Maintenance Savings at Red Wing Schools [Lighting Before & After Video]

Published September 2022

“We crunched the numbers and it clearly made sense to do this. We would be spending almost exactly the same amount of money maintaining [the lights] over the next 30 years vs. replacing them, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

Kevin Johnson, Buildings & Grounds Director, Red Wing School District

Red Wing School District Project Summary:

  • Location
    • Red Wing, MN
  • Project Goals
    • Remove light flicker for students and staff, maintenance savings (both current and future), support special education with classroom enhancing color-tuning lighting technology, increase safety and security for students and staff in exterior areas
    • Energy savings and additional utility rebates are an added bonus to this LED project
  • Results of LED Upgrade
    • Estimated annual cost savings of over 51.39%, or approximately $85,000.00/annually
    • Maintenance Savings for staff district-wide (no more changing out bulbs and ballasts!)
    • Color tunable lights in special education classrooms, including wall-mounted iPad and app based control systems, provide more supportive learning environments for special education students and staff
    • Rebates of over $250,000.00 from Xcel Energy and the Xcel Energy/CEE One-Stop Program were processed by Retrofit Lighting & Design and paid back to the school district, offsetting the upfront project costs significantly
  • Project Size

Looking for another lighting story from a school? Check out the improvements at Lakeville Public Schools where they focused on adding color-tunable lighting in multiple special education classrooms.