Town of Pincher Creek Upgrades Ice Arena to LED Lighting

June 24, 2016

LED vs Other Lights | Uncategorized

He Shoots, He Scores!

The Pincher Creek Arena is home to the Pincher Creek Huskies hockey team, but they also are used by many local shinny hockey teams, the local figure skating club, public skating and noon-time hockey. In the summertime, the ice is removed and lacrosse is played on the concrete surface. Local craft markets are occasionally held in the springtime. It is one of the town’s key hubs. A place where the community comes together to rally around each other and support their local teams.

The lighting is usually not the first thing that people notice when they go into a building, so it’s easy to forget how important it really is. Whether it is providing a uniformed light coverage on the ice surface and making sure there are no shadows in the corners, or providing a light that is bright enough on the ice but also provides the same quality light when it is a dark concrete floor. The Pincher Creek Arena originally had 42 metal halide 400W fixtures to provide them with light. The average lifespan of a 400W metal halide is about 8,000 hours which translates to around 2-3 years, they are slow to turn on and have a long warm-up period before they reach their full brightness. Metal Halide lights also have a ballast that burns out and costs money to replace, it also uses up an extra 50W of power-boosting each light up to 450W of power usage.

LED in Action replaced the old metal halide lighting with their Commercial Series 200W LED fixture, cutting the power usage by more than half. The 200W lights also have a lifespan of 50,000 hours which is roughly 18 years. That is 42,000 hours more than a metal halide with twice the power usage would last for. So instead of having to shut down the arena, replace burnt-out bulbs and ballasts, rent a lift to reach the bulbs, and pay for labour 6.25 times, the 200W LED light will last that long and possibly longer with no maintenance, bulb changes, or ballast replacements necessary.

**The lifespan of lights in years was figured out assuming that the lights would be on for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.**

Let’s Break Down the Savings that the Arena Received from switching to LED lighting:

Not only did the Arena save money on their power bill they also increased the number of foot candles that are actually reaching the surface. The light was also much more distributed over the surface which helped to remove shadows and improve visibility on the ice. Not only does the arena have much higher levels of lighting but they are also able to control the lighting from a smart phone application. This allows them to put the lights on a timer, only turning on one side of the arena, and putting on a light show when a goal is scored. These lights have an extremely easy installation and have little to no maintenance so the arena is also cutting costs in the maintenance budget. The Pincher Creek Arena LED Lighting system was installed in 1 day by 1 electrician and has been problem-free since the installation.

The Lights used in this project can be found here on our website: 200W Commerical High Bay

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