High Tech Lighting Project Makes Seaport World Trade Center Boston a Showcase for Energy Efficiency
Boston, MA: (PRWEB) July 29, 2014 -- Most trade show attendees will naturally focus their attention on the products and services being presented in the maze of booths on the show floor. But visitors to the World Trade Center Boston can now also see a display of state-of-the-art energy conservation technology in action simply by looking up at the ceiling.
The owners of Seaport World Trade Center, the world class convention center on Boston’s waterfront, in partnership with Energy Source LLC of Providence, Rhode Island, have just completed a large-scale intelligent lighting project that will conserve 1.2 million killowatt hours of energy over the next 3 years, provide an optimized lighting environment for exhibitors, and ensure that every event hosted at the facility is operating at maximum energy efficiency.
The key to this green-friendly, energy conservation initiative is the combination of new LED lighting technology and the intelligent network-based software that controls them.
Gabriel Andreson of Energy Source describes the solution his firm designed and implemented at the facility’s 118,000-square-foot Commonwealth Hall and the benefits it brings.
“The challenge from a design perspective was to create a solution that would accommodate a great variety in size of hosted events as well as the varying lighting requirements throughout the phases of production, from setup, to show, to breakdown. We wanted to make certain that we were maximizing savings in every square foot every minute of every day,” Andreson said.
The combination of LED and network-based controls opens up a whole new world of savings opportunities. “We have defined 8 different fully programmable lighting zones within the space. Each is independently controlled and can be administered remotely from any networked device. This grants virtually unlimited flexibility for lighting the entire space or any portion of it, adjusting the dimming levels by task or mood on the fly, all with no engineer needed on site to flip the switches. It’s the utmost in efficiency,” Andreson said.
The system’s network-based controls and dimming functionality also afford the opportunity to program the zones based on typical operational and occupancy schedules within the convention space. For example, a lower light level is required during show set-up and break down as opposed to during an event. The precision that can be achieved allows for even more creativity in finding savings opportunities. In this case, Energy Source identified that the egress lighting was typically operating at a level in excess of the code requirements. Dialing those levels down amounts to significant “found” savings.
The overall economics of the project were made very attractive thanks to Energy Source’s ability to secure Utility incentives and rebates on behalf of its client. In this case, the Utility’s incentives offset the costs to a level that made for a rapid payback of less than 3 years with ongoing energy savings in the vicinity of $65,000 per year into the future. All totalled, the project delivered a very attractive ROI for the client.
Gabriel Andreson, Energy Source LLC, http://www.energysource.com, +1 774.254.4499, [email protected]
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