Frost - Distribution Center seeks Improved Work Environment and Reduced Energy

Situation: Recently a large distribution center sought to improve their work environment with a lighting upgrade that would also reduce their energy consumption.

Solution: The first step of this upgrade was to replace the high bay metal halide fixtures with 2x4 6-lamp fixtures fitted with six 4' T-8 fluorescents instead of the one metal halide lamp currently in use. Finally, the individual magnetic ballast was replaced with two electronic high output ballasts. These changes improved the CRI to 75 from 50 and energy consumption was reduced to 213 watts per fixture from 450.

Project Benefits: The overall work environment was greatly improved as average lamplife increase to 20,000 hours and the restrike time is now zero. As a result of the improved lighting and dramatic decrease in energy consumption, this customer will see an annual energy savings of $134.95 based on 8,760 annual burn hours and a $0.065 kWh cost. This will result in a complete payback on the project in less than two years!