Reynolds Saves Over 85% in Energy Costs, Improves Lighting Quality.(Statistical Data Included)

Manufacturing operation cuts costs, raises productivity

Like many busy facility managers, Sam Jennings of the Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, VA, spent a lot of his time over the last few years wrestling with how to modernize an outdated lighting system. The crux of his problem: How do you upgrade your office lighting to modern standards within the quickpayback philosophy demanded by the corporate higher-ups--without compromising lighting quality?

Making the challenge more complex was the fact Jennings wanted the latest energy--saving lighting technologies-such as personal dimming controls, occupancy sensors, and load management. The upgrade also had to improve the workplace setting for those employees who were complaining about glare and headaches. How his solution reduced lighting energy costs by 87% while improving the lighting quality is an interesting case study that shows just how new technologies are revolutionizing mainstream retrofit projects.

Jennings manages more than 520,000 square feet ([ft.sup.2]) in three buildings at Reynolds' Richmond corporate headquarters, the heart of the Reynolds aluminum giant founded in 1928 by Richard S. Reynolds, and today a company that employs 19,000 worldwide.

"We had a lot of complaints about computer screen glare from poor-quality lighting," said Jennings, a certified facility manager who oversees a staff of 22. "People would do the most amazing things, like removing fluorescent lamps from the luminaires by themselves and building cardboard contraptions to shield their screens from the glare."

One of the buildings hadn't been upgraded for 30 years. And it showed, with uncomfortably bright lighting that delivered some 90 to 100 footcandles (fc) to the desktop--along with a constant flow of employee complaints. In one stopgap measure, Jennings and his staff removed two lamps from each four-lamp luminaire to generate some energy savings and reduce glare. But they knew a retrofit was badly needed.

"We were aware our lighting had a negative effect on employee productivity, but that's a soft issue that is hard to quantify," says Jennings. "To get the funding for the retrofit, we had to justify the benefits with hard numbers. We couldn't justify the cost of upgrading the lighting unless we could find a lighting system that proved a payback in less than three years.