Feb 9 2011
Continuing its "Greening the Capitol" initiative, the United States Senate has renovated the largest hearing room of the Hart Senate Office Building using high performance, energy efficient LED lighting from Nila Inc.
The renovation program included the replacement of traditional incandescent lighting technology with Nila's NH LED lighting system for enhanced video recording applications, as well as a custom down light installation using the Helieon® Sustainable Light Module.
United States Senate Hearing Room
Prior to replacement, the incandescent lighting systems in Senate hearing room SH-216 consumed over 55,000 watts of electrical energy. Only about 7,300 watts are used after conversion to LED lighting, a savings of nearly 49,000 watts or over 86%.
"The antiquated lighting systems in the Senate hearing rooms were the source of a number of problems," said Jim Sanfilippo, Nila's president. "Video recordings have replaced stenography as the official Senate record, making the quality of the video critically important. The traditional lighting technologies in use failed to produce the quality or quantity of light for the unique needs of video recording. Further, the heat generated by the traditional lighting required significant energy to be used to cool the environment for the comfort of the hearing participants. The Nila NH system was an elegant solution that delivered bright, crisp light and precision dimming control capability while enabling energy savings and a 20,000 hour lifetime that will dramatically reduce overall maintenance costs.
"In addition to addressing the unique lighting requirements for the hearing rooms' video application, the Senate wanted to continue their efforts to reduce utility costs through the implementation of eco-friendly, energy efficient LED down lighting," said Sanfilippo. "We designed a custom luminaire for the hearing rooms using the Helieon Sustainable Light Module by Bridgelux and Molex. Helieon modules allow the luminaire to be easily modified as lighting requirements in the hearing room change, or easily upgraded as LED technology advances, without removing the luminaire from the ceiling. LED lighting was a natural fit for both of these applications."
The Helieon Sustainable Light Module is the first plug-and-play module to integrate high-efficiency precision lighting with an easy-to-use socketed solution. As LED technology improves, the Helieon-based down lights from Nila can be easily changed or upgraded with the simple twist of a wrist after installation without the complexity and expense of removing the luminaire.
Source: http://www.nila.tv/