Sparkle + Style = Savings

Credit: Jenny Harvey/HRES

Visitors to the Harvard Faculty Club have high expectations for the amenities they will find there, including lighting. Meals should be accompanied by soft illumination. Function rooms should be amply lit for reading the program or a new acquaintance’s business card. Guest rooms should provide quality lighting for activities from reading to rouging. The Faculty Club was committed to meeting all those needs without breaking the bank or the carbon budget, by using light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

A process in many steps

Prior to 2007, the Faculty Club was lit with a mixture of conventional incandescent and halogen bulbs. Then, the management replaced incandescent bulbs in guest rooms and reading rooms with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). In general, CFLs last longer, burn cooler, and provide an equivalent color rendering compared to incandescents. But CFLs have drawbacks, too, including poor performance with dimming switches. So the search for a better bulb continued.

General Manager Heinrich Lutjens enlisted the help of the HRES Sustainability Team, which began test-driving screw-in LEDs. The beauty of these is that they could be used without needing to retrofit the fixtures. The goal was to find specific LED bulbs that could be used as one-for-one replacements of existing bulbs and could be used in multiple locations for streamlined replacement. After almost a year of tests, Lutjens found suitable replacements and HRES placed a large order with support from NSTAR incentives. The bulb replacement project that touched almost every room in the Club began in August, 2009.

Triple benefits

LED technology yields significant energy savings over other kinds of lighting. The effects are especially dramatic in a building that illuminates so many different spaces in high style. This replacement program will shave a whopping 25 houses-worth of electricity off the utility bill, saving the Faculty Club over $34,000 annually. Because LEDs don’t emit the heat of conventional bulbs, they will also indirectly reduce the need for air conditioning.

Using LEDs also addresses non-energy costs, such as labor and décor. Because LEDs are typically replaced only once in seven years or so, depending on the model and run hours, Lutjens has eliminated the daily bulb-check from employee duties. The time spent on that task can now be dedicated to other aspects of operation. Further, the cool-burning LEDs won’t damage delicate lampshades and other artistic features that can now be replaced less often.

Finally, switching to this environmentally friendly technology is the right thing to do. The LED bulbs contain no toxins (as CFLs do) and are completely recyclable at the end of their – long – lives. The electricity reduction means 191 fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gasses emitted into the atmosphere, equivalent to taking 35 cars off the road (source: EPA).

Positive reception

The Faculty Club has received letters from guests containing positive remarks about the LED lighting in function rooms and bedrooms. Thus far, diners have not remarked on the dozens of glittering LED bulbs in candelabras and wall sconces. Lutjens savors this feedback, because it indicates his efforts to reduce waste of all kinds – including electric waste - has not compromised the quality of services.

Lessons learned

If considering a screw-in LED replacement program:

• focus on fixtures that are hard to reach and have long run hours
• test several brands and models of bulbs for durability, light output, and integration with existing switches before settling on a product
• question every product claim: “dimmable” bulbs might have a limited range or might “buzz” in an inappropriate application
• NSTAR considers this technology under its Custom programs and may require a site inspection; prepare an exact bulb count by room for the inspection