Fayetteville Installs LED Lighting

March, 2010

With shrinking budgets and a citywide mandate to reduce the environmental impact of the public parking program in Fayetteville, AR, the city’s sustainability coordinator, John Coleman, turned to local “green” builder James “Butch” Coger for options.
After a careful review of the energy consumption trends of the Town Center parking garage, Coger determined that the existing lighting was the main culprit in budget overruns and was the “lowest hanging fruit” for helping Fayetteville reduce costs and “green” their parking program.
With the lighting targeted for replacement, the search began for lower maintenance and lower energy-consuming technologies. A daylight study was conducted to see what percentage of the parking garage could meet code without supplemental lighting.
Coger discovered that while the existing facility was running the lights 24/7, more than one-third of the fixtures could be turned off for as much as 10 hours a day and still meet local codes.
With this knowledge, the search expanded to include so-called daylight-harvesting features as well. All of the modern lighting technologies were investigated, including fluorescent, inductive, HID and solid-state (LED) sources. Products that were incompatible, or compromised, by using daylight and motion sensors were cast aside in favor of products whose lives were not impacted by frequent re-strike and dimming.
Coger determined that solid-state luminary (SSL) fixtures would provide the quickest return on investment for the city and the best projected long-term value. The compatibility of LED fixtures with daylight-harvesting technologies also tipped the scales in favor of LED over many competing technologies.
LED low bay fixtures from Infinilux Inc. were selected for the installation, based on a combination of factors, including extreme low-power consumption, robust construction and warranty terms.
The complete retrofit of the Town Center Parking Deck took Coger’s Custom Home and Commercial Electronics less than 10 days to complete. Upon completion, monitored energy savings exceeded expectations and were the equivalent – using EPA calculations – of removing more than 1.8 million tons of CO2 from the environment or taking 562 cars off the road permanently.
The city of Fayetteville has calculated a complete payoff of less than three years, based on their energy savings alone, or a savings of more than $150,000.
During the ribbon-cutting and grand re-opening of the Town Center Parking Deck, city Sustainability Coordinator Coleman said: “We are very pleased with both the cost savings and the reduction in Fayetteville’s carbon foot-print. The (lighting) project has been a compete success and has met, if not exceeded, our expectations.”