04/13/2009
A light has gone off for SUNY Cortland employees who recognized endorsing lighting energy efficiency as one of the easiest ways to reduce energy use.
Steven Lundberg, who joined the College 33 years ago, has witnessed many of the changes the College has made to endorse sustainability throughout its operations.
"Changing the lighting on campus isn't a new thing," said Lundberg, the assistant director of maintenance and operations services.
"We began an energy performance program in the 1990s where we conducted a study on campus equipment that used a lot of energy," Lundberg said. "Lighting is a ‘low-hanging fruit,' which means it is an easy and cheap fix comparable to other larger projects. Thus we started to focus on the lighting throughout campus and to make changes."
The College began its most recent and ambitious lighting renovation by changing all 350 bulbs in the lamp posts throughout campus last summer. They replaced the 150-watt high-pressure sodium light bulbs with 70-watt metal halide ones, allowing more light to be cast down, even though the new luminaries use a smaller wattage.
"The entire project was done in-house," Lundberg said. "This greatly saved on labor costs. It will take about two-and-a-half years for payback, but it will save the College $18,000 a year in energy expenses."
While students enjoyed a week off during spring break, the College continued to change its lighting in the Tomik Fitness Facility and the Park Center Room D-305, the rock climbing room. The old lights were changed to T5 high-output tube fixtures
"In D-305 we will save $2,000 a year in energy costs and in the gym we will save $2,800," Lundberg said. "Again, it will be less than three years for payback. Also, for all of our projects we receive a $2,500 energy rebate from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, NYSERDA."
The Park Center Corey Gymnasium will undergo this same transformation during study week of finals.
"We are getting 100 percent support by the College," Lundberg said. "It's not a lot of money and it saves energy and provides better light."
The Corey Union Function Room is next on the list. Its 42 fixtures, all 300-watt lights, extend deep into the ceiling, which causes them to retain a lot of heat. This results in a larger amount of air conditioning use, another form of energy use that could otherwise be avoided, noted Lundberg.
"We are going to change a total of 13,000 watts in the Function Room to 2,700 watts by changing the type of bulb," said Lundberg, who expects the project to be done by mid-May. "This will result in an annual energy cost of $2,700 being reduced to $500, all of this by just changing the light bulbs."
Some changes have allowed the students to play a vital role in reducing the light use throughout campus.
"The old light switches on campus were controlled by keys so only workers could manage the times lights were on and off, due to the fact that the lights would take awhile to come on," Lundberg said. "With the new lighting, which turns on and off instantaneously, anyone can control the switch. We ask the students to turn lights off when leaving a room and if they only need half of the lights on to please use only half. Anything students do to reduce the lighting saves the College's energy output."
Lighting efficiency changes are also planned in the near future for the Alumni Arena, Fitzgerald Hall, Randall Hall, Moffett Center, Studio West, Bowers Hall and Dowd Fine Arts Center, according to Lundberg. His department has also discussed a different area of energy conservation, changing the buses to hybrid vehicles.
"We are way ahead of the game compared to other schools," Lundberg said. "We have set the pace and others have taken notice and begun to follow. This is due to the collaborative effort from faculty, staff, operational services and students."
For more information, contact Lundberg at (607) 753-2130 or at steven.lundberg@cortland.edu.