Albany Medical Center, the only academic health sciences center in Eastern New York and Western New England is saving more than $200,000 per year in total utility costs after a lighting retrofit installed by SmartWatt Energy, a nationwide energy efficiency firm headquartered in Albany, NY. The new energy efficient lighting will save 2,006,283 kWh of electricity per year.

Albany, NY (PRWEB) February 21, 2012

Smartwatt EnergyAlbany Medical Center, the only academic health sciences center in Eastern New York and Western New England is saving more than $200,000 per year in total utility costs after a lighting retrofit installed by SmartWatt Energy, a nationwide energy efficiency firm headquartered in Albany, NY. The new energy efficient lighting will save 2,006,283 kWh of electricity per year.

Albany Medical Center received a grant for $759,608 to fund this project under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which allowed the project to be completed with essentially no out of pocket cost. ARRA funding was established to save and create jobs, spur economic activity and encourage investments towards long-term growth in the United States. The Act provides funding for investments in infrastructure, education, health, and energy.

SmartWatt Energy conducted a construction-grade energy audit of various Albany Medical Center buildings throughout New York’s Capital Region, including: clinics, garages, offices and teaching buildings, then engineered a solution to replace the existing High Intensity Discharge (HID) and T-12 fluorescent lighting system with an energy-efficient T-5 and T-8 fluorescent lighting system. T-12 fluorescent lighting will be phased out of production by July 2012, making the replacement a timely project. Read the rest of this entry »