CUSTOMER
Downingtown Area School District is located in beautiful and historic Chester County in southeastern Pennsylvania. The district expects continued enrollment expansion, so it sought to reduce operating expenses through anenergy-saving lighting retrofit while improving its learning environmentfor students and teachers.
CHALLENGES
Lighting quality was not meeting suggested standards,operating costs for electricity usage were increasing as were maintenance costs for replacing antiquated lights, ballasts and fixtures.
SOLUTION
By upgrading the district’slighting systems, “The school district will save nearly $49,000 tax dollars a year in energy,” reported Brad Salamone, of Atlantic Energy Concepts, the energy services company that helped generate the savings.“The new systems will reduce electrical energy consumption by 609,912 kilowatt-hours a year,” he said. Multiplying those hours by a rate of 8 cents produces the impressive savings. “The savings will pay for the total cost of the system, including installation, so the district’s bottom line will not need to increase,” Salamone said. After that, the savings could actually help reduce operating budgets.
Another benefit that will accrue to the district’s nine elementary schools and an administration building is an average 15 percent higher illumination in classrooms, cafeterias, hallways, gymnasiums, auditoriums, offices and otherspaces. The difference was especially dramatic in cafeterias, which had the lowest light levels. All light levels now meet the 50-75 foot candle,an illumination level recommended by the Illuminating Engineering Society, a standards-setting professional/technical organization.
Light quality improved as well because the energy-efficient lamps produce illumination that is more“warmer” and “ more natural”looking than that of the inefficient fluorescents they replaced. Higher light levels and better quality light combine to make it easier to readand work.
Apart from providing a better environmentfor students, teachers andstaff, the district also is helping protect the environment in general.That’s because reducing energy consumption means that power plants don’t have to burn as much coal or other fuel to meet the district’s energy needs, which reduces the amount of pollution that would be produced by generating that electricity.
Atlantic Energy Concepts tailored a lighting system for each building that was designed to achieve three objectives. First, optimize energy efficiency. Next, achieve recommended light levels, while improving overall light quality. Finally, reduce lighting system maintenance costs. All three objectives were successfully met.
By eliminating the inefficient fluorescent lamp system, the new lamp and ballast combination will reduce maintenance and inventory expensedue to longer life and fewer stock items needing to be stored on site.