"After we converted the lighting at our Jupiter location and saw the tremendous savings, plus the improvement
in light quality, the conversion of our 'Main Location' became a high priority."
Description:Lainhart & Potter has been selling building supplies to the residences of Palm Beach County, Florida for over 103 years. According to the Historical Society of the Palm Beaches, this means that the company is one of the two oldest active businesses in the county. George W. Lainhart, the founder, sold construction materials to the oil and railroad magnate, Henry Flagler, for the construction of his railroad to the keys and his Breakers and Royal Poinciana Hotels in Palm Beach. Lainhart & Potter has thrived throughout the years by taking exceptionally good care of its customers. In the early days their newspaper ads called their approach square dealing. Now they call it customer service. "If we don't have it, we'll go the extra distance to find it. That's what keeps customers coming back," said Steve Sheffield, one of the company's five managers who handles the minute-to-minute operations of the West Palm location.Retrofit Goals:Lainhart and Potter's interior lighting was provided, for the most part, by approximately 310 fluorescent fixtures, using electromagnetic ballasts along with standard 40 watt, T-12 lamps. The facility burns its lights an average of 70 hours |
per week.
Although the primary goal of the conversion was to save energy, the company's management was very concerned about light levels and the overall appearance of the store. They particularly wanted the conversion to produce a positive response from their clientele and their 50 employees.
Constraints:The goal of increasing light quality represents a constraint on maximized watt reduction as did the owner's insistence that measurable light levels be maintained or increased, but not lowered. Other constraints required the installation of the project so as not to interfere with normal work hours and activities.Solutions:Conversion of the 2x4 fixtures consisted of removing the old lamps, ballasts, ballast covers, light sockets and end brackets and replacing with all new components. An electronic 2-lamp ballast was used with (2) high CRI 850 T-8 lamps. New lamp sockets were inserted into the new end brackets and a one piece, full-coverage aluminum reflector (which acts as a new UL approved ballast cover) was snapped into each fixture to complete the |
installation.
The conversion of the 8' strip fixtures entailed removing the lamps, ballast and ballast cover and replacing those components with the same electronic ballast and lamps used in the 2x4 conversions. A new reflectorized ballast cover was added before the two 4' lamps were installed in tandem. While this conversion requires considerable skill on the part of the installation technicians because it entails a total redesign of the fixture system, the performance results were outstanding.
Results:Watt requirements within the 2x4 fixtures were reduced from 192 watts per fixture to 59 (a 72% reduction). In the 8' strip fixtures, watt levels were reduced from 174 to 59 (a 66% reduction). Light levels were uniformly maintained throughout the store and because of the high color rendition of the new T-8, 850 lamps, visual acuity was dramatically improved. In addition, the store reduced its maintenance costs by 50% and now has the advantage of using the same standardized lamps and ballast in both types of the store's fixtures.Explanation:The T-8 lamps (80 CRI) chosen for this project produce a |
much better quality of light than standard fluorescent T-12 lamps (60 CRI). In addition, the reflector system installed in this
conversion greatly increased both types of fixture's efficiency (i.e., the ability to get the light out of the fixture and down to the work space). The combination of factors explains the increased visual acuity.
Financial Facts:The projected energy savings for this lighting retrofit is over $10,000 per year. The return on investment is over 65% per year, which produces a very impressive capital recovery period of approximately 18 months.Environmental:This project reduced the need to generate over 350 KWD of electricity per year; thereby avoiding the annual emission of over 150,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. All fluorescent lamps and those ballasts containing PCBs were removed from the site and properly disposed of by a certified contractor. Certificates of Destruction were provided to Lainhart & Potter.
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