Since 1892, Aultman has served Canton, Ohio, with exceptional health care services. In 2010, Stark County’s largest hospital and employer launched a project to serve patients and staff with exceptional new parking lot and parking deck illumination. Evolve™ LED lighting systems from GE Lighting proved the right prescription. Onlookers are remarking on an “incredible difference,” and Aultman found that it has delivered a healthy $13,000 annual energy cost savings to its campus.
 
The hospital first trialed GE’s Evolve LED Area Lights  in its new employee parking lot in May 2010. Impressed with light quality and uniformity, Aultman moved quickly to retrofit a second older lot using high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures with the same LED solution.
 
Thirty-two Evolve LED Area Lights replaced 52 HPS fixtures in the lot, creating a much-improved sense of security among associates, according to Pooley.
 
“Our security team stood on top of our building and looked down into the lot – everything was completely evenly lit, the continuity of light was absolutely incredible,” said Betsy Pooley, director of building services for Aultman. “With the old fixtures, you had a blob of light, but then you’d go two parking spaces over and it was dark. That wasn’t there anymore. It was a dramatic difference, from making out the color of a car to reading a license plate with our security cameras.
 
“The hospital is right in the middle of a residential area, so one of the concerns administration had was, ‘Are the neighbors going to be upset?’ We haven’t received any negative feedback – visibility is excellent and light pollution isn’t an issue whatsoever.”

GE Lighting will save Aultman, Ohio’s largest hospital and employer in Stark county, a healthy $13,000 annually in energy cost savings.

Aultman’s average expense to light the HPS-equipped lot was $1,500 per month including the cost of an electrical contractor to replace lamps at the end of life. Since the LED conversion, the hospital found that its utility bill has fallen to $400, and Pooley hasn’t placed a service call yet.
 
“We drive by the lot every day to ensure everything is OK, but we haven’t touched it at all since the lights were installed nearly two years ago,” she said, adding it costs just $60 a month to light Aultman’s newest lot where the LEDs were initially installed.
 
During this time Pooley also evaluated a competitive fixture on the ground level of the hospital’s three-tier parking deck but determined budget would not permit outfitting the entire structure. At a trade show later that year, she discovered GE’s Evolve LED Garage Light fixture.
 
“We knew at once, ‘This is the one!’ The quality of light was better, the distribution was better. It was a much sturdier fixture than what we had, and the price point was right,” she said.
 
Aultman has since replaced all T12 strip lighting in the lower level of its 250,000-square-foot garage with new LED fixtures. When the parking deck project concludes later this year, more than 120 Evolve LED Garage lights will brighten the first and second tiers, with more than 60 Evolve LED Area Lights illuminating the open rooftop.
 
“We’ve had such success with GE’s lighting systems that as we move forward renovating parking lots or looking at buildings, the Evolve LED is the new standard for the Aultman campus,” Pooley said.
 
Combining the latest in LED system electronics, thermal management, and mechanical and optical design, high-efficiency GE Evolve LED fixtures make the advantages of LED lighting a practicality in parking lots and general lighting applications. They provide an estimated 10-year service life (50,000-hour rated life) that is four times the recommended service interval of traditional high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting. Additionally, Evolve LED optics offer more directional focus of light, reducing spillover to surrounding areas.