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Success Story: WXXI Broadcasting

Partner Information

WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in Rochester, Rochester, New York
Located in Rochester, New York
21,000-sq.ft. facility
Annual Cash Savings: $20,700.00
Annual Energy savings: 191,396 kWh
Payback period: 4.9 years
Prevented 231,665 pounds of pollution

Service and Product Provider

Rochester Gas & Electric

Broadcasting Station Announces Energy-Efficient Upgrades

Sustaining good and interesting programming in the television and broadcasting arena challenges even the best public broadcasting stations. And when budgets are tight and constrained, that challenge becomes doubly difficult. So Susan Rogers, Vice President of WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in Rochester, New York, is always searching for budget-conscious ways to improve the operation of the radio and television stations, which serve a community of approximately 150,000 viewers and listeners. Creative investigation into new ways to reduce spending is often called for when faced with declining budgets.

Getting With The Program

When Rochester Gas and Electric, which serves WXXI’s 21,000-sq.ft. complex, offered energy audits performed by experienced energy engineers at no charge to its customers, Rogers took advantage of the opportunity. She had an audit conducted on the station’s two facilities. Aware of WXXI’s tight budget, the engineers looked for upgrades that would recover their costs in less than 5 years. All of the upgrades they re-commended involved lighting retrofits.

Since WXXI houses both television and radio facilities, it uses a large amount of equipment, making the station a large energy user in the community. Therefore, Rogers decided it made sense to invest the necessary time and money to perform the upgrades identified in the audit. That investment, she determined, would pay off in lower operational expenses.

Lights, Camera, Action

Throughout the offices and studios, Rogers retrofitted more than 650 fluorescent fixtures with T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts. In addition, more than 100 incandescent fixtures were replaced with compact fluorescent fixtures. In several sections of the station that were no longer used, incandescent fixtures still remained on. During the retrofit, these fixtures were taken out of service.

All the inefficient incandescent exit signs were replaced with new light emitting diode (LED) exit signs. LED exit signs are so energy efficient that they reduce energy usage by more than 70 percent per fixture. Additionally, these fixtures provide great maintenance savings because they last at least 25 years. By contrast, incandescent fixtures need their bulbs changed periodically.

By cutting the station’s lighting bills in half, Rogers has helped her community in two ways: Saving energy translates into less pollution, and lower energy costs means more money for quality programming.