LED Systems Provide Huge Energy Savings for Jobsite Lighting

On a Renzo Piano-designed renovation and expansion for Harvard Art Museums, the University and the general contractor, Skanska USA, paid attention to something that all too often gets ignored, even on green projects: inefficient jobsite lighting. By replacing the typical incandescent light strings and metal halide lamps with a new low-voltage LED system from Clear-Vu, they expect to reduce lighting energy use by nearly 90%, saving $350,000 in electricity costs during the period of construction.

Energy is not the only savings opportunity: on a large construction job, it’s not unusual to have one or more licensed electricians doing nothing but changing light bulbs all day, every day. For this Harvard job the electrical contractor was able to reduce its budget for maintaining the jobsite lighting, translating into additional savings for the University, according to Paul Davey, MEP manager for Skanska.