The C Sharps Arms building is located in Big Timber, Montana, and is used to produce custom firearms. The building is divided into two sections, the workshop and the retail/office space. The workshop is the largest section, accounting for approximately 11,100ft2. The building has high ceilings throughout both the workshop and retail spaces, while the offices are standard height with storage above. The basement is used as a packaging area and shooting range to test the company’s products.

Workshop lighting was the main concern for both the management team and the craftsmen. Lighting consisted of (101) 8-foot, two-lamp T12 fluorescent fixtures and (16) 4-foot, two-lamp T12 fixtures. Only 26 of the 8-foot fixtures and nine of the 4-foot fixtures were working or had bulbs. The goal of the management team was to increase lighting in the work areas, while leaving the unused areas dim. There is a second building that had (6) 8-foot fixtures, of which only three were working. The office and retail lighting was also out-of-date, but this was a secondary concern to the workshop. With this type of situation, it was recommended to do a complete replacement of the light fixtures. The table below shows the recommended replacement fixtures.

 

Current Fixture Number of

Fixtures

Current

Wattage

Replacement Fixture Replacement

Wattage

Watts

Saved

Exterior Wall Packs 5 150 LED Wall Packs 30 120
4ft Fluorescent T12 79 80 T8 18W LED Tube 36 44
8ft Fluorescent T12 39 257 LED High Bay Fixture 119 138
CFL Floods 9 26 18W LED Flood 18 8
Halogen MR16 4 50 7.5 Watt LED 7.5 42.5

 

Based on these upgrades, this project was eligible for $7,575 through a utility lighting rebate program.  The rebates dropped the net project cost to $4,407. Annual energy cost savings was $2,391, for a simple payback of less than two years.

 

C Sharps Arms Annual

Bill

Savings

Est. Project

Cost

Est.

Rebate

Net

Cost

KWh

Savings

kW

Savings

Simple

Payback

LED

Conversion

$2,391 $11,982 $7,575 $4,407 18,373 8.9 1.84 years