Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


New Jersey District Cuts Costs with LED Lighting Upgrade

New Jersey's New Brunswick Public Schools is retrofitting all 10 of its schools with LED tube lights to reduce use of electricity and natural gas.

Comprising more than 40,000 Generation 3 LED lights from Revolution Lighting, the upgrade is one piece of a $16 million energy savings improvement program (ESIP) undertaken by the district and led by Johnson Controls. The lights provide 1,700 lumens, yet use only 15 wants of energy. They are designed for 75,000 hours of use and come with a 10-year warranty.

Other upgrades included in the ESIP include new cogeneration units, updated HVAC systems and solar panels. Altogether, the upgrades are projected "to cut the school district's energy usage by 41 percent and its natural gas usage by 25 percent," according to a news release.

Aside from reducing energy usage, the project is saving the district money through "a significant energy efficiency rebate" from the state's SmartStart Building program.

"Revolution Lighting Technologies is proud to partner with both New Brunswick Public Schools and Johnson Controls Inc. to implement this LED retrofit throughout all 10 schools," said Robert V. LaPenta, chairman and CEO at Revolution Lighting, in a prepared statement. "Proper illumination is essential for academic settings and our new LED tube lights allow students to work under much higher quality light than provided by previous fluorescent fixtures. The retrofit will also significantly reduce the school district's energy use, maintenance costs and operating expenses, while helping the district mitigate the rising costs of electricity for years to come. The substantial savings allows administrators to invest in critical academic priorities. This project is a prime example of the financial and environmental benefits our LED lighting solutions are delivering to our customers."

"This project will make our schools more energy efficient, eco-friendly and better for our students to learn and grow," said Richard Kaplan, superintendent of New Brunswick Public Schools, in a news release.

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Blurred silhouettes of business people in a modern office with a glowing blue network overlay

    Open Secure AI Alliance Moving Under Linux Foundation

    Governance of the Open Secure AI Alliance has moved to the Linux Foundation, giving the initiative what the organizations describe as a neutral home for developing open source tools, shared standards and defensive practices. The Alliance was launched by NVIDIA in July to develop open security technologies for AI systems and agents.

  • circuit patterns

    Anthropic Intros Lower-Cost Claude Sonnet 5

    Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, positioning the model as its most autonomous mid-tier offering to date and a lower-cost alternative to its flagship Opus 4.8 system. The company said the model can plan multi-step tasks, operate tools such as browsers and terminals, and complete agentic work at a level that previously required larger and more expensive models.

  • Businessman using laptop analyzing data and growth graph chart

    Report: AI Budgets in Education Show No Sign of Decline

    The vast majority of education organizations (98%) expect their AI infrastructure budgets to either increase or hold steady over the next year, according to a report from cloud storage provider Wasabi.

  • Man types on laptop in data center

    Microsoft Announces General Availability of Point-in-Time Restore for Windows 11

    Microsoft has made point-in-time restore generally available for Windows 11, giving users and IT administrators a built-in way to roll back PCs after bad updates, driver problems, app corruption, or other problems.