Lighting Controls Save Energy

Lighting Controls Save Energy 

With Lutron High Bay Athlite Fixtures, Moravian College was able cut previous electrical output by 83 percent in their recreational gym.

Moravian is a small, residential college in Bethlehem, PA, founded in 1742 — the sixth oldest college in the United States. It is a school steeped in the liberal arts tradition and deeply committed to its students. To strengthen the sense of campus community, the school had long planned to renovate its Athletic and Recreation Center. Construction involved updating its competition and recreational gyms, and adding a 10,000-squarefoot fitness center for faculty and students.

As part of the overall construction and renovation project, the college identified the need for an energy-efficient lighting retrofit that would allow centralized control and programming of the lighting in all the athletic facilities, and would also deliver significant lighting energy savings. Work had to be done quickly, during the summer break, in order to minimize disruption to the students and the athletic program.

In both gyms, Moravian replaced inefficient, high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting with Lutron High Bay Athlite fixtures and digital fluorescent dimming ballasts. The school also installed preset lighting controls, eliminating the guesswork previously used to create the right light level.

The energy savings — reported via Lutron GreenGlance energy reporting software — were staggering. Compared to the original HID lighting, the new system has already saved 83 percent of the electric output in the recreational gym and 71 percent in the competition gym.

“Our students appreciate the fact that the court is more evenly lit, and that the new lights are silent. The loud buzz from the old lights is completely gone. That means it’s better for the athletes,” notes Mary Beth Spirk, the head coach of the Women’s Basketball Team at Moravian.

www.lutron.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Launches New Emergency Communications System

    The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) recently deployed a new emergency notification and incident management system for its campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with 911Cellular to launch Safe@UTC, a smartphone app allowing university officials to communicate and respond during emergency situations.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • 144-Year-Old High-School Campus Debuts New Academic Facility

    San Diego High School (SDHS) in San Diego, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new student services and classroom building; the project is part of a larger SDHS Whole Site Modernization project that began in 2022.

  • Miami University Approves New $242M Multipurpose Arena

    Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, recently announced that its Board of Trustees has approved construction of a new multipurpose arena at Cook Field, according to university news. The $242-million project will serve as a new centralized hub for student life and create space for economic development on campus.