In The News

This year’s Efficient Building Award for Lighting Controls goes to the National Park Service (NPS) for a paid-through-savings retrofit project at the National Park Service’s Ellis Island Museum here that reduced the facility’s annual lighting energy consumption by 49 percent.

The project was completed in August 1996 for approximately $1.1 million. CES/WAY, a Houston-based energy service company (esco), nominated the retrofit for which they provided the financing, engineering, and installation services. Technology incentives totaling $800,000 were provided by local utility Public Service Gas & Electric. The lighting project reduced energy consumption by more than 2 million kilowatt hours a year at the museum; generating annual cost savings of $172,793.

The museum and surrounding buildings cover approximately 350,000 square feet of space at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument. The lighting system is controlled through a new building automation system from Computrols, New Orleans. The system is connected to approximately 150 points. Of those points, 12 are connected to multipole lighting controllers that provide on/off control of the facility’s lighting systems. More than 4,000 fluorescent and incandescent lighting fixtures were retrofitted over the course of the project. Fluorescent fixtures that
used 40-watt T12 lamps and magnetic ballasts were fitted with 32-watt T8s from GE Lighting, Cleveland, and electronic ballasts from Motorola Lighting, Buffalo Grove, Ill., and MagneTek, Nashville, Tenn. Incandescent fixtures that used 75-watt and 150-watt bulbs were retrofitted with 45-watt and 60-watt halogen flood lamps from Philips Lighting Co., Somerset, N.J., and Osram Sylvania, Danvers, Mass. In addition, incandescent globe fixtures and wall sconces were upgraded with 13-watt compact fluorescent lamps from GE Lighting.

“We had a number of concerns about this project,” remarked Delores Thompson-Gad, NPS contracting officer. “We needed lighting that wasn’t going to destroy or damage any of the historic items on display. At the same time we needed lighting that would enhance the aesthetic qualities of the building, reduce glare, and enhance colors.” Any area containing museum artifacts was fitted with specialty museum lamps, which have a low ultraviolet output.

Reprinted from: Energy User News
Written by: Kessel L. Nelson