Lectrosonics Goes Green with More Efficient Lighting to Lessen Its Environmental Footprint

	Lectrosonics headquarters now has more efficient lighting in both the corporate offices and manufacturing areas.

Lectrosonics has taken a number of important steps to minimize the company's power consumption and, as a result, lessen the impact of its environmental footprint. The replacement of lighting fixtures throughout both the corporate offices and manufacturing facilities is an important step toward the company's goal of being more environmentally friendly.

In the company's manufacturing areas, forty-eight 400W metal-halide fixtures have been replaced with forty-eight four-lamp 52W fluorescent fixtures. Additionally, the machine shop offices had new bulbs and electronic ballasts installed in their 32W ceiling fixtures.

The company's corporate offices received equally significant upgrades. One hundred twenty-six two-lamp 96W fixtures were replaced with one hundred twenty-six four-lamp, T8 32W fixtures, which offer a dramatic reduction in power consumption and vastly improved life expectancies compared to conventional lighting. Further, one hundred twenty office fixtures were retrofitted with new electronic ballasts and bulbs.

The lighting renovations implemented throughout Lectrosonics' physical plant yield impressive energy savings. Whereas the power draw using the old lighting systems consumed 72kW, the new fixtures draw just 42.6kW, a savings of 29.4kW or more than 40%.

Karl Winkler, director of business development at Lectrosonics, commented on the company's efforts to go green, "With more and more evidence pointing to strained natural resources and global warming, we all have to take steps to ensure a more environmentally friendly -- or green -- presence in our daily lives. As a company, we have a responsibility to do our part and be 'good neighbors' to those around us. By changing the way we light our facilities, not only do we consume considerably less power, we reduce the heat that results and, hence, lower the load on the air conditioning systems during the summer months. The end result of these efforts is no small matter. The process took several months, cost more than $30,000, and will take several years to break even -- but it's the right thing to do."