D.W. Poppy Secondary School

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"We've found that combining lighting retrofits with mechanical upgrades gives us the best savings possible – while improving the comfort and health of our schools for students and staff."

— Tom Louie, P. Eng., Director of Facilities Services, School District 35

The situation

Langley School District 35 is home to 19,853 students and over 2,700 full-time employees, who learn and work in 48 buildings and 53 portables. Several of the district's schools were built in the 1970s and have older lighting and mechanical systems. Although these systems met the building and design standards of the time, they have become inefficient in their energy use and do not meet current building standards. Equipment in the older schools is out of date, many had no ducted air systems in their initial design, and the lighting design from three decades ago often results in an uncomfortable lighting environment.

Langley School District became a Power Smart Partner in 2001 and, with incentive funding from BC Hydro, embarked on a program to progressively retrofit all the secondary schools in the district. The first projects implemented, in 2002, involved the mechanical upgrade of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) at Aldergrove Community Secondary and lighting retrofits at County Line Elementary and Coghlan Elementary schools. The next school to be upgraded was D.W. Poppy Secondary School. The district had approved a capital project to implement a mechanical upgrade of the school's HVAC system. The question was: should the school's lighting be retrofitted at the same time? And, if so, would it be more cost-effective to redesign the lighting, or just do a simple lighting retrofit?

The solution

Under the Power Smart Partner Program, BC Hydro provided incentive funding to help Langley carry out an energy study to explore the potential energy savings from a lighting upgrade at D.W. Poppy. The study compared the energy savings from a total lighting redesign with those from a simple lighting retrofit, and found that they could maximize the electrical savings through the lighting redesign option. Since the study showed that significant savings could be achieved from not only redesigning the lighting system but also completing a simple lighting retrofit, enough to provide a payback that would meet the district's criteria, Langley decided to proceed with a dual lighting project.

The project involved:

• Replacing T12 fluorescent lamps with T8s with electronic ballasts,
• Redesigning the lighting system from strip fluorescents in row configurations to a distributed layout, and
• Upgrading the HVAC system by installing a ducted air system to meet modern air quality requirements.

Langley School District is so pleased with the energy savings achieved and the improved indoor environment at D.W. Poppy, that it has redesigned the lighting system (revamping the lighting levels and configuration) of several other schools as part of their overall lighting retrofit plan, and is planning to carry out a similar project at Brookswood Secondary School in summer 2004.

The benefits

Reduced operating costs

The lighting and HVAC retrofit at D.W. Poppy is saving a total 460,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, equivalent to an estimated annual savings of over $27,000, of which lighting accounts for over 350,000 kWh. In addition to the direct energy savings, maintenance and labour costs are reduced because the new technologies are longer-lasting and there are fewer lights and ballasts to maintain.

Enhanced comfort

Better lighting levels, reduced glare, the elimination of flickering, and improved levels of fresh air are all contributing to improved health, comfort and productivity for students and staff.

Reduced environmental impacts

Lower energy consumption results in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced environmental protection.

Contact us

Find out how Power Smart can energize your bottom line. Call us today at 604 453 6400 in the Lower Mainland or 1 866 453 6400 elsewhere in B.C.