Lighting Project Spotlights Energy Savings At UC Santa Cruz

Project manager Mike Edens of AMTECH Lighting Services changes the wiring for a lighting fixture in Thimann Laboratories. Edens and his crew are replacing and upgrading light fixtures in more than 3,000 state-funded areas of campus in a project that is designed to help the campus conserve energy.

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Work crews began upgrading and replacing light fixtures on the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus earlier this month in an effort to conserve energy.

More than 3,000 offices, laboratories, classrooms, and other spaces in state-funded areas of the campus will gain new full-spectrum fluorescent lights and electronic ballasts (devices which regulate the flow of electricity). Some will even receive new lighting systems.

By installing energy-efficient lighting fixtures, the campus anticipates reducing its use of energy for lighting by as much as 20 percent and improving overall lighting quality, said UCSC energy manager Bob Dunn.

UC Santa Cruz is already the most energy-efficient of the nine UC campuses based on its use of energy per square foot. With its 10,600 students and approximately 3,000 faculty and staff, UC Santa Cruz is the third-largest consumer of electrical energy in Santa Cruz County, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

The $1.6-million project is expected to be paid for with energy savings over a six-year period. AMTECH Lighting Services of San Jose has contracted with the university to perform the work, which is scheduled to be finished in mid-June.

The relamping project is part of an overall drive by UCSC’s Physical Plant to make the campus more energy-efficient. In the future, Physical Plant plans to install a high-efficiency air chiller in the Earth and Marine Sciences Building and upgrade the campus’s energy-management system, which turns fans on and off and regulates air conditioning and heating systems.