Spotlight on Recent LED Lighting Retrofits at The University of Guelph

Indoor LED Lighting Retrofit and Redesign at the Gryphon Centre / W.F. Mitchell Building Campus Athletics Hub.

The Gryphon Centre is the campus’ 87,750 ft2 arena building, complete with two hockey rinks. Directly across the Campus Walk, the 144,220 ft2 W.F. Mitchell Building offers various athletics facilities, including three gyms and two pools. Together, both buildings serve as an Athletics ‘Hub’ for Guelph Gryphon teams – and the City of Guelph community at large – to practice and hold events. Both buildings were in need of improvements to the building systems to improve the indoor space and save on energy costs – and this was especially true for the quality of the lighting in the arenas, gyms and pools.

MCW CES recognized the opportunity for a wholesale LED upgrade in the facilities. This LED solution included:

  • Arena LED lighting upgrades, replacing older technology Metal Halide fixtures. The new LED ceiling fixtures had the benefit of not only significant energy savings but also had the University Facilities Team smiling about the lighting controls now possible with the LED technology and their newfound ability to bring the light level up to 100% for then nighttime televised matches and down for the morning TimBits hockey practices.
  • Overall reduction in the facilities’ combined lighting load of over 50% – from 204 kW to 90kW.
  • Annual electricity consumption reduction of 385,000 kWh – the equivalent to 37 average homes’ electricity use for one year!’
  • $24,000 in incentives funding through IESO and other partners.
  • Assisting the University in their choice of product and their desire to buy from a local Ontario manufacturer.

MCW Employees who helped realize these improvements include Jad Butkovic, MCW CES Senior Lighting Specialist who led the design process and together with Janaka Rathnayaka, Senior MCW Project Electrical Engineer, delivered the specifications to enable the LED upgrades, Steve Burton, MCW CES’ Program Manager for the Green Gryphon Initiative, David Turner, MCW CES Lighting Specialist who managed the incentive funding application process, and both Branislav Jeremic and Anthony Romano, MCW CES’ onsite construction managers who oversaw the retrofits’ installation on a day-to-day basis.

Stay tuned for more features on exciting MCW projects being implemented as part of the Green Gryphon Initiative.