The Seine River School Division is so pleased with a program they initiated over the past year that it will be expanded into other schools throughout the division.
This past year, the division accessed Manitoba Hydro’s Power Smart Lighting program, and replaced lights in portions of two schools. The existing pot lights which contained 250 or 400 watt bulbs were replaced with new T5 Fluorescent fixtures on a trial basis.
According to the division, positive feedback from staff has indicated that the lighting has improved substantially, and the needed warm-up period for the lights has been reduced. As a result, the lights were changed in three more schools.
In one school, forty-three lights were removed and then replaced with only twenty-five fluorescents installed, but the lighting levels increased by almost 50%.
The Power Smart lighting program covered a vast majority of the costs, and the division used their own staff to replace the lights, thus reducing the costs substantially. In addition, the division is expected to reduce energy consumption by 23%.
As a result of the success seen in the first five schools, the division is planning to continue the upgrades until the savings is seen division wide.
