Historic Buildings Receive Lighting Upgrade

"It used to take us eight staff hours at $20 per hour to re-lamp Tripp Commons before we put in the CFLs, and we had to do it every month," said Bill Miller, UW-Madison Memorial Union Building Services Manager. "Since we re-lamped over a year ago we haven't had to change the bulbs yet. That's saving us $900 alone in labor just in Tripp, even after deducting the cost of the CFLs, not to mention the electricity savings. Now we have CFLs in the Rathskeller, Great Hall and other areas of the building as well as all of the lighting on the outside of the building. They are energy efficient and save us a bundle in labor costs."

In order to respect the historic character of both buildings, staff installed the new lighting gradually on a trial basis over a period of many months. Based on the success of this project, both facilities have a great deal of remaining potential to change energy inefficient incandescent lighting to ENERGY STAR qualified lighting. DOA's Division of Energy partnered with building managers on the project.

The project took a simple, low-cost approach that most Wisconsin homes and businesses could follow. The target was familiar socket-based lighting that makes up virtually all residential lighting and about twenty percent of commercial building lighting. The project changed out traditional incandescent light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs. Screwing in light bulbs is one of the simplest energy saving projects, requiring no specialized tools.

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs typically lower energy costs by two-thirds, and last up to10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Businesses and commercial buildings in particular see dollar savings add up quickly when they change to efficient lighting, because they use their lights so many hours a day. CFLs generate approximately 70 percent less heat than standard incandescent lighting, which means they are cooler to touch, less of a fire hazard and help cut back air conditioning costs in the buildings during the summer.

Division of Energy staff assisted the project by finding many specialty styles of ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs, to satisfy many different lighting applications in each of these buildings. This was possible because ENERGY STAR qualified lighting has become available in a much broader array of styles. For example, this project demonstrated reflector and flood-style light bulbs, dimmable styles and globes, as well as standard shapes. Outdoor lighting was also targeted.