About the Exhibit
Visit Building Energy Exchange for Lights, Center, Action! an exhibition that showcases the technology and savings of BEEx’s simple lighting retrofit.
As an energy efficiency resource center, BEEx not only educates the community through engaging programs and informative case studies, but through technology demonstration that drives energy efficient innovation. A primary focus of BEEx is energy efficient lighting design and technology. In Summer 2014, BEEx upgraded all of our original lamps and replaced two fixtures to illustrate the technological, economic, and energy benefits of LEDs. Accounting for nearly 30% of building energy use, lighting retrofits can achieve high savings quickly while improving the aesthetic and comfort of a space.
Each room in the Exchange showcases a different LED lamp and fixture. The design and features of each lighting system are customized to the specific function of the room. This provides better quality of life due to improved lighting aesthetics, flexibility, and energy savings.
The lamps in our classroom allow more flexibility in light intensity and color, which accommodates the room’s multi-functional role and various seating styles. To learn more about lighting design principles and strategies, check out our inaugural exhibit: Lighting Fundamentals.
At this walk-through exhibit, you can learn about and experience the advanced LED lamps and fixtures that save our center over 4,000 kWh each year. This 77% annual reduction in lighting energy and costs reduces our carbon emissions by one metric ton and is equivalent to powering 20 incandescent bulbs for a year.
Overall, the retrofit including design, fabrication, and installation took less than six months to complete. Switching our office lamps for LEDs took only a few hours. The majority of the time to replace our fixtures was spent on procurement and fabrication of our customized fixtures. This simple and easy lighting retrofit project lowered our environmental impact and had a quick payback. Through this exhibit, we are demonstrating the case and the benefits of implementing simple lighting retrofits that are replicable in your home and office spaces.
Look for a display in each room that describes the specific lamp and fixtures, and its respective savings.
A special thanks to ERCO Lighting, CREE, LightingScience, LumenPulse, Osram Sylvania and Studio 1Thousand for the lamps and fixtures.