Alumalight Completes Massive Lighting Retrofit
Troy-based Alumalight LLC, in conjunction with Sterling Heights-based E&R Industrial, said Tueseday it had completed a massive lighting retrofit program for Red Spot Paint and Varnish Co. at its corporate headquarters in Evansville, Ind.
The commercial project qualifies as the single largest lighting retrofit project eligible for a rebate program from the utility Vectren Energy.
Vectren's Business Custom Incentive Program, part of the company's energy efficiency program known as Conservation Connection, is designed to help business customers make smart, energy efficient decisions that reduce energy consumption and operating costs. Vectren, an Evansville-based utility company, offers incentives for qualified natural gas and electric projects.
Retrofitting a series of warehousing and administration facilities for Red Spot, which formulates, markets, sells, and produces innovative coatings, largely for the automotive market, Alumalight and E&R Industrial replaced or retrofitted over 1,200 outdated metal halide fixtures and T12 fluorescent fixtures with new, eco-friendly T5 and T8 fluorescent fixtures encompassing over 4,000 new lamps. Vectren's rebate program provided over $50,000 toward the cost of the energy efficiency projects.
The energy-efficient fixtures use less energy than the metal halide fixtures, greatly reducing energy costs, while improving overall lighting quality. Additional cost savings are realized in that the older metal halide fixtures have to be re-lamped multiple times during a 25,000 to 40,000-hour operating cycle to maintain desired light levels, whereas modern fluorescent fixtures only have to be re-lamped at the end of the cycle.
The new fixtures will reduce Red Spot's annual electricity usage at the site by more than 515,000 kilowatt hours, which in turn will eliminate nearly 165,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the environment.
"Red Spot is proud to participate in such a program that not only makes good business sense, but more importantly makes a favorable impact on the environment and ultimately in our community," said Bill Holsapple, Red Spot's corporate engineering manager. "This retrofit project will save us over 50 percent of our electric lighting costs annually," he continued.
"The annual energy savings is the equivalent of removing 75 vehicles from the street or planting more than 4,000 trees," said Jerry Beard, E&R Industrial area sales manager.
"This wonderfully successful turn-key project with Red Spot, E&R Industrial and Alumalight really exemplifies how companies in the private and public sectors can work together to achieve a winning business proposition for all involved," said Michael Stenback, Alumalight president.
Founded in 2007, Alumalight is a maker of high-output lighting fixtures that replace older, less-efficient overhead lighting systems in industrial, commercial, athletic, government, educational and retail facilities. It has stamping operations in Romeo and assembly operations in Troy.
