Mar 5 2015
Digital Lumens announced today that Kenwal Steel Corp., one of North America’s largest and most-respected flat-rolled steel distributors, has upgraded the lighting in its 100,000-square foot steel mill in Dearborn, Michigan, to the Digital Lumens Intelligent LED Lighting System.
By replacing its 1000-watt metal halide fixtures with the Intelligent Lighting System, the facility is saving more than 93% in lighting-related energy, resulting in an investment payback period of less than one year, and return on investment (ROI) of 124%.
“In a busy facility like ours, it’s hard to imagine light energy savings of 93%, yet that is exactly what we’ve been able to achieve with the Digital Lumens system,” said Kevin Stoops, IT Manager for Kenwal Steel Corp. “As remarkable is how natural the transition to intelligent lighting was for us. Beyond the benefits of installing, managing and supporting a single, fully integrated system with significant energy savings, the Digital Lumens solution also provided us with a level of flexibility, visibility and ease-of-use that was unique among the products we evaluated.”
“Leading-edge manufacturers like Kenwal now see intelligent LED lighting as a strategic investment, that gives them both long-term efficiency and new levels of control around how lighting is used in their facilities,” said Michael Feinstein, Digital Lumens Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “We are honored that they have selected and deployed our system to meet their lighting and energy efficiency needs, while simultaneously reducing the maintenance burden in their busy production environment.”
To manage in the retrofit project – from evaluation through deployment – Kenwal Steel turned to Total Source LED, a leading industrial lighting firm based in Detroit. “We are delighted to work with the Kenwal team to evaluate their needs and expectations, and propose a solution that will deliver outstanding results now and for years to come,” said Ron Cimino, Chief Executive Officer for Total Source LED.
Key factors in Kenwal’s decision to deploy the Digital Lumens Intelligent LED Lighting System were the unique fixture design and light distribution, which reduced the fixture count by 60%, and the ability to wirelessly change settings, which mitigates the issues of managing fixtures in hard-to-reach spaces. The Digital Lumens intelligent LED fixtures feature independently rotatable and dimmable LED light bars that successfully distribute light throughout the Kenwal environment, which reduced initial project cost. The system also offered substantial energy savings, driven by integrated occupancy and daylight sensors in every fixture that automatically turn on, off or dim lighting based on user-defined settings and LightRules lighting and energy management software. Within the mill’s steel storage area, for example, lighting is now automatically turned off when overhead crane operators are not actively picking stock for pickling operations and, when needed, return to full on without hesitation or delay, saving enormous amounts of energy.