The University of St. Thomas, and now the First National Bank, are some of many businesses taking the first step toward energy efficiency.
Since 1983, the iconic “1st” sign that sits atop the First National Bank building in St. Paul has been brightly lit. But last January, an ice storm caused major damage to the sign’s neon lights, and for the first time in 33 years, the sign went dark.
Now, the “1st” shines brighter — and more efficiently — than ever thanks to its new energy efficient LED rope lighting. On certain occasions, the new lights even allow the signs to change colors.
“We’re doing a few energy conservation projects on the entire building right now, and (the LED lights) fit directly into our plan,” said Scott Goltz, vice-president of Madison Equities, which owns the First National Bank building.
Goltz also said that when renovating the sign, the most important aspect was trying to minimize the amount of maintenance it would require. To replace the sign with its old neon light fixtures, it would have cost about $10,000, he said. But instead, they spent around $240,000 to redo the entire sign with LED rope lights.
Madison Equities is in the process of switching to a $12.5 million project to make three of its largest buildings more energy efficient. In addition to the First National Bank building, they are also renovating the lighting and heating and cooling systems of the U.S. Bank Center and the 375 Jackson Building.
As for energy efficiency at St. Thomas, just about all of the buildings now use the most energy efficient fluorescent lighting, said Colin Brownlow, environmental health and safety director at the university.
“All of the silver spotlights are either now, or in the future, (going) to be converted to LED,” he said.
St. Thomas is also looking into newly-released LED lights that are designed to fit in existing fluorescent lighting fixtures. The university is currently in the process of trial experimentation.
Brownlow couldn’t speak to what St. Thomas’ current goals to achieve full energy efficiency were, but he said that they are making many steps to save energy.
Brownlow said that when people walk into a dark bathroom, the lights turn on by themselves. The occupancy sensors that allow the lights to do that are located in just about every room in the university, and were part of one initiative to save energy.
In addition to more efficient lighting systems, St. Thomas also improved their process of heating and cooling buildings. In the past, the air cooling systems would go on full blast supplying cold air, while the heaters would then warm the air to room temperature. Now, each room and heating/cooling zone has real-time monitoring that allows precisely heated or cooled air at room temperature, Brownlow said.
When buildings aren’t occupied in the winter, St. Thomas shuts down most of the heating late in the evening and doesn’t start pre-heating until the early morning, according to Brownlow.
“We keep them at comfort levels when people are there, (but) we just maintain minimum cooling during unoccupied times,” Brownlow said. “That’s an energy saver.”
Danielle Wong can be reached at wong0031@stthomas.edu