Texas School District Improves Energy Efficiency, Reduces Environmental Impact with Keystone
Texas’ Angleton Independent School District, just south of Houston, consists of 12 campuses, some dating back to the 1950s—with inefficient fluorescent lighting to match. With the 2019 passage of a $90 million bond issue, the district had the funds to upgrade its lighting to modern LED troffers and vapor tights to improve performance and energy efficiency.
The Challenge:
After weighing a variety of variables, including ease of installation and maintenance, quality of service, and beauty of the aesthetics, the district opted to replace the legacy lamps and fixtures with Keystone products.
“Keystone was the best fit for us,” says Jose Macedo, the district’s director of maintenance, observing that the district looked at 10 to 15 different products from different manufacturers. Besides the simplicity and dependability of Keystone’s offering, “the look was a key deciding factor,” he adds.
We’re spending public funds, so we not only need an ROI, but want our staff and students to SEE something for our money. The Keystone products are better looking, and their simplicity to install, use, and maintain were huge selling points.
Jose Macedo, Director of Maintenance at Angleton Independent School District
The Solution from Keystone:
Because many of the campuses date back more than 40 years—a period when asbestos was in common use in ceiling tiles and insulation—it was important for workers to be able to retrofit the lighting without creating safety issues. Keystone’s Future Fit Troffer Kits, which include everything needed for a seamless installation without removing the existing fixture body, meant there was no need to remove the old fluorescent fixture mounting from the ceiling.
“We didn’t have to break the ceiling plane,” says Macedo. “There were no worries about asbestos.”
Future Fit LED kits are easy to install, easy to adjust, and reliable—all qualities that prompted the Angleton school district to choose Keystone for its retrofit project.
In addition, Future Fit troffers come equipped with Keystone’s Power Select and Color Select technology, allowing users to choose from three lumen outputs and three color temperature options. That kind of versatility proved valuable when retrofitting a variety of classrooms and public spaces, says a site manager with Walker Engineering.
You can use one fixture in multiple areas and set different power outputs or color temperatures as needed. Teachers can have the lighting they want. That customization was especially important for its ease of maintenance
A site manager at Walker Engineering
Macedo adds that the simplicity and reliability of Keystone fixtures means his staff has less to worry about.
“With the Keystone troffers, we can set it and forget it,” he says. And if they need to change power output or color temperature of a fixture? “We can adjust it in seconds.”
The Results:
Decreased Energy Consumption
Keystone fixtures reduced the power consumption by more than 60% legacy fixtures.
Reduced Maintenance Expenses
There will be little to no maintenance for 5-7 years. In addition, for all campuses, 3 SKUs will repair any fixtures—and any replacement takes less than 3 minutes.
Fast Payback
The project will pay for itself in just a few years. “The ease of installation and reduced parts needs will benefit the school district for years to come,” says Macedo.
Installation went quickly thanks to the uniformity of the products, says the Walker manager.
We had 11,000 fixtures across multiple buildings. Since the Keystone troffers all installed the same way—and installation was so easy—we were able to do several fixtures per hour. When you’re installing hundreds of new troffers, that helps save on labor costs.
A site manager at Walker Engineering
Using Future Fit also helped the environment, Macedo adds.
“Because we didn’t need whole new fixtures—we were able to use existing fixture bodies—we were able to reduce the product we would have sent to a landfill,” he says.
The district is still gathering information on energy savings, but Macedo is confident that going with Keystone LEDs will end up being an economically wise decision—both now and into the future.
“It’s been necessary to upgrade our lighting for some time,” he says. “With Keystone Future Fit Troffer Kits, I believe we have established a new baseline in efficiency and quality that will benefit the district for many years.”
Keystone Products Used:
- Future Fit LED Door Panel Kits (KT-RKIT40PS-22PD-8CSA-VDIM, KT-RKIT50PS-24PD-8CSA-VDIM, KT-RKIT40PS-14PD-8CSA-VDIM)
- 4’ Vapor Tight Fixtures (KT-VTLED44-4A-840-VDIM-P)
