Sustainability

Lighting Upgrades and Retrofits

A university campus has extensive lighting needs throughout its numerous multi-use buildings and outdoor areas. Several of these larger areas require large, energy intensive lights to meet these needs. Several technologies now exist that make light fixtures and bulbs more efficient, from fluorescent lights in your residence hall room to the lights that illuminate sporting events in Kachel Fieldhouse.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting

LED lighting is an emerging technology with significant energy savings, longer life spans and lower maintenance needs compared to other commonly used lighting types. Despite their higher cost, their benefits make them ideal in a variety of lighting applications. UW-Whitewater has been a pioneer in the UW System for our use of LED technologies and plans to continue leadership in adopting this technology. Please check out our LED projects that we've already implemented below and projects under consideration:

  • Parking Lot #7 (near Visitor's Center) and Lot #18 (behind Esker) are now entirely LED.

  • The newly constructed portions of Parking Lot #2 (near Carlson) and Lot #8 (near Drumlin and Benson) are now entirely LED.

  • Pilot project to replace incandescent "can" lights with LED in the Rocker Room of Ambrose Health Center.

High Intensity Discharge (HID) and Fluorescent to High-Efficiency Fluorescent Lighting

While fluorescent lighting is the current standard in energy-efficient lighting, not all fluorescents are made equal. The availability of more efficient ballasts and bulbs has made existing fluorescent fixtures worth re-examining for further energy savings. In addition, high output fluorescent lights are now a suitable alternative to traditional high intensity discharge lighting in some applications, such as gymnasiums. Several of these fluorescent conversion projects have been completed or are in progress:

  • Physical Arts Lab lighting conversion from HID to fluorescent.

  • Drawing Lab lighting retrofit from HID to fluorescent.

  • Gym #1, #4 and Natatorium lighting has been converted from HID to high-bay fluorescent.

  • Gym #2, #3 and Kachel Fieldhouse lighting conversion from HID to high-bay fluorescent..

  • Performance contract with Johnson Controls replaced existing fluorescent lighting with more efficient ballasts and bulbs.

  • Replaced T-12 fluorescent bulbs with T-8 and replaced magnetic ballast with electronic ballast fixtures in Center for Students with Disabilities.

  • The fluorescent fixtures in common areas of the Williams Center were replaced with T-8 fixtures with electronic ballasts.

  • HID and existing fluorescent bulbs replaced with fluorescent fixtures and bulbs that use less wattage in Heating Plant.