BKLYN Learned

CUNY Brooklyn College – Whitehead Hall
Brooklyn, NY

They said it couldn’t be done. City University of New York Whitehead Hall had undergone a 1990’s-era lamp and ballast replacement, to T8 and electronic ballasts. When considering an upgrade to new lighting technologies and controls, state agencies believed that achievable energy savings could not justify the costs. But, this was no typical lamp and ballast upgrade.

Lighting designers realized the 1962 building was designed to introduce significant daylight into classrooms, offices, and corridors. This daylight could be leveraged – with new luminaire layouts, onboard sensing, and scene controls – to realize the intent of the building architecture….learning driven by daylight and supplemented by electric light.

“One-for-one” replacement would not save enough. New luminaire layouts and control were determined from pedagogical needs – General, Instruction, Presentation, and Wallwash – preprogrammed, key-pad actuated, scenes that helped teachers be successful and aided student performance.

The new LED lighting system, with onboard daylight adaptive control and vacancy in every luminaire, did more than improve student performance. It saved >80% of the lighting energy and the overall building energy reduction was 18%. No typo, 18% savings for the building! The design team should have expected the success when professors and students would sneak in to use newly lit mock-up rooms. It was just a dream until complete – AND every student had a new learning environment – AND savings could be proven by sub-metering. This dream came true – CUNY saved 18% total energy on a single building with a focused, designed, lighting technology upgrade.