CUSTOMER
Shippensburg University is located on 200 acres in the Cumberland Valley of south-central Pennsylvania. It is nationally recognized for providing its students with an education of excellence and has served students throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the country, for 132 years.
CHALLENGES
According to Rick Hertwig of Atlantic Energy Concepts, “A majority of the campus had outdated lighting fixtures and that is a two-fold problem; one is in maintenance costs and the other is in energy consumption.” Shippensburg University was looking for ways to save on operating expenses without compromising the comfort or safety of the students, faculty and staff.
SOLUTION
Abacus Engineered Systems (an energy services company based in Harrisburg, PA) approached the university about providing energy-efficient upgrades, within a Pennsylvania program called Act 57, which allows a state run entity to enter into an agreement with an energy service company (ESCO) to provide energy-efficient upgrades to their facility. These upgrades can cover lighting and HVAC systems, as well as other energy-saving technologies. The project is structured so that the upgrades will generate enough savings in utility and operational cost to pay for the upgrades within a ten-year period, as mandated by Act 57.
Atlantic Energy Concepts, a Reading, Pennsylvania based lighting services company was the lighting subcontractor for this project. The energy savings project encompassed 42 buildings. The total energy savings for the university amounted to $226,842 annually. The biggest lighting change on campus took place in the Heiges Field House gym, which is a 4,000-seat capacity gym that hosts a variety of different sporting events and presentations throughout the year.
The gym was using high intensity discharge (HID) lamps to illuminate the area. The biggest drawback with these types of fixtures is they did not possess instant on capability; it would take approximately 7-9 minutes for the lights to come up to full brightness. The other disadvantage was they were not very energy-efficient when compared to today’s lighting technologies. Atlantic Energy Concepts replaced the existing HID light fixtures with new light fixtures that use energy-efficient T-5 high output lamps that consume much less energy than the previous 400-watt lamps. The light levels have been increased but the energy usage has been reduced by 25%. The new lighting system permits the gym personnel to turn the lights on to full power instantly; allowing the athletes to start training immediately in a well-lit gym.