Clearlight Case Study: Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative, Inc.

• Led Lighting Co-op Case Study – Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative, Inc., Bouckville, NY.
• 300 175W Mercury Vapor NEMA dusk-till-dawn fixtures retrofitted with Evluma Clearlights

Evluma presented the Clearlight EcoSpot to Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative at an Annual Meeting of the Northeast Association of Electric Co-ops (NAEC) in May 2009. Oneida-Madison had been evaluating the ‘green’ aspects of LED lighting while looking for an alternative to the 300 175W Mercury Vapor (MV) bulbs that were on their line, The Energy Policy Act of 2005 had banned the importation and manufacture of MV ballasts and MV bulbs were getting scarce.

“ At that time we were also taking a critical look at energy consumption. The MV security lights came on and stayed on during peak times. We wanted to curb that,” said Brian Bell, Head of Operations at Oneida-Madison. High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights, such as MV lights tend to draw 2-4 times as much power when they first come on due to their low power factor. This ‘warm up’ time creates a spike in energy consumption for many utilities and co-ops with this type of lighting on their lines. Oneida-Madison first metered a MV fixture on their line, then compared it with the sample Clearlight they installed at the office. The MV fixture metered at approximately 80-100 khw per month compared to an approximate 15-20 khw per month with the Evluma product.

“The industry seemed to be moving towards LED,” said Brian “and recycling MV bulbs was time consuming and costly.” Oneida Madison contracts with a recycling company from whom they purchase prepaid recycling boxes for MV bulbs. Staff members must administrate the program and pack the bulbs to be sent back for recycling. Eager to take advantage of the energy savings and reduce the administrative burden on the staff, Oneida-Madison began the retrofit process with an order of 50 EcoSpots.

“Once installed, our members hated the EcoSpot. The light was too focused and too different. We caught a lot of flack at first,” said Brian. In response, Keith Miller, President and CEO of Evluma, visited Oneida-Madison with a sample of the new 50W Clearlight Beacon. Evluma launched the 50W Clearlight Beacon after working with numerous co-ops and utilities to find a ‘just-right’ solution, an LED retrofit that was still energy-efficient but that resembled the original HIDs a bit more than the Dark-Sky Friendly EcoSpot. Brian Bell remembers how the evening after the Beacon was installed, Oneida-Madison staff went out into the driveway with Mr. Miller and marked out the light pattern on the ground in order to compare the wider light distribution to the EcoSpot’s more focused one. Oneida-Madison believed the Beacon would address their member’s concerns about the EcoSpots they had installed earlier in the year.

“I think everything is going to convert to LED,” said Brian. “We really didn’t consider Metal Halide or Induction as a replacement option. We wanted to stay ahead of the trend. Compact fluorescents were all the rage and now everyone is reconsidering those. We didn’t want to go with a half measure. We had a few members that really objected to the EcoSpot. We switched those out [with the Beacon] and they loved that. Now when we are out replacing bulbs a member might ask what we are doing. We explain to them that we are replacing the MV with more energy efficient LED bulbs. ‘Oh that’s great,’ they say. They think that’s a good thing.”

Oneida-Madison also had another supplier’s dusk-till-dawn LED retrofit installed for evaluation. “It was nice; it was a comparable product, but didn’t seem to put out quite as much light as the Beacon. We never pursued the other product because we had a good working relationship with Evluma. Everyone tried really hard…not just to sell us a product, but also to stand behind it and listen when our members had complaints. Any trouble that we’ve had was taken care of immediately.”

Oneida-Madison wires around the legacy MV ballast for maximum energy savings. “We usually prep 5 fixtures at a time in the shop and swap out the entire unit.  It gives the technician the chance to inspect the entire fixture and change out any cracked cables – it gives us a chance to refurbish them a little bit. We also install a new photocell when the Beacon is installed so that we don’t have to go back and replace that later.”

Energy efficiency, low maintenance and customer service aside, there is one more reason why Oneida-Madison likes working with Evluma. Evluma products are Made in the USA of US and imported parts. The manufacturing site and warehouse is located in Seattle, WA. “It has always been a cooperative principal to try to buy American products whenever possible,” said Brian.