Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wants the Navy to consider using tubular light emitting diode (T-LED) lighting on bases, according to a letter obtained by Defense Daily.
Warner asks Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment Dennis McGinn in a March 19 letter for the technology to be added to the unified facilities criteria (UFC) so the service bases could access the technology. T-LED lighting is already being installed on Navy ships as they provide safety and efficiency advances over legacy fluorescent lighting.
“Embracing this technology for shore installations would help the Navy further reduce energy costs, allowing savings to be allocated to fleet operations and training,” Warner said.
Warner said including T-LED usage would also help the Navy reach its shore energy program (SEP) goals, including reducing shore energy usage by 30 percent by 2015 and 50 percent by 2020. Warner said 13 percent of the Navy’s fleet has been converted to T-LEDs.
Navy spokesman Lt. Chika Onyekanne said Tuesday in a statement the service currently uses LED on its installations in places such as administrative buildings, athletic facilities, street lights and parking garages. When determining where to install new light fixtures, the Navy looks into lighting solutions that are both cost-effective and support the specific mission of that facility, Onyekanne said.
Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) started pilot programs a few years ago to test commercially-available technology and see how they worked on ships. Legacy T8W5 florescent lighting not only requires lots of manpower to manage, but also takes up valuable space on ships and subs.
Lights must be replaced regularly and be disposed of properly due to mercury levels found in bulbs, so they are stored on the ship until they can be properly disposed. Florescent lighting also makes noise that can disrupt the sleep of sailors.
Energy Focus of Ohio is one company that has developed a possible solution for new lighting. The company said its product, called the IntelliTube LED fixture, doesn’t contains glass nor hazardous materials, requires no additional removal nor storage costs and uses 50 percent less power. Energy Focus in April said it would retrofit the Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet, which at 8,000 or more linear fluorescent lamps per carrier, represents the largest users of shipboard lighting in the service.
Energy Focus said in December it received a $6 million order from the Navy for the company’s Intellitube LED retrofit tubes. Energy Focus expects to deliver the product through the first half of this year. Energy Focus was awarded $4.1 million by the Navy in the first quarter of 2014, the bulk of funding for its IntelliTube LED fixture (Defense Daily, July 31).