Lighting projects cut museum elec. costs 50%. (Science Museum of Connecticut)

Lighting Projects Cut Museum Elec. Costs 50%

The Science Musuem of Connecticut here is nearing the end of an eight-month no-outlay financing agreement on the replacement of incandescent lights throughout the museum with screw-in fluorescents, in which it agreed to pay 96 percent of its savings to the installing contractor.

Savings from the project, combined with savings from an earlier outdoor lighting project paid for through a grant, however, has cut the museum's electricity bills nearly in half, according to Ronald Bilodeau, the assistant director of the facility.

The museum also received a $664 rebate on the most recent project, or approximately $4 for each of the indoor lights installed, from the utility, Connecticut Light and Power, Bilodeau said.

In September 1986, the museum signed an agreement to pay $382 a month to First Conserve High Efficiency Lighting, the Winstead, Conn.-based energy contractor that performed the $2,648 retrofit in several exhibit areas. The rate of payment to First Conserve was based on the results from a one-month test installation of 35 lamps last summer.

The current relamping alone is saving $400 a month in lighting costs.

The lighting rebate program is part of the Energy Alliance, Northeast Utilities conservation program designed to defer the need for new power plants, a utility spokesman said.