Opened in late 2004,the Kailua Town Center Parking Garage was built to service a newer commercial district that today includes Long's Drug Store,California Pizza Kitchen and Whole Foods Supermarket.
Starting in late 2011 and culminating in early 2012,the parking garage underwent a complete lighting retrofit.Increasing energy costs and environmental impact led Nishijima,Assistant Vice President-Asset Management of Kaneohe Ranch Management Ltd and his team to start considering LED fixtures as a solution to these challenges.
"We looked at a number of different lighting manufacturer's LED solutions and the EvoLucia products came up on top because of the light quality and the unique EvoLucia Aimed Optics(TM)photometrics package that strategically directs light precisely where it is needed,avoiding light glare and spill.Also,we liked the idea that EvoLucia products are used at many US military installations around the world,"added Nishijima.
The parking garage was lit by seventy 175 watt HID fixtures on levels One and Two and sixteen 180 watt Low Pressure Sodium fixtures on Level Three.The garage is open seven days a week,yearlong and it is illuminated both day and night.
"Miles and his team were replacing lamps every two years and ballasts every three years.Equipment and labor costs were high,not to mention the fact that Hawaiian electricity rates were increasing and continue to increase--up 19%over the past year---to$0.34/kWh,so we did an analysis and recommended the EvoLucia product line based on long life and Aimed Optics,"said Clinton Abe,Sandwich Isle Marketing,EvoLucia's independent representative in Hawaii.
The first floor of the garage features 14½foot ceilings,so the thirty-one 175 watt HID fixtures were swapped out for thirty-one 90 watt EvoLucia LED parking structure lights.On the second floor,the lower ceiling height allowed for a changeover of thirty-nine 175 watt HID fixtures to thirty-nine 75 watt LED parking structure lights.The rooftop posed a unique challenge.
"Our garage is adjacent to the federally protected Hamakua wetlands,an important bird and wildlife habitat.We originally chose the low pressure sodium light sources because they would not interrupt bird migration patterns.The EvoLucia Aimed Optics solution,which is Dark Sky(TM)certified,allowed us to switch to LED because the lack of glare,light spillage and infrared light has no impact on the nearby wetlands--we were able to direct the light to exactly where it is needed and nowhere else and we were even able to eliminate 4 shoebox fixtures bringing our total number down from sixteen to twelve EvoLucia LED shoebox lights,"said Nishijima.
EvoLucia's LED lights save over 50%in energy-savings and can contribute to substantial decreases in energy costs and maintenance.The facility's total electricity consumption,including traditional and LED lights,has dropped over 42%from a high of 400kWh/day in July 2011 to a low of 232kWh/day after the installation in April 2012."We are saving about$1500/month in energy costs and we are projecting that our maintenance bill should drop by$15,000 annually based on the EvoLucia products'nearly 100,000 hour life,"added Nishijima.
