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Council OKs plans to retrofit lighting system
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The Ralph A. Infante Wellness Center in Waddell Park is only 5 years old, but its lighting system is about to be retrofitted at a cost of nearly $272,000.
City council approved the action in a special meeting Tuesday.
“We’ve been using 96 halogen bulbs, which don’t last very long, and we’re constantly replacing them,” said Scott MacMillan, center director.
“They give off a lot of heat forcing our air conditioning and air-return units to run all the time, and that adds to our costs.”
Instead, the city will pay Titan LED, Moorpark, Calif., and its local partner KV Electric of Niles to install LED sports lighting, which the company’s website claims is “90 percent more efficient than traditional lighting producing more light and less heat.”
Mayor Ralph Infante says the change will pay for itself in the long run.
“We believe we will save $7,000 a month in electric bills,” Infante said. “We currently use around 700,000 kilowatts and the new lights will reduce that figure to 198,000 kilowatts.”
The mayor said the center’s electric bills currently average around $13,000 monthly.
MacMillan said the city originally decided to use halogen lights at the suggestion of a lighting engineer during the planning stages prior to construction.
“The [LED] technology was so new and the price at that time was too high,” MacMillan said.
“Since we opened, we’ve had to replace all of the halogen bulbs at least three times so we have to spend more on maintenance.”
MacMillan said the center has to rent a power lift to change the bulbs, which further increases operating costs. The average height in the 80,000-square foot facility is 20 feet, but rises to 40 feet above the indoor soccer field.
“If only a few go out and they’re scattered, we can let it go, but if a [cluster] of lights go out in one area, then we have to change them immediately,” the director said.
Infante said the city may decide on an initial lease for the new lighting for the first five years with an eventual option to purchase after that.
“The system comes with a 12-year warranty so we have plenty of time to see how things are going,” the mayor said.
MacMillan said he anticipates the conversion to be completed by early fall so that it will not interfere with the start of soccer league competition.