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Grant lights way to Kenilworth emission savings
The village of Kenilworth got a grant to replace lighting with more efficient fixtures, like here in the council chambers, on Monday, February, 4, 2013 in Kenilworth. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media
LIGHT SAVER
WHAT: light system upgrade
WHERE: Kenilworth
SAVINGS: 70,000 pounds of carbon emissions
Article Extras
Updated: March 15, 2013 11:18AM
KENILWORTH
Think energy efficiency when it comes to lights, and your imagination probably extends to making sure they’re turned out when you leave the room.
In Kenilworth, they’re thinking bigger. Or smaller, perhaps; lights fixtures and carbon emissions, to be specific.
That’s because the village is using more than $19,000 in state grants to replace much of its indoor municipal lighting system. In doing so, administrators expect to cut the village’s annual carbon emissions by more than 70,000 pounds.
Village spokesman Kyle Kordell said last month that it probably would have been some time before Kenilworth could have upgraded old light fixtures in its Richmond Road village hall and police station, or in the village’s public works building, with high efficiency fixtures, lamps and ballasts, had it not sought the grants.
Grant money – $11,263.50 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and $7,812 from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation – will cover 85 percent of the $22,408 project, Kordell said.
He said it will be a few weeks before Kenilworth can get the new equipment, but the delay was worth it. Because the village consolidated its equipment purchase bid through the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus with 26 other communities doing the same type of project, it shaved another $1,296 from its overall costs.
“But since everyone is bidding fro the same lighting materials, we have to wait in line,” he said.
Village Manager Patrick Brennan lauded Kordell, the village’s administrative intern, for researching and completing the grant project.
“When the board hired me, one of the themes I caught was that they really wanted to take hard looks at the way of lowering the financial impact on taxpayers, and the environmental impact. When I saw this grant program, I showed it to Kyle; he took it and ran with it.”
Although Kenilworth does not pay for the electricity that lights its municipal buildings Brennan said, the effective reduction of carbon emissions meets the village board’s new mission of being as environmentally responsible as possible, Brennan said.
“And it’s worth noting that we did the calculations of what (the new lighting system) would save a residential or small business, and it would be equivalent to savings of about $3,000 a year.”~.
