Each week about 650 tons of recycling gets separated at the Cold Canyon Material Recovery Facility in San Luis Obispo, CA, and now that work will happen under improved LED lighting.
 
In a move to improve lighting quality and safety at the facility, Waste Connections, Inc. upgraded its lighting system with Cree-powered Xeralux LED high-bay fixtures. The Xeralux fixtures feature Cree XLamp XP-G LEDs, helping reduce the company’s energy costs by almost two-thirds and nearly eliminating its maintenance costs.
 
“Our previous lighting technology didn’t deliver the high-quality light our facility needed,” said John Ryan, Facilities Manager at Cold Canyon. “Now, not only do we seem to have more light, but we also have a brighter, whiter light that is very pleasing. The employees love it. Less energy, better light and beats our Internal Rate of Return target – the Xeralux retrofit is a great choice.”
 
Highlights from the installation include:

• More than 80 400-watt metal halide lamps, sockets and ballasts were replaced with 145-watt Xeralux Light Engine for High Bay LED fixtures.
• The facility is now saving 260-285 kWh per day, translating to more than $13,000 per year, according to Waste Connections’ analysis of site energy consumption.
• Waste Connections anticipates a payback time of less than three years and the virtual elimination of maintenance due to the 50,000 hour projected lifetime of the installed products.

“High-bay lighting has always been a challenge for industrial and commercial property owners, due to its high energy consumption and the high lumen output requirements,” said Jay Shuler, Xeralux vice president of marketing. “Cree XLamp LEDs allowed us to deliver high-quality fixtures that are virtually maintenance-free and enable the Cold Canyon facility to take full advantage of the benefits of LED lighting.”