Fairview Lakes Medical Center energy-saving idea helps Fairview win Xcel Energy '2012 Efficiency Partner award'

An energy-saving project at Fairview Lakes Medical Center helped the Fairview health system become one of the state’s top five businesses to receive a 2012 Efficiency Partner awardfrom Xcel Energy for outstanding efforts to save energy. Fairview Lakes Medical Center’s Facilities Services team aims to save $100,000 per year in energy costs by phasing in new energy efficient lighting. More than $21,000 was saved in the first six months of the lighting replacement project. Fairview Lakes Medical Center Maintenance Supervisor Roger Perrault decided last year to explore the feasibility of updating the facility’s lighting. After researching just how much money could be saved by replacing older fluorescent lights with new LED and induction lamps, Roger and Facilities Director Carl Sorenson crafted a plan to phase in new lighting over a few years. In just the first 12 months of the project, the medical center has saved more than $21,600 on its electric bills. In addition to energy savings, the new lamps cost less and last longer, reducing labor costs for replacing them. For example, a 450-watt lamp used in parking lot fixtures, at a cost of $240 each, is being replaced with a 150-watt lamp that costs just $200. Best of all, the new lamps produce the same amount of light and last five times longer. Although the new lamps require installation of new fixtures, the initial cost of the retrofit will be covered by energy cost savings in just 12 months. The Lakes Facilities team began by replacing lights that stay on 24 hours a day, such as in hallways and the laboratory. So far, about half of the parking lot lighting has also been replaced. As the project is completed over the coming year or two, annual energy cost savings could reach $100,000. Energy saving projects like this took place across the Fairview System and helped earn Fairview a place among the state’s top five businesses to receive a 2012 Efficiency Partner award from Xcel Energy for outstanding efforts to save electricity.