City Hall a test case for new lights

LYNN – Inspectional Services Department electrician Brendan Wilkinson, standing atop a small scaffolding in City Hall’s foyer, carefully removed glass coverings on the fluorescent fixtures and handed them down to Esrel Diaz to wash.”Thanks for the illumination,” said one passerby.Along with cleaning the glass coverings, Wilkinson and Diaz also swapped out dated fluorescent lights for LED lights.Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said the foyer’s light fixtures will serve as a testing ground for approximately the next year to see if LED lights, or light-emitting diodes, are everything they’re advertised to be.”We’re just doing the lobby to see if it’s worth it,” said Donovan. “They are supposed to last three times longer than the fluorescent bulbs. We’ll see.”According to Energy Star, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) voluntary program that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect the environment through energy efficiency, LED lighting differs from incandescent and compact fluorescent lighting in several ways. Designed well, LED lighting can be more efficient, durable, versatile and longer lasting than its counterparts.Donovan said the biggest problem with the fluorescent lights is it seems workers are forever switching out ballasts and bulbs.”With 2.2 million square feet of buildings we service, that’s a lot of work,” he said. “It’s time-consuming.”Donovan said changing over to the LEDs isn’t difficult, but it does require removing the ballasts and altering the wiring a bit.If switching to LEDs means workers only have to change bulbs once every few years, that makes it worthwhile, he said. He is also hoping it will make a difference in the city’s electric bill.”We’re hoping to save a little electricity, lessen our environmental footprint and have better quality lighting,” Donovan said.While City Hall is in the testing phase, the schools have already been converted, not to LED but to high-efficiency lighting. In 2011 the Lincoln-Thomson Elementary piloted a program that was estimated to save the Gardner Street school $3,000 per year in electrical costs. School Committee member John Ford said he knows the utility bills for the School Department have gone down, but he did not have specific numbers.Donovan said work converting all the schools to the same high-efficiency lighting was completed last year, but one school will be getting LEDs.”When the new Marshall Middle School is built, it will be all LED lights,” he said.And if everything goes well, the remaining lights in City Hall will be switched over as well.”We just want to see how it goes first,” he said. “It’s something new.”