ROCKLAND — The Farnsworth Art Museum has replaced its conventional lighting units with LED llights in hopes they will to save energy costs – and help the environment.

“With the economy down and a need for budget relief, the nationally recognized art venue decided to leap past the standards of most museums and become innovators,” says Aedan Jordan, Assistant Superintendent at the museum.

That innovation was LED lighting.

The Farnsworth found that LED lighting from Torrance, California–based LEDtronics would not only save energy and money, but it would promote art conservation, environmental stewardship, and enhance the museum visitor experience.

LEDtronics rep Craig Tyler of Pace Associates, LLC showed the Farnsworth samples of styles of lamps that could replace the incandescent lamps it was currently using in its galleries.

“The curatorial staff was impressed with the quality of light available from the lamps it chose, and the improvement in the way the artwork appeared under LED illumination,” Tyler says.

When the Farnsworth made the decision on which lamps to use, it began calculating the savings and payback period. The museum bases its energy and monetary saving projections on having at least 500 lamps in use in its 15,500 square feet of gallery space. Before the LED project started, a mix of 50 to 90 watt lighting was used to light the galleries.

“We knew we could not find a LED replacement for all the lamps because LED bulbs are not made to fit all of the types of fixtures we were using in the galleries,” Jordan says. “So we streamlined our operation, and we decided to change all our fixtures to use a Par20 or Par30 lamp. These two styles proved to be the most versatile for our purposes.”

When the museum looked closer at its lighting budget for the curatorial department, it discovered some information that helped save even more energy and money. The museum's annual average bulb replacement budget for the three prior years was $2,800 per year. The life expectancy of most incandescent bulbs is 2,500 hours. That means, in theory, that if the Farnsworth is open seven days a week, as most museums are, it would need to essentially replace all its lamps within one year.

“After I verified we were actually spending the amount in the budget every year on lamps, I could see some promising budget relief,” Jordan says. “With the expected LED lamp life of 50,000 hours, I was confident we would see a great return on our investment.”

The museum estimates the following savings:

• Approximately $17,000 of electricity savings due to reduction of lamp wattage in gallery spaces;

• There was a large reduction of heat generated in the galleries, requiring less mechanical cooling. Estimates say that the former lighting was generating 135,115.2 Btu/hour of heat. The LED project generates 16,650.56 Btu/hour — a reduction equal to 10 tons/hour of cooling;

• All LED lamp changes will have a payback period of 2.1-2.5 years and potentially even shorter should their utility rate increase.