CONTROLS TO THE RESCUE! CONTROLS TO THE RESCUE! CONTROLS TO THE RESCUE! By Parker Allen
B E F O R E A N D A F T E R / / J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 2 4 / / L M & M
Photos courtesy of Lisa Orloff, Imperial Lighting
NALMCO Members’ Collaboration Transforms RUSH University Academic Center BACKGROUND AND PROJECT INITIATION In late 2021, RUSH University in Chicago, Illinois, connected with Energy Conservation & Supply (ECS) to work on lighting upgrades for the entire medical center campus, beginning with the Armour Academic Center. The decision-makers at RUSH were pleased to find out that ECS had a longstanding relationship with NALMCO member Imperial Lighting, and they tabbed the two companies to begin the lighting upgrade of the academic center.
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Imperial arrived on site in December of 2022 and began retrofitting the several thousand existing fluorescent fixtures – mainly 1x4, 2x2, and 2x4s – with the latest LED technology. The fluorescent tubes throughout the building’s many offices and classrooms were replaced with lumen-selectable LEDVANCE retrofit kits. Several months into the project, RUSH came to Imperial with a problem – the light was too bright. Even after adjusting the LED kits down to their lowest output, the new light was still uncomfortable and glaring.