Cree, Inc. announces that Illinois’ Joliet Junior College (JJC) is joining the LED University™ program. College officials recently renovated 12 restrooms on campus, replacing compact fluorescent and tube fluorescent fixtures with six-inch LED recessed lights, LR6s, from Cree. Energy consumption was reduced by 50 percent, from 3,384 watts to 1,692 watts. A total cost of ownership analysis, done by JJC, shows that the college expects to save more than $53,000 over the estimated 25-year life span of the LED fixtures.



“We wanted to start with a single application as we evaluated the benefits of switching to LED lighting,” said Patrick Van Duyne, JJC director for facility services. “We are thrilled with the 50-percent energy savings, and extremely pleased with the great light quality from Cree’s LR6 lights. We anticipate that the drastically lowered maintenance costs, coupled with the reduction in energy usage, means real savings; we no longer budget for disposal costs or for changing light bulbs frequently. Armed with this experience, we plan to move forward with LED lighting in additional restroom renovations and other applications, like dining areas and parking lots.” 



“JJC energy officials have taken a practical approach to evaluating and deploying LED lighting, realizing significant energy and maintenance cost savings now, and anticipating larger savings as energy and labor costs are expected to rise over the next few years,” said Deb Lovig, Cree LED programs manager. “Although the initial evaluation was relatively small, cutting energy use in half and the potential to save close to $53,000 produced the business case for expanding efforts.”

Joliet Junior College joins LED University participants North Carolina State University; Marquette University; University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Arkansas; Madison Area Technical College; Notre Dame; University of California, Davis; University of Alaska at Anchorage; University of Miami and Tianjin Polytechnic University in China in evaluating, promoting, and deploying LED lighting as they work toward increasing energy savings, protecting the environment, reducing maintenance costs, and providing better light quality for improved visibility and safety.



About LED University

The LED University initiative is a growing international community of universities working to evaluate, deploy, and promote LED lighting across their campus infrastructures to save energy, protect the environment, reduce maintenance costs, and provide better light quality for improved visibility and safety.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 22 percent of electricity used in the U.S. powers lighting. In a world with soaring energy prices based on the availability and control of fossil fuels, and with growing concern about sustainability of the environment, a revolution in lighting is long overdue. 

Details of each university’s LED lighting pilots and installations are available on the LED University web site: www.leduniversity.org.