Sports Palace of Trumbull Scores With Energy-Efficient Lighting

The Sports Palace of Trumbull (The SPOT) opened for action in March 2005. Under its roof, the 13,000 sq. ft. indoor sports complex offers a plethora of possibilities for sports-minded enthusiasts.

Steve Finger, one of The SPOT’s owners, took a deep breath before reciting the activities menu. “We’ve got 18-foot high baseball and softball tunnels for hitting and pitching, which will soon also be available for hitting golf balls; a full-size 90-foot long basketball court and three 43-foot long youth-size courts that can double up for volleyball, kickball, youngsters’ soccer and dodge ball; a challenging nine-hole miniature golf course and two large rooms for kids’ birthday parties and grown-up corporate functions.”

Games played using this state-of-the-art sports equipment is made even more fun because the multi-sports “arena” is brightly lit by state-of-the-art lighting technology.

“When we were getting the building in shape, it was clear we had to radically improve the lighting,” Finger said. “It had to be as bright as we could make it but, at the same time, keep down overhead costs by being energy-efficient.”

He turned to Todd Gallo from the Hamden, CT office of Turtle & Hughes, Inc., an international industrial and electrical distributor ranked among the top 50 women-owned U.S. business enterprises. Gallo recommended replacing inefficient strip fixtures using two eight-foot-long T12 fluorescent lamps with energy-saving reflectorized high-bay fixtures using six four-foot-long T5 fluorescent lamps.

“This is the very newest technology on the market for the kind of high ceiling application Steve needed,” he said. “We took him to local school gyms to show him how right this lighting would be for the Sports Palace and this sold him on the system, even though it was somewhat more expensive than he’d originally had in mind.”

“What I liked about it was that we’d be getting almost twice as much candlepower but cut energy costs nearly in half,” Finger said. The old system used 74 fixtures with two 96W fluorescent bulbs—for a system total of 14,200 watts. The new system uses only 24 fixtures with six 54W fluorescents—for a system total of 7,775 watts.

“We project a drop in annual energy use of 23,990 kWh,” UI Sr. Energy Engineer John Sigona said. “That will cut this customer’s yearly operating costs by $2,800.”

Finger and Gallo looked to UI’s Energy Opportunities Program to help defray the $11,400 cost of the lighting renovation. Energy Opportunities promotes retrofitting facilities with measures that will conserve energy. It pays cash incentives for implementing UI-approved energy-efficient measures and allows customers to choose to work with their own vendor or contractor.

“We paid the Sports Palace a $3,600 Energy Opportunities incentive, which covered a little less than one-third of the project cost,” Sigona said.

For the Sports Palace, the new system has been worth the investment. “Customers come in and say, ‘Wow, this light is absolutely perfect for batting practice and for playing basketball or mini-golf,’” Finger said.

He also said, “John was helpful and, overall, working with UI was a good experience. On the basis of my experience, I’d say, ‘Yeah, go ahead and do it,’ if any body asked me about whether they should undertake a similar job.”

Contact Information
Contact: John Sigona, 203-499-2925.