LED Lighting Reality

April 19, 2012
A visit to a lighting retrofit project shows LED lighting still has a way to go.

Last week, I spent a morning on a job-site at a school with Danny Seymour, construction manager, and Mike Eckard, project manager, from ConEd Solutions, an energy-service company (ESCO) based in Overland Park, Kan. ConEd Solutions did a lighting retrofit (along with replacing chillers, roofs and managing some other infrastructure work) for Piper School District’s elementary, middle school and high school facilities that helped the district save $70,834 annually in electrical costs and $185,667 in non-electrical costs.

Interestingly, most of the lamps were either T-5 or compact fluorescents for interior lighting, and T-5 fluorescents for the parking lots. Danny and Mike said no LEDs were considered because they are years away from equaling conventional lighting products for this sort of job. ConEd Solutions does use them occasionally for high-maintenance cost areas such as parking lots, high ceilings in industrial facilities.