Night and Day: Lighting Upgrades for the Cherry Creek School District
The pool is dimly lit. You can’t even see the bleachers. At any moment, one of the flickering, overheated metal halide bulbs might burst and shatter into the pool. This doesn’t seem like it could be the description of a pool from the Cherry Creek School District — a district with over 27 state swimming titles — but it was. In fact, that was the state of the swimming facility lighting in four different schools throughout the district. That is, until Ted Lunn stepped in.
Relationship with Cherry Creek Schools
“The Cherry Creek schools are an important account to me. I have a great relationship with the electrical engineer, Jim Barber,” said Colorado Electric Supply Energy Specialist Ted Lunn. “I’ve told them they can reach out to me personally. Sometimes they reach out to me first.”
Being so close to Barber, Lunn knew the Cherry Creek district was having trouble with pool lighting and wanted to take a look. Barber took Lunn and a representative from MaxLite, one of Lunn’s favorite vendors, to visit each of the high schools — Smoky Hill, Eaglecrest, Cherokee Trail, and Grandview.
“What we saw was a lot of hot ballasts torn up by humidity, all decayed. It doesn’t take long for Halide to depreciate,” said Lunn. “We were very worried about the glass breaking, and we knew we had to get fixtures in there that are rated for humidity.”
With Lunn’s suggestions and MaxLite’s samples, they were able to show Barber how to improve the lighting in all four schools, cutting down one’s 72 metal halide lighting fixtures to 38 LED StaxMax IP65-rated ones.
Night and Day
“The difference was night and day, and Jim liked what he saw,” said Lunn. “Those fixtures sold themselves!”
After four months of measurements, preparation, and careful layout planning, they took it to each school to try. They replaced the fixtures and angled the tracks the lights were on in a new way that allowed the entire room to be well-lit.
“Where there was no light on the bleachers, there was suddenly perfect lighting. They don’t have to worry about people tripping over the stairs anymore,” said Lunn. “And now the chances of breakage are way lower because LED retrofits dissipate heat.”
The project provided the schools with better lighting, more welcoming environments, safer facilities, and lower maintenance costs, all with a 10-year warranty thrown in by MaxLite.
A Happy Ending
“I’m really proud of the project,” said Lunn. “We stayed on top of it, we really did. We wanted to work on the project, so we did whatever it took, and it worked out well. The Cherry Creek School District is saving 258,376 kilowatt hours and $24,490 annually by switching to LED lighting.”
For the first time in years, the swimming facilities are bright. Every one of the swimming coaches said that the change was remarkable and that they were very happy with the outcome.
Lunn, excited by the success of this project, is ready to see what doors open next.
“In the same district, we’re already looking into possibly updating some football fields to LED lighting,” said Lunn.
While Lunn enjoyed being a part of this project and looks forward to being a part of more in the future, he firmly believes that the relationships he builds on the job are just as important as the work itself.
“I look forward to growing my relationship with the Cherry Creek schools,” said Lunn. “Having a relationship is so important, that and service. And that’s what CES is all about — great relationships and great service.”