Industry:Indoor Athletics Facility
Type of equipment:76 ceiling troffers
Financing Term:72 months
Expected Annual Energy Savings:$12,000
Location:Houston Texas
CO2 reduction:lbs (based on eGRID) over the project lifetime
Super-Flood Safety for Maintenance Shop
Texas Tornados Volleyball Club, a chapter of USA Volleyball, based in Houston, Texas sought out a lighting upgrade for its training facilities and gymnasium. The utility bills are a strain on the club and take away from the core operating goal: coaching and preparing its young athletes for High School Varsity and NCAA levels of play.
The indoor gymnasium and offices keeps its lights on all day for practice and training, and on occasion for tournaments, late into the night. In Houston Texas, a notoriously hot and humid environment, the Texas Tornados facilities runs it’s A/C unit year-round to keep athletes and spectators comfortable. The prior lighting system in the space wasted electricity as heat, increasing the load on the HVAC unit and making the electric bills that much more expensive. JoEllen Thibodeaux, the President of the Club and its facilities, received a lighting audit on the space, but was unsatisfied with the recommended upgrades and advertised savings.
The Solution
Steve Jessop, Project Manager at Constellation Lighting approached JoEllen and the Texas Tornados with a full-suite upgrade of LED lights and multiple payments options. Steve designed a proposal that would meet all the needs of facilities, provide the athletes with high-quality lighting, reduce the HVAC load, and save the club about $12,000 annually on operating costs! To tie the package together, Steve included a flexible financing plan powered by SparkFund, Constellation’s integrated financing partner.
Constellation Lighting, a Houston based company, designs, manufactures, and supplies the SouthEast and Caribbean with top-quality LED lighting equipment. Constellation partners with SparkFund, a fin-tech company with flexible financing options for projects as low as $10,000. Together, Constellation and SparkFund combine top-quality LED equipment with flexible payment options accelerating the installation of energy efficient technology.
The volleyball court presented us with some issues. There was a need for even lighting across the court and the fact that, when playing volleyball, the ball can go quite high. So instead of using the same light set to an even height, we needed the lights to be up against the ceiling. To achieve this we came up with a custom solution for this specific situation.
At the outside we used 48W Saturn LED luminaires with a narrow beam, then moving in we used our SK – XG03 150W wide angle, and, in the peak a very wide angle SK – XG03 200W LED luminaire. This gives a high level of light and, at the same time, makes it very even. (See attached photo)
In the offices, kitchen, and dining area, we replaced 76 4’ x 2’ 4 tube fluorescent fixtures (approx 220W each) with our 40W LED light panels. These light panels are drop in replacement for fluorescent light fixtures. This makes installation simple and provides a very modern look.
The Results
Better Lighting Quality: New LEDs will improve the facilities of the Texas Tornados by increasing the lighting quality in the gymnasium space. High quality lighting benefits athletes by illuminating the space, eliminating shadow area, and improving hand-eye-ball coordination.
Operational Savings: LEDs run at a lower wattage than traditional lights. Lower wattage means lower electricity use and . Additionally, LED lighting emits less ambient heat, reducing the strain on the HVAC.
