GreenTech Solutions Group provided LED lighting upgrades to two Raleigh churches, which resulted in impressive cost savings and drastically improved light levels for both houses of worship. Upper Room Church of God in Christ and Fellowship Baptist Church were both looking for a company to provide a turnkey solution to their outdated fluorescent lighting.

(Image: GreenTech Solutions Group)

GreenTech was selected as the vendor of choice for Upper Room Church of God in Christ to provide the best lighting solution that combined a strong return on investment and a quick payback. The LED upgrade resulted in a 69 percent reduction in annual lighting energy usage.

The church sanctuary was retrofitted with T8 LED tubes to enhance the stage lighting as well as in the seating areas, virtually eliminating the need for maintenance for many years to come. The light levels were increased to achieve even, consistent lighting throughout the space, which has various elevations.

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The remainder of the church—including a multipurpose room, fellowship room, offices, and hallways—were all upgraded with energy-efficient LED panel lights. Each panel was equipped with automatic dimming switches for additional energy savings. The LED panel lights provide a beautiful, glare-free output that offers flexibility throughout each space with multiple levels of dimming for individual space preferences.

A summary of benefits includes the following: 

• 69% reduction in annual lighting energy usage

• $23,450 savings through energy incentives

• 1.6 year payback period

• 129,524 kWh reduction in annual lighting energy usage

• $19,428 savings in annual operational costs

“GreenTech was truly a one-stop shop for all our lighting needs; from the assessment to the financing, to the installation and the rebates,” said Upper Room Church Executive Administrator Evangelist Wanda Thomas.

The Upper Room Church saw annual operating savings of more than $20,000 per year. The church engaged in a lease opportunity to fund the lighting retrofit, allowing the church to spread out its initial investment over time and use the money it saves on utility costs to pay for the new lighting and other efficiency projects. Through leasing, the church enjoyed immediate savings by minimizing its initial capital investment while experiencing a monthly cash flow positive scenario.

Fellowship Baptist Church reached out to GreenTech when it was seeking lighting options that would ensure savings in energy and maintenance costs in addition to improving the lighting output throughout the facility. The sanctuary, office, educational building, and fellowship hall were all upgraded with energy-efficient LED lighting that gave the church a significant 83 percent reduction in annual lighting energy usage.

The legacy T12 fluorescent tubes in the sanctuary were removed and replaced with new LED panel fixtures and LED PAR30 flood lights for various downlight applications. For the cove lighting, LED tubes were used to replace the outdated fluorescent lamps for a simple and cost-effective solution. Offices, classrooms, and hallway fixtures housing T12 fluorescents were also upgraded using LED panels to provide better light distribution while beautifying the space with a cleaner look and feel to the environment.

A summary of benefits includes the following: 

• 83% reduction in annual lighting energy usage

• $15,116 savings through energy incentives

• 2.2 year payback period

• 70,756 kWh reduction in annual lighting energy usage

• 86% reduction in annual operational costs

GreenTech secured more than 50 percent of the project cost in energy rebates through the Duke Progress Energy Efficiency for Business program and provided all the rebate application filing services for the church. This generous rebate ultimately reduced the payback period to 2.2 years. Additionally, due to the long life of LED fixtures, the maintenance costs have been drastically reduced, bringing an 86 percent reduction in annual operational costs for Fellowship Baptist Church.

“Working with religious organizations has been very rewarding for us, and working with Fellowship Baptist Church was no exception. Knowing budget restraints can be a hurdle, we worked hard to provide the church the highest level of service, leveraging utility rebate incentives to accomplish the project, and saving them capital funds that might be needed for other operations,” stated Glenn Edmonds, CEO/President of GreenTech Solutions Group.

GreenTech is proud to help area churches upgrade to energy-efficient and cost-saving LED lighting. Sanctuaries can be a challenge in designing solutions to provide proper light levels while maintaining the ambiance desired by many houses of worship. The GreenTech staff was involved with retrofitting four separate churches over the past few years, and that experience uniquely allows them to use their expertise in that space to service other churches throughout North Carolina.