CUSTOMER
Wilkes-Barre Area School District is located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania and is home to approximately 7000 students, district-wide.
CHALLENGES
The School District was consistently experiencing significant increases in their operating costs. Educating our young people is such an important task, that the district needed to find ways to cut their facilities’ operating budget and re-direct those funds toward educational priorities. Antiquated lighting technologies that caused excess energy expenditures were part of the problem.
SOLUTION
Wilkes-Barre School District decided to pursue energy conservation methods that would allow the district to actually save money. Invensys Corporation in conjunction with Atlantic Energy Concepts’ lighting expertise have implemented an energy conservation program that will help them achieve their goal.
The lighting retrofit performed in this school district consisted of a total of six buildings. Atlantic Energy Concepts, replaced the outdated T-12 fixtures with new T-8 fixtures with electronic ballasts in all of the buildings. Three hundred and three occupancy sensors were installed to take the “human” factor out of
remembering to turn off the lights, further reducing energy consumption. An additional advantage from the lighting retrofit is the maintenance and labor savings associated with the new system.
One of the two gymnasiums had 400-watt Mercury Vapor fixtures, which had gone beyond their useful life expectancy and were producing considerably less lumens than when new. The 400-watt fixtures were replaced with 250-watt Metal Halide fixtures that greatly reduced the energy consumption in that area of the school. This also dramatically improved the light. The other gym had 1000-watt Mercury Vapor lamps, which were retrofitted to 450-watt Metal Halide Pulse Start fixtures that have a quicker restrike time than the existing Mercury Vapor lamps and have increased light levels.
Wilkes-Barre School District also took safety into consideration and retrofitted outside lighting from old incandescent bulbs to fluorescent. The new fluorescent lighting has a much longer life expectancy along with reduced energy consumption.
The energy conservation plan was funded through Pennsylvania’s Act 57 program. Act 57 enables any governmental unit or state-aided institution to enter into an agreement with an energy service company (ESCO) for not longer than a ten-year period. This agreement has a written guarantee that the energy savings will meet or exceed the cost of the project.
Old lamps and ballasts were sent to a recycling center where lamp components are separated for reuse, recycling or disposal. Old lamps that contain hazardous mercury, and ballast that contain toxic PCB’s must be disposed of properly by a hazardous waste firm licensed by federal and state agencies.