Energy Source Shines a Light on Safety and Savings for AAA Southern New England
Providence, Rhode Island (PRWEB) September 05, 2014 -- Who does an organization that’s known for coming to the rescue of stranded motorists call when they need help of their own? When it came to improving lighting systems outside their Rhode Island headquarters, AAA Southern New England called Energy Source, the Providence-based energy efficiency firm that specializes in state-of-the-art, high efficiency lighting.
The two companies recently completed a project initially aimed at enhancing the safety and comfort of the 800 employees who staff the organization’s 24-hour operations center in Providence. In the end, the design that Energy Source implemented managed to not only dramatically improve lighting levels, but it did so for less money than the existing system had.
This outcome was a pleasant surprise to Ken McKeown, Director of Facilities Management at AAA Southern New England.
“Frankly, as someone who has managed numerous lighting projects, I was a little skeptical. Energy Source proposed a final design projected to double the foot-candles in our main parking area. This certainly accomplished our goal of increasing light levels for our second and third-shift employees, but the idea that this could be accomplished while achieving greater than 50% energy savings seemed too good to be true,” McKeown said.
Jim Howard, the energy efficiency consultant who oversaw the AAA project for Energy Source, said McKeown’s skepticism is not uncommon. “Often times, our clients underestimate the amount of the savings which can be realized by upgrading to energy efficient designs. We were very pleased to be able to demonstrate that on this project. It was clear to us that AAA takes the safety of its employees very seriously, while at the same time, as a member organization, they have a strong commitment to operating as efficiently as possible. This project represented a classic win-win in that regard,” Howard said.
The solution implemented by Energy Source utilized all of the existing light poles in the 180,000 square foot lot but replaced each of the traditional, single-head metal halide fixtures mounted to them with four high efficiency LED fixtures.
The design itself created a more consistent lighting pattern providing evenly distributed lighting coverage over the entire parking surface. The state-of-the-art LED fixtures have an operational cost that is a fraction of metal halide and last nearly 10 times longer than their antiquated counterparts.
The project will yield an annual savings of 70,000 Kilowatt Hours and significantly reduced maintenance costs. In addition, Energy Source leveraged its position as a National Grid Project Expeditor to secure significant incentives available from the utility on behalf of its client. This made the financing of the project very appealing and will result in a rapid payback with an ongoing ROI for many years to come.
Gabriel Andreson, Energy Source LLC, http://www.energysource.com, +1 774.254.4499, [email protected]
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