Let There Be (Less Expensive, Brighter, More Sustainable) Light

PORTSMOUTH — Two months after Rockingham Electric loaned Liberty Mutual six LED lights to illuminate the parking lot at its Borthwick Avenue campus, Liberty Mutual decided to replace 55 of its less efficient metal halide lights with LEDs, which Rockingham supplied. 

And that caused concern at the utility company. 

“After we installed LED lights, the electric company thought that there might be something wrong with our meter. It noticed that our usage in the parking lot was down 56 percent in June,” explains Jeffrey LaPointe, manager of IT facilities at Liberty Mutual’s Portsmouth office.  “It was kind of nice that we weren't the only one noticing the drop in our monthly electricity charge." 

Notable is the fact that June is the month during the year with the most daylight, and therefore has the least need for artificial lighting. And every month since June 2013 has shown a 60 to 70 percent savings to Liberty Mutual with the LEDs as compared to the old metal halides, LaPointe says. 

Rockingham Electric and Liberty Mutual of Portsmouth had spent considerable time analyzing the existing parking lot lighting and what energy savings opportunities were available. “Technology in commercial lighting has come a long way in the past couple of years,” says Rockingham Electric President Jim Pender, “and we all felt the timing was right for a conversion.” 

But Rockingham Electric first suggested establishing a pilot program to loan Liberty Mutual six fixtures because “[t]here is always a concern when showing a tremendous saving in energy that light output will be jeopardized,” Pender says. “So we felt the best way to determine this was with the samples, which we provided with no obligation.” 

Rockingham supplied 55 new fixtures on the parking lot, 44 mounted on existing poles and 11 wall-mounted. Pleased with the results, Liberty Mutual commissioned Rockingham Electric to install LEDs on all exterior lights on the campus, including the front circle and the walkway around the property’s pond. 

“We replaced 1,000-watt metal halides with 288-watt LEDs — that is a savings of 712 watts per fixture,” Pender says, a cost reduction of $457.86 per light. 

A metal-halide lamp is an electric light that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides, according to Wikipedia. It is a type of high-intensity discharge gas discharge lamp. Developed in the 1960s, it is similar to a mercury vapor lamp, but contains additional metal halide compounds in the arc tube, which improve the efficacy and color rendition of the light, and produce an intense white light. Lamp life is 6,000 to 15,000 hours.  

An LED light stands for "Light-Emitting Diode," according to TechTerms.com.  An LED light is an electronic device that emits light when an electrical current is passed through it. LEDs are commonly used for indicator lights, such as power on-off lights, on electronic devices. They also have several other applications, including electronic signs, clock displays, and flashlights. Since LEDs are energy efficient and have a long lifespan — often more than 100,000 hours, which is seven times longer than metal halides — they have begun to replace traditional light bulbs in several areas, including street lights. Also, the energy efficient nature of LEDs allows them to produce brighter light than other types of bulbs while using less energy. 

LaPointe notes that there was also a safety element to the LED light installation. “The parking lot resides under high tension lines. And it has never been comfortable for a contractor to change metal halides in that area. With the LED lights, that is no longer a concern.”  

Liberty Mutual’s decision to test and then supply LEDs is part of a larger effort to transform its operations into something more sustainable. “Over the past couple of years, the new buzzword is ‘green,’” says LaPointe. “Liberty Mutual has been making a much stronger push on green initiatives with the aim of reducing our carbon footprint.” 

Liberty Mutual is “absolutely pleased” with the Rockingham Electric project, LaPointe says. “Actually, we have received positive feedback from employees, all positive so far.” 

Rockingham Electric is doing similar jobs throughout the states of New Hampshire and Maine all the time, Pender says, including recent work at Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine, and in Hampton Beach. 

Rockingham Electric is a Business Partner of the Green Alliance, a union of local sustainable businesses promoting environmentally sound business practices and a green co-op offering discounted green products and services to its members. 

For more information about Rockingham Electric, visit www.rockinghamelectric.com.