As part of our commitment to sustainable energy practices, we recently completed lighting overhauls at several of our Midwest plants. Among the three projects, we’ll save an estimated 35,000 kWh/year (the equivalent to taking five passenger cars off the road for a year) and net $3,500/year in savings on our energy bills. We also received $4,000 in utility rebates after completing the upgrades.

At our Carol Stream, Illinois and Goshen, Indiana facilities, we outfitted the buildings with new ballast bypass LED tube replacements. The ballast LED tube replacements not only use less energy, they also make repairs much easier and less costly.

We also swapped out the original lighting in the Carol Stream storage area with lower output bulbs and added motion sensors in the storage mezzanine to further improve energy savings. In West Allis, Wisconsin, we replaced lighting fixtures throughout the facility and upgraded some outdated lighting with the same ballast bypass LED tubes. All told, we installed more than 200 new fixtures and tubes.

Most utility companies offer some form of energy efficiency rebate program, available to businesses and consumers alike. Companies can also pursue custom rebates that can be created for nearly any type of energy project. More common projects like LED swaps usually result in prescriptive rebates based on the types of fixtures used or kWhs reduced.

Our next lighting upgrade project will focus on our Bremen, Indiana plant and we hope to pursue similar lighting improvements across all our locations.