Lighting Upgrade Reduces Bayer Berkeley’s Carbon Footprint
10/7/2008 6:55:32 PM
The Bayer Berkeley facility is comprised of more than sixty buildings including utility rooms B18, B62, B59, B63 and B82, which house mechanical equipment. Occupancy within the utility rooms is scarce and limited to periodic inspection and maintenance. Despite the limited amount of time our employees spend in the utility rooms, all but five of the high bay metal halide lighting fixtures operate on a continuous, year-round basis. LMA energy engineers conducted an audit of the aforementioned utility rooms and reached the conclusion that substantial savings can be achieved by retrofitting the metal halide fixtures with more efficient T-8 linear fluorescent units. Furthermore, motion sensors were installed to minimize wasted energy when the rooms were unoccupied.
This project saves energy by two means. First, the T-8 lamps require less energy than their metal halide counterparts, resulting in a substantially less wattage draw during peak demand (mid-day). Secondly, the occupancy sensors dramatically reduce the hours of operation of the lights, which is unequivocally related to a decrease in energy consumption. Because these rooms are infrequently occupied, we were able to achieve a total energy reduction of 75 percent and an annual electricity usage by 219,758 kWh!
