Eastwood Community School

The Client

Eastwood Community School in Keighley, Yorkshire works hard to provide a stimulating, creative and happy environment for all the children, together with further educational support in its Family Centre.

The school contacted SaveMoneyCutCarbon earlier in the year to ask for advice on ways to reduce pressure on budgets by cutting running costs.

An initial full survey by SaveMoneyCutCarbon showed in detail how much the school could save each year through a full LED lighting retrofit.

The experienced SaveMoneyCutCarbon team, all DBS checked, fully managed the lighting project from survey to specification, installation, testing and monitoring.

As part of the end-to-end service, SaveMoneyCutCarbon also completed a complex funding application for an interest-free loan from Salix Finance that would meet project costs, with repayments covered by energy savings.

The SaveMoneyCutCarbon survey identified that many of the light fittings were unchanged from the school’s opening 28 years ago and that new LED replacements would not only cut costs but would also improve the light quality while reducing carbon footprint.

The district council also requested that a full lighting design was drawn up, which the team completed with one of SaveMoneyCutCarbon’s trusted LED suppliers, BG Luceco.

The field services team responsible for the LED retrofit then worked with the school to schedule the work during the holiday period to avoid disruption.

The Square Luxpanels, while providing excellent light for children and staff, only draw 30 watts while in the corridors the team could use the 17-watt model.

The LED lighting retrofit removed fluorescent tubes that generally only last 5,000 hours with the light quality degrading badly well before final failure.In contrast, the LED panels as a light source are very reliable, lasting for over 50,000 hours of continuous usage.

A major benefit for the school as it can largely eradicate maintenance costs. Every light is backed by a no-quibble, five-year manufacturers’ warranty.

The team installed a total of 378 LED fittings, removing and safely disposing of the old lighting. Apart from a small amount of Ansell LED lighting in the school hall, the replacement products – panels, linear arrays and bulkheads – were all from BG Luceco.

It was important to ensure that the 600×600 LED panels installed in the classrooms and offices offered the best quality light with a glare rating (UGR) of less than 19, meeting official lighting recommendations.

Summary

• The LED retrofit will reduce lighting bills by more than £4,400 a year
• Carbon footprint will be cut by 66.2%
• Full Salix Fund financing at zero interest means the project will self-financing with payback in just over seven and a half years
• Greatly reduced maintenance costs
• The school will reduce annual electricity use by nearly 41,000 kW/h.