Peralta Saves Energy, Money on Lighting

The long, rectangular lights (containing high-efficiency fluorescent lamps) will replace the circular lights (containing high-intensity discharge lamps).

In December 2008, Peralta completed a massive lighting upgrade through Enlight Energy Efficient Lighting of Pleasanton: retrofitting 9,000 lighting fixtures at Laney College and Merritt College to save an estimated $90,000 on nearly 800,000 kWh of electricity every year.

The project reduces Peralta’s carbon footprint by nearly 1 million lbs. of CO2 every year. This is the equivalent to approximately 73 average North American homes or 50 average North American sedans (source: BEF carbon calculator). Peralta will receive $133,000 in rebates from PG&E for this project, which will help pay 30% of the $431,000 price tag. Then, after 4 years, the District will have full recovered the cost of the project through savings on the utility bill.

“The savings realized through sustainability projects is a win-win for the environment and for academics,” says Dr. Sadiq B. Ikharo, Vice Chancellor of General Services for the Peralta Community College District. “This is just the beginning of Peralta’s Energy Master Planning and Implementation process that will reduce energy use and make more funds available to the classroom in a time of budget cuts.”

The majority of the lighting retrofit work is replacing 9,000 fluorescent lamps and their ballasts at Merritt College and Laney College. Enlight removed Peralta’s T-12 lamps with magnetic ballasts and 1st generation T-8 lamps with electronic ballasts and replaced them with 3rd generation T-8 lamps with electronic ballasts. This new combination, which uses 38 watts to run two lamps, is over 35% more efficient than the original combination, which used 60 to 72 watts for the same lumen output. The new lamps also contain less mercury, lowering the chances of mercury exposure in case they break.

This project was extraordinary since none of the old fixtures and lamps went to landfill. Though State law requires strict disposal and handling of fluorescent lamps, which contain mercury, Enlight took extra care to recycle each and every part of the lighting fixtures and lamps they removed. AERC Recycling Solutions in Hayward crushed the fluorescent tubes to separate glass and mercury for reuse, and even recycled the aluminum from the lamps’ end-pins. They salvaged the copper wire and steel from ballasts, ballast housings and electronics. In addition, old plastic lenses were recycled by Enlight.

Energy-efficient lighting retrofits surged in 1990s with fluorescent lights, according to Matt Tracy, president of Enlight Inc. “We thought we were going to run out of efficiency in the mid-90s but manufacturers kept coming up with new technology and people in the field kept coming up with new applications,” said Tracy. Since then, light bulb manufacturers steadily increased the color, efficiency and output of fluorescent lamps. The new generation of lighting closely imitates natural light, have longer life and degrade very little over time.

A major part of the work involved replacing lighting fixtures in the Laney and Merritt gyms. Previously, both had been illuminated by high-intensity discharge (HID) fixtures. Those have been replaced by new flourescent fixtures, saving money and energy.

The technology for the HID requires a long warm-up time. In contrast, the new fluorescent fixtures enable coaches and players to instantly turn on the lights to full illumination without any warm-up time. The fixtures, made by Ammerillium, take advantage of those instant-on capabilities, have built-in sensors that detect movement to turn on and off as needed.

Another environmental benefits to using fluorescent is that designers can accommodate for lighting needs very precisely. HID lamps degrade much faster than fluorescents, so engineers and designers using HIDs typically design lighting that is overly bright, but reaches the specified output when the bulbs have degraded.

The project was developed during Fall 2007 by Bob Beckwith, Peralta’s Director of Operations, as a part of a larger energy-efficiency program for which PCCD received substantial rebates from PG&E, thanks to a partnership between California Community Colleges and California’s Investor Owned Utilities (CCC-IOU partnership). Dr. Ikharo encouraged the development of this and a host of other energy-efficiency measures after learning of the CCC-IOU program through office of Dan Estrada at the CCC System Office.