Naval Station Everett is increasing energy efficiency with the installation of new exterior lighting fixtures with motion sensors to decrease the lighting when no one is around.

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Northwest Edison installed the first fixtures at 12 locations on Perry Avenue and Parking Lot Alpha as well as three pedestrian fixtures on Building 2000 and Jackson Plaza March 10 as part of a test bed to possibly conserve more energy.

“An executive order has been issued mandating that we achieve energy savings on an average of three percent a year,” said Tom Caffe, facilities engineering director. “To achieve these savings, we’ve been exploring a variety of technologies that can be employed to save energy.”

There are six different fixtures currently being tested. After the testing period is over and the most efficient lighting fixture is chosen, installation is scheduled to continue base-wide this fall.

After all the parking lot and sidewalk lights are replaced with more energy efficient fixtures, Ray Smalling, Energy and Utility Program Manager said the base could save over 250,000W annually which would equal approximately $16,000 a year.

The new lights include photocells for dusk to dawn operation and motion sensors with bi-level lighting to allow the energy to dim to 40-60 percent power when there is no recent movement in the area.

“The current exterior lights are on an average of 12 hours a day expending nearly 300W per fixture,” said Smalling. “Whereas, the modern fixtures expend 100-150W at full power and will operate at only 50 percent most of the time and jump to full power only when motion is detected.”

The fixtures will also conserve energy with the use of fluorescent induction lamps and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Unlike incandescent lamps or conventional fluorescent lamps, the fluorescent induction lamps have no electrical connection. The energy is transferred through the glass envelope solely by electromagnetic induction, sort of like a microwave exciting electrons inside the lamp to produce light.

Some of the advantages of fluorescent induction lamps are a longer lifespan, higher energy efficiency, and more environmentally friendly.

Some of the advantages of LED lamps are they contain no mercury, turn on instantly, are unaffected by turning on and off, and less likely to break.

“This is part of a continuing effort to meet federal mandates and the Secretary of the Navy’s energy targets,” said Smalling. “Energy efficiency and load reduction is the first step toward becoming an energy net zero facility.”