County Applies for Clean TN Energy Grant to Install LED lights at Courthouse and Jail

Existing fluorescent lights in the DeKalb County Courthouse and the Jail will be replaced and retrofitted with light-emitting diode (LED) lights if the county is approved for a Clean Tennessee Energy Grant through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
During Monday night’s meeting, the county commission adopted a resolution making application for the $37,856 grant through the Upper Cumberland Development District. The county’s matching obligation would be 50% or $18,928.
Environmentally, the reduction in energy usage from this project is expected to result in lowered power plant emissions and overall a lower carbon footprint. Fiscally, the reduction in energy usage will mean lower monthly bills to the county, allowing the savings to be reinvested in other ways.
A TVA Energy walk through lighting audit was conducted recently at the courthouse and jail as a service of Smithville Electric System to provide an energy usage analysis and the potential impact of LED lighting retrofits. Many of the lights throughout the courthouse are currently comprised of T-8, T-12, T-8 U tubes, and linear fluorescent bulbs that use a great deal of electricity. The jail also has a combination of obsolete T-8 and T-12 bulbs. LED lights, while more expensive, last much longer, consume less electricity and will make the buildings more energy efficient.
The total material cost for lighting retrofits at the courthouse would be $7,833 resulting in a simple payback of 1.3 years (76% rate of return) representing a 19.5% reduction in the annual energy cost at the courthouse. Similarly, material costs at the jail would be $5,767 resulting in a simple payback of 1.1 years (92.2% rate of return) reducing energy costs by 20.8% at the jail.
The estimated reduction in electric energy consumption from the project is 94,881 kilowatt hours per year, equating to a financial savings of $11,275 per year. That’s the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from a passenger vehicle driven 159,809 miles or over 2.1 tons of waste recycled instead of being placed in a landfill.
Officials stress that these are estimates only and that the final cost, savings and payback will depend on a number of other factors including installation costs, disposal costs, etc.