By Erick Galindo, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/24/2010 12:14:10 AM PST

PASADENA — For those intrepid researchers at the Pasadena Central Library looking to shed light on the past or highlight the issues of today, things have gotten brighter.

Torrance–based LEDtronics announced this week the completion of an eco–friendly lighting project at the library that is expected to save the city thousands of dollars.

It looks pretty too.

“It looks wonderful,” said Catherine Haskett Hany, the library’s communications director. “We have gotten a lot of positive customer feedback. People are enjoying the brighter lighting.”

The project involved replacing standard 900–watt lighting fixtures located in the main common areas of the library with energy–efficient LED lights.

“Every light at the library that we replaced was using 900 watts of power consumption and we helped reduce that by nearly 90 percent,” said Pervaiz Lodhie, LEDtronics’ CEO.

The major concern for the library and city was to reduce burdensome maintenance and power consumption costs, as well as to improve the quality of lighting, while preserving the library’s historical design.

The historical pendant lighting fixtures located in the main common areas of the library were important for the library to retain, Lodhie noted.

Upon consultation with LEDtronics, a high–power LED cluster designed for retrofit into the pendant fixtures was successfully implemented, without compromising the library’s historical integrity.

“We have a beautiful building with a great history, but it was darker before,” Hany noted. “Now customers think it’s great that they have more light to read and research.”

Since the old metal–halide bulbs were buried within the library fixture’s pendant bowl, most of their lumen production was being dampened, and what light intensity was left over was inefficiently bouncing off the upper reflector surface of the pendant fixture to create ambient lighting for the library patron areas, noted Lodhie.

The library’s metal–halide lighting was replaced in each pendant fixture by a LED cluster of light. The cluster was positioned to project upward from the top of the pendant bowl directly into the upper reflector surface, giving the library more footcandle light than with the use of the old bulbs.

“It’s a win–win situation because the city saves money and customers get a much brighter, more beautiful library,” Hany said.

In addition to energy savings, the city saves on the high cost of maintaining the hard–to–reach suspended fixtures, Lodhie noted, as the old metal–halide bulbs and ballasts no longer need to be replaced on a continuing basis.

“Not only does the LED lighting in the pendant fixtures save greatly on power but because of the low heat they generate, the room temperature is dramatically reduced so as to save on the air–conditioning cost,” Lodhie added.

The city is expected to save thousands of dollars in annual savings on periodic bulb and ballast replacement.