Twin Supplies recently completed an energy upgrade project at Holy Cross Church in Chicago, IL. The high ceilings and beautiful cathedral-like structure made replacing incandescent bulbs in the ceiling a costly and time consuming ordeal.
Twin Supplies recently completed a lighting renovation project of the main gym and workout areas at the former Chicago Bulls practice facility in Deerfield, IL. The project was paid for in part through the Smart Ideas for Your Business incentive program offered by ComEd, known as the Small Business Energy Savings Program (SBES). The balance of the project was paid for by the new owner of the facility, Event Creative of Chicago, IL.
According to Mr. Sean Cannon, co-partner of the New Venue One North Shore as the facility will now be known, “We’re very happy with the new look of the facility. I’m really glad (Twin Supplies) pushed the project through with us here at Event Creative.”
Replacing the existing metal halide lights in the gym and workout areas with LED “Spun Bays” from Lumecon Corp. in Farmington Hills, MI reduced the wattage in those areas by 83% (50,760W to 8,460W). The total project cost was $54,732 with incentives from ComEd totaling a whopping $33,840 and resulting in a total out-of-pocket cost for Venue One of $20,892. Estimated annual electrical savings are $14,545 making the simple ROI of this project just 1.4 years or a little over 16 months.
As estimated by the project workbook provided by the Smart Ideas for Your Business incentive program offered by ComEd, the environmental benefits from replacing 47 gym lights with LED luminaires is the equivalent of 28 less cars driven per year; or 15,078 gallons of gasoline saved; or even 18.4 tree seedlings grown for 10 years – truly an environmentally friendly event if there ever was one.
Come check out the amazing new look at a former sports facility that once was the basketball center of the universe during the Chicago Bulls championship runs of the 1990s—Venue One North Shore in Deerfield, IL.
Tim Snow
Project Manager
At Twin Supplies we take great pride in being able to offer our customers a wide variety of energy saving measures and incentives. In this post we invite you to explore the details of one of our most recent refrigeration and lighting projects. For more information about all the refrigeration measures we offer please visit: Refrigeration Measures.
The old lighting inside the freezers was replaced with new LED fixtures, giving all the products inside a very crisp, clear and more appealing “look”. Also, existing 500W halogen exterior lights were replaced with brand new 24W LED flood lights, yielding a whopping 476W reduction per fixture while maintaining visibility levels!
All of the freezers/coolers were powered by older model “shaded-pole” motors which ran at a constant 140W. Twin Supplies was able to replace these energy hogs with new EC-Motors which, thanks to the use of a controller, consume only between 9W and 40W! Through the use of a controller with two sensors, the system is able to detect when the motors need to be working at full speed (40W) or when they can be set to the lower speed (9W). These motors run at 9W nearly 90% of the time, saving the end user a significant amount of energy. This replacement did not involve any changes to the compressor or anything related with the refrigeration system itself besides the electric motors. The second measure involved adding strip curtains inside of walk-in coolers and freezers. The advantage of the strip curtains is immediate – anytime the door is open, particularly for an extended period of time like during a delivery, the strip curtains keep the majority of the cold air inside the compartment and the hot air out, preventing overworking of the unit and energy waste. Finally, a third and very simple measure involved adding a door closing mechanism for the freezer and cooler doors, which ensures that the door remains fully and firmly closed, keeping air from leaking in or out.
The customer was thrilled with the job and has now permanently reduced energy consumption, resulting in lower energy bills. Please feel free to contact us for a free, no obligation audit at your business, where we can provide a detailed energy savings proposal to you!
At Twin Supplies we make your world brighter.
Usually I’m the project manager who takes care of the “big public customer”: Your Village Hall needs better lighting? I’m your man. The public works facility is too dark—not a problem. Police and fire stations need brighter exterior lighting; you’ve come to the right place.
Two hundred retrofits here. One hundred and fifty hibays there. Seventy-five LED wall packs at all compass points….done! Next!
So when our business manager handed me a referral from the local power company for an underground parking facility in a nearby northern suburb, I thought, “Why’d she give this little project to me?”
I met with several of the residents who were overseeing the upgrade in lighting for their thirty space underground facility. The challenge was to upgrade from 67 two lamp T12 1×8 fixtures to something brighter but at a reasonable cost. It wasn’t the glamourous, big expenditure project to which I was accustomed. The deep concrete ridges in the garage ceiling prevented much of the light from spreading beyond the narrow passageway where the existing fixture was mounted. LED canopy? Out of the customer price range. LED wrap fixtures? Also expensive. What was the best solution to this lighting scenario?
An office colleague said, “why not put up an eight foot, T8 two lamp retrofit? And use 28W T8 lamps; that will reduce the existing wattage from 148W to only 49W; and the 6,000 lumens produced by the retrofit upgrade will be plenty bright.” In addition, with the power company incentives covering more than 50% of the cost of this simple solution, the lighting upgrade was well within the residents’ budget. The residents loved the cost of the lighting upgrade, and they loved the new light levels. Another successfully completed project. End of story, right? Hardly.
About a week later the real estate company in charge of the facility called me. They wanted to know if I would be interested in looking at another underground parking garage. The residents of this new garage had heard through the grapevine of the fantastic new lighting in their sister facility’s underground garage, and they wanted to know if we could do the same for them.
Although the lighting solution at the second garage was different (a four lamp, eight foot T8 retrofit), it was no less successful—and affordable—than the first project. The second group of residents was happy and I was ready to go back to big gymnasiums…… Three days later I get a call from the same real estate company. Another suburb, another underground parking garage: can you do it?
Can I do it? I’m the guy who just completed two of the most energy efficient, brightest, residential underground parking garages on the north side of the city. It’s my specialty!
Yesterday, I just quoted new lighting for my ninth underground parking garage for a large condominium complex. At Twin Supplies, the future is looking…..bright!
Tim Snow
Project Manager