Site of an Original Post-Civil-War Regional Medical Center for Veterans Converts to All New Energy-Saving Outdoor Lighting


Togus, Maine - In 1865 as the Civil War neared its end, and in an era of candle- and gaslights, President Lincoln signed an act of Congress creating a series of regional hospitals and "work camps" throughout the eastern U.S. for disabled veterans specifically. One of the first of those regional centers was originally a summer resort near the city of Augusta, Maine, known as Togus Springs. Togus, a shortening of a Native American name for "mineral water," was purchased from the resort owners in 1866 by the federal government.

The first veteran was admitted in November that year and in 1868 a new building program eventually housed 3000 vets. Like a military camp, disabled Civil War vets lived in barracks and wore modified Army uniforms. By 1870, a 100-bed hospital was completed. In 1890, the Togus property became accessible by a narrow-gauge railroad from the nearby town of Randolph, and an electric trolley line from Augusta. Togus became a Veteran's Administration facility in July, 1930, following the Consolidation Act, which joined all federal government agencies providing benefits to veterans and their dependents. Most Togus buildings today are post-1940s and, by the end of WWII, it had become a full-service medical center. (In 1989, the V.A. became a cabinet-level agency and was renamed the Department of Veterans Affairs.)

In 2012, Togus Veterans Center, its engineering department and the prominent nationwide electrical and lighting consulting organization and distributorship Graybar Electric, from their Portland, Maine location, agreed it was high time for some additional "building." This would greatly improve facility roadway access at night; substantially cut electricity and lighting-maintenance costs for decades to come; and improve the quality of the facility's outdoor pole-mounted road and area lighting, as well as selected applications for retrofit energy-saving outdoor and indoor wall lighting.

Graybar Electric turned to one of its premier national lighting-product lines, Magnaray® International of Bradenton, Florida; a second-generation family-owned business specializing in energy-conserving lighting exclusively, run by military veteran, lighting designer and applications authority Larry Leetzow. All ninety-seven outdoor pole-mounted high-pressure sodium luminaires illuminating access roadways, parking lots and walkways around buildings, were replaced with vastly more energy-efficient, energy-conserving, longer lasting twin-tube single- and dual-head fluorescent luminaires.

Each Magnaray® fluorescent unit consumes a mere 106 total watts per lighthead, contrasted with Togus Veterans Center former HPS pole-mounted lightheads that consumed 250 watts per single lighthead. Aside from high-watt consumption, HPS light most often exhibits an off-color yellowish cast, masking accurate color rendition of people, clothing, automobiles; even buildings and their landscaping themselves. Togus Veterans Center had experienced this. Graybar explained how light from Magnaray® fluorescent units is high-performance "pure" white, with high color rendition and no masking of accurate colors. It more closely mimics natural daylight.

Another characteristic of HPS light, which admittedly Togus Veterans Center had put up with for many years, is that it requires several minutes to reach full illumination when either switched on, igniting at darkness, or by timed sensor. Concurrently, high-pressure sodium light sources, low-pressure sodium and metal halide-sourced models, all generically referred to throughout the industry as high-intensity discharge lighting (containing an internal but visible arc discharge flame that creates the light) is subject to frequent momentary "tripping" and complete loss of power, when a fault in the electrical circuit of even a split-second drop in line voltage for any reason, causes any high-intensity discharge lamps to temporarily extinguish.

The only "good news" in such situation is that once that momentary trip, or drop in line voltage has past, HID lamps will most likely automatically reignite over several minutes; although at some depreciation to ballast life each time, notably lessening overall ballast life over a given period of months. This ultimately results in more frequent, time-consuming, costly replacements of individual unit light ballasts than their indicated rated lifespan would lead a user to believe.

With Magnaray® famous brand-name fluorescent lights, there is no tripping from drops in circuitry or line voltage, as long as a facility does not experience a total power loss. The light is also instant-on and evenly distributed, with no visible "hotspots". Standard HPS rated lamplife is generally between 20,000 and 25,000 hours before a unit ceases to provide sufficient illumination, or defaults into a mode of constant tripping without reaching full illumination.

Magnaray® illumination generally lasts 48,000 hours or more before needing replacement. By frequent test, these units habitually show that the evenness of light, and high performance despite low watts consumed, results in noticeably greater visual acuity ("see-ability") for driver and pedestrian safety along the Togus grounds.

The light also stays that way, with 90% lumen output still evidenced at 90% of rated lamp life - far greater than any high-intensity discharge lamp, LED or other light sources. The luminaires themselves have a twenty-five-year useful operating life, or longer with occasional inspections and cleaning. Lamps frequently last a decade or more before replacement is needed. Magnaray® brand-name fluorescent ballasts are rated for 100,000 hours.

Besides the new pole-mounted outdoor lights, the Veterans Center also specified through Graybar twenty twin-tube single lighthead 106 watt unit, outdoor wall-mounted luminaires, to replace an equal number of HPS units that consumed 480 watts each, with ballast electrical consumption counted in. Newly retrofitted companion Magnaray® combination building walkway and area lights consume only 106 total watts each, have the same high lamplife, ballast life and outdoor durability as the new pole-mounted models.

Lastly, Togus further specified nine Magnaray® compact fluorescent interior "wall-pack" units to replace an equal number of doorway lights for the exact same reasons as the pole-mounted, walkway and main-door overhead outdoor lights. Namely, significant energy savings, longer operating life, negligible maintenance, high-acuity instant-on no-trip white light, lower purchase and installation costs than HPS. These nine smaller-scale Magnaray compact-fluorescent interior ambient lights consuming only 20 watts each, retrofitted to the same electrical connections as 100-watt fixtures ground mounted floods.

EDITOR, FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Bill or Nancy Schoenfisch

SCHOENFISCH INCORPORATED

336 County Highway 24

Richfield Springs, New York 13439

(315) 858-8393/Phone

(315) 858-9635/Fax

primages@aol.com/E-mail

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