as well as some
changes we’ve made in how we operate our HVAC equipment, we’re
on a trend to save somewhere around $90,000 in our energy costs
this year,” he says, referring to trend data and adding that the hospi-
tal saved more than $10,000 in May 2010, exceeding expectations.
A financial analysis comparing second and fourth-floor patient
rooms indicates that the hospital is saving $761.69 per room, or
more than $41,000 for the entire floor of 54 rooms, over 20 years
in operating costs by figuring in lower kilowatt-hours per day. This
translates to a payback period of 5.2 years.
Regulating Fixture-to-Panel Electricity
One new lighting control system manufacturer custom-designs its
system for each facility, and that controls the amount of electric-
ity that flows from the lighting panel to individual high-intensity
discharge or fluorescent fixtures after the fixture is first turned on,
yielding a reported typical energy savings of 15%–35%, and a pay-
back period of one year is said to be possible. The manufacturer,
Magnetic & Transformer Technologies Corp., points out that its
WattManager fixture requires more energy when first turned on;
after warm-up, the fixture is ignited and stabilized at normal volt-
age. The manufacturer custom-designs the fixture for a proposed
facility. After a predetermined warm-up period of 10–18 minutes,
the voltage is decreased. The fixture is then powered by a constant
voltage level, reportedly with no perceptible loss of light.
The system controls any ballast-based, gaseous discharge
lighting system and interfaces with any dedicated lighting circuit of
120, 240, 277, 208, or 480 V in load currents of 20 to 120 amperes
for single phase or 20 to 150 amperes for three-phase systems. The
appliance is installed directly before the electrical panel, and no
relamping is necessary. The system reportedly works in conjunc-
tion with other energy saving devices, such as high-efficiency lamps,
photoelectric switches, and other energy-management systems and
down-line switching capability is also available.
Installation involves connecting three or four power wires from
the fixture electrical panel to the system’s unit enclosure box; the
other system parameters are set up at the factory. DE
Don Talend of Write Results specializes in technology and innovation.
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Waldmann Lighting Amadea in the Medical Center of Aurora renovation
Waldmann
Lighting
Waldmann
Lighting
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