With a goal to lower their energy usage, reduce utility costs, support their students’ diverse learning needs, and enable teachers to better control the learning environment in their classrooms, Eden Prairie Schools was looking to upgrade its lighting fixtures.
Background
Eden Prairie Schools, which is located in the Twin Cities Metro area of Minnesota, serves over 8,900 students with 10 school buildings in need of lighting improvements across their District. They partnered with SitelogIQ in May 2023 and needed to improve lighting across their District.
Situation
While improving their lighting fixtures was Eden Prairie Schools’ initial priority for the energy assessment, SitelogIQ identified additional opportunities to reduce domestic water usage and improve the integrity of building envelopes. Utilizing SitelogIQ’s facility intelligence software, mySiteIQ, the District was able to take a holistic view of their facility assets while developing the energy efficiency scope.
Accessible reports, including information such as age, location, conditions for all assets allowing them to properly plan for these projects, their schedule, and costs as well as identify other opportunities and prepare for future projects.
With this comprehensive approach to K-12 facility improvements, SitelogIQ developed a project plan to tackle each upgrade across their 10 facilities. In addition, the SitelogIQ team identified and helped Eden Prairie Schools secure a utility rebate of $483,000 to help fund these energy conservation measures.
Tackling Jobsite Challenges
In order to minimize disruptions to the daily school schedules of students and staff, SitelogIQ planned to complete the majority of the work during the summer months. With their facilities totaling over 2 million square feet, it was paramount that the project team establish ongoing communication with Eden Prairie Schools’ Facilities Director to confirm weekly schedules and tackle work with limited disruptions to their operations. As the lighting retrofit began, the team found that some of the lighting wiring wasn’t up to code and went above and beyond to correct the issue. In total, SitelogIQ converted 34,000+ fluorescent lighting fixtures to LED technology, allowing for more robust controls such as occupancy sensors. Additional enhancements to Special Education spaces
were implemented in the form of customizable color-tuning lighting fixtures.
Meeting District Community Needs
LED was determined to be the best lighting solution for the District to help lower their energy usage, reduce carbon footprint, decrease maintenance needs, and save on utility costs while also staying ahead of Minnesota’s fluorescent lighting ban. Eden Prairie Schools was also able to address some of their deferred maintenance needs while lowering their operational costs. This was
achieved by upgrading existing plumbing fixtures to high-efficiency, low-flow systems.
As a result of this work, Eden Prairie Schools is expected to save an average of $320,000 annually on their utility and maintenance spending over the next 20 years.
These measures reduced their carbon footprint considerably, equating to over 1,700 tons of equivalent CO2 avoided annually.
Their spaces now provide an improved learning environment for their students, model respectful use of natural resources, reduce the operational and maintenance burden on their staff, and remain ahead of state-level environmental requirements.