Faith Technologies Project Spotlight: Delavan-Darien School District

Faith Technologies’ Energy Efficiency team was called upon to perform an investment-grade lighting efficiency audit at Delavan-Darien School District in Delavan, WI. The team performed this audit on eight buildings within the district and identified a variety of cost saving measures. The district chose to implement wirelessly networked retrofit kits throughout the district in strategic areas, such as classrooms and offices, and standard fixtures in common areas, such as hallways and cafeterias.

Faith Technologies selected specific fixtures for this project to provide the most effective energy-saving features for the district’s needs. These included:

• Dimming: Allowing occupants to control their environment based on preferred light levels and space activities.
• Occupancy Sensing: Turning fixtures off when occupants are not using them.
• Photocontrol: Capitalizing on natural light that is better for the occupants’ health by dimming artificial light when natural daylight is present.
• Wireless Communications: Providing the ability of systems to communicate with each other. Installation requires only low voltage and Category 5 cable, which is safer for installers and maintenance staff.
• Future Ready: The systems installed today are ready for tomorrow’s technology. Through an easy commissioning and recommissioning process, the lighting functionality can be modified as space needs change, and seamlessly integrate into the school district’s future building management system.

The combined strategy of highly efficient luminaires and innovative design has proven to reduce the district’s baseline energy consumption by 55 percent annually, with an additional savings of 15 percent or more due to dimming and photocontrols.

Working with the design-build firm, McKinstry, installing the lighting system in occupied school buildings called for a great deal of coordination and flexibility, due to school schedules and special event requirements. Faith worked with the energy service company to find a schedule that offered the safest environment for occupants and installers, as well as minimal disruptions to the school day.

Faith Technologies works with our suppliers to procure the most efficient, cost-effective packaging of project materials. For the Delavan-Darien School District project, lighting equipment was not individually boxed, leading to minimal cardboard waste on site, creating safer working conditions and less onsite labor.

Faith’s project manager, Mike Herbst, and assistant project manager, Carol West, led the team to actively collaborate and adapt to challenges while working on multiple buildings at once, enabling the project to be done ahead of schedule in the most efficient manner possible. Faith Technologies enjoyed working on this exciting project for the Delavan-Darien School District.