Williamson County Schools, Tennessee

Customer Profile:

The Williamson County School system is a K-12 school district with approximately 19,000 students. There are 28 school sites that account for approximately 2.6 million square feet of space.

Customer Issues:

• Increased Energy and Maintenance Costs
• Light Level Disparities Throughout District
• Old Lighting Technologies § Variety of Lighting Technologies
• High Number of Burned Out Lamps and Ballasts

Project Objective:

As part of a comprehensive energy project, we designed and implemented an energy efficient lighting upgrade at 28 sites. The upgrade was designed to improve the learning environment, replace old lighting technologies, reduce maintenance and utility cost, improve safety for students and faculty, and standardize lighting materials. Light levels were evaluated at each site to ensure that the facility met the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) lighting standards. The overall project was funded utilizing the reduction of energy and operating dollars from within the existing utility budgets.

Results:

Improved lighting systems and reduced utility cost throughout the district was the result. The new lighting systems included upgrading the incandescent and T12 fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with new energy-efficient T8 fluorescent lamp and electronic ballast technologies. The emergency lighting systems with incandescent and fluorescent lamps were replaced with new LED (Light Emitting Diode) exit signs. Exterior incandescent light fixtures were replaced with high-pressure sodium fixtures. The project resulted in many benefits for the school district that included increased light levels, reduced energy and maintenance costs by 23 %, and standardization of lighting materials. Improved lighting, funded with reduced energy cost, extended the life of lamps and ballasts, increased maintenance productivity, and protracted material warranties.