Working with Firth Park Academy to achieve LED Lighting savings

Firth Park Academy is one of 64 academies within Academies Enterprise Trust (AET). The secondary school has over 1,300 pupils and an OFSTED rating of ‘Good’.

*AET was established in 2008 and now educates over 35,000 pupils and employs over 6,000 highly committed staff. One of their values is to create an environment which is highly participative and aspirational, where every student has the opportunity to develop the abilities they need to lead positive and fulfilling lives.

The Challenge

AET has four key finance priorities, one of which is to spend wisely. Coupled with the usual budgetary constraints experienced within education, operational savings needed to be made. The installation of LED lighting offered a way to improve the school environment and make significant annual savings. Academies Enterprise Trust made contact with LASER to find out more about the LED lighting framework.

The school’s lighting was predominantly old, high energy fluorescent style fittings, expensive to run with high maintenance costs. Several corridors were over lit due to the high quantity of fittings installed and lighting was extremely harsh. The challenge was to design an LED lighting system that could quickly pay for itself through savings in electricity bills whilst providing softer lighting that still creates a bright, clean look.

The Solution

Together LASER, AET and Firth Park Academy designed a lighting installation that not only produced financial savings, but also met the desired outcomes of quality and price. LASER surveyed the building, specified equipment from suppliers on the framework, and calculated accurate project costs, savings and return on investment. We used all of the information gathered to assist AET in making a bid to Salix Finance Ltd.

The savings in electricity usage needed to be utilised to pay back the cost of the project within an eight year period to satisfy funding criteria; the LASER design and specification calculated payback in only seven years.

The installation was fully completed in four weeks using a contractor from LASER’s framework with oversight from LASER’s team to ensure the project stayed on schedule and to a high standard.

The Results

Undertaking the work during the summer holiday period ensured no disruption to pupils or staff, and normal site operations were able to commence from the first day of the new school year uninterrupted.

In all, over 1,200 fittings were installed and the project is forecast to save over £27k per annum in electricity costs (at 2017’s electricity prices). All fittings are guaranteed for 50,000 hours of operation.

The Key benefits Delivered & Key Statistic

• Work was completed through an OJEU compliant supply chain.
• The project was designed to meet Salix funding compliance criteria.
• The LASER team, Firth Park Academy and AET worked in partnership to meet school and Trust goals.
• The LED lighting was installed over a four week period during the school summer break.
• Project estimated to deliver an energy bill reduction of £27k a year.
• The school now benefit from lighting guaranteed for 5 years, along with a one year installation warranty.
• AET have advised a 28% saving in electricity use during the first month of the new school year alone.

Our LED Lighting service identified annual savings Savings: of £27,000 for Firth Park Academy.

*Please note that since this work AET has now changed its name to Lift Schools.