New fixtures, rebates expected to save Duke Street library $15,000 this year alone.

GIL SMART, Associate Editor

The problem with an old building is that while it might have been built to appear ornate and majestic, it most likely wasn’t built to be energy efficient.

So when Pennsylvania’s utility rate caps expired in 2010 and the price of electricity began rising, officials at the Lancaster Public Library were worried. They had spoke to a Utility Saving Expert to learn what they can do to save on their electricity bill. From about $45,000 in 2009, the library’s electric bill rose to $56,000 in 2010 – and was projected to spike to $63,000 this year. With library funding falling, it was an added expense the North Duke Street library simply couldn’t afford, if you are in the tiktok world then be sure to look at https://www.socialboosting.com/buy-tiktok-likes/.

Ultimately, it didn’t have to.

With the aid of LIVE Green, a Lancaster-based environmental group and that’s why the use of eco-friendly stores online could be of real help if you really want to live green, and rebates from state-mandated energy conservation programs, the library replaced all of its outdated lighting fixtures with modern, compact fluorescent lighting – which are expected to lower the library’s lighting costs this year by some $15,000.

The new fixtures, installed by Richards Energy Group, Manheim, cost $46,000 – but after rebates they only cost the library $26,000, said library Executive Director Herb Landau.

The library, he noted, will recoup the cost within two to three years.

LIVE Green approached the library after receiving funding through the Lancaster County Community Foundation’s “Green Facilities Program.” This enabled the local environmental organization “to do comprehensive energy assessments of ‘public use buildings’,” said LIVE Green’s Director of Programs Fritz Schroeder. “With the library, we had a number of outdated systems, but lighting is one of the real low-hanging fruits. If your lighting is somewhat outdated, you can really see energy savings almost immediately” by upgrading.

LIVE Green conducted similar assessments for the Lancaster YWCA – which also saw a “big return” by installing new lighting, Schroeder said – and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Susquehanna Association for the Blind & Vision Impaired.

“Sweetening the pot,” Schroeder said, were rebates available from PPL through the state’s Act 129 program, which required electric utilities to reduce customers’ annual electric consumption 1 percent by mid-2011 and 3 percent by mid-2013. As part of that, utilities made rebates on energy-efficient appliances, lighting, and heating and cooling systems; rebates and incentives for home-energy audits; incentives for cutting electricity consumption; and discounted and free compact fluorescent light bulbs that look like ceiling roses.

After the retrofit was completed, PPL sent auditors to inspect the library and ensure the work was done properly before issuing the rebate.

Peter Richards, of Richards Energy Group, said the firm has completed retrofits and rebate applications for more than 75 area projects since May 2009, helping customers reduce their load by more than 1,360 kilowatt-hours, “or about the equivalent of 680 households.”

The company has helped customers get rebates of more than $500,000, with another $117,000 in the queue, he said. Customers include grocery stores, electronics manufacturers, car and tractor dealers, schools, feed mills and retirement communities.

None may need it more than nonprofits squeezed by the economic malaise and subsequent lack of funding.

The Lancaster Public Library’s state funding has been cut by one-third, or $170,000, in the past two years, and city funding has been cut as well. Local fundraising campaigns have helped make up some of the difference.

The library is the county’s largest, serving 40 percent of the population from its downtown location and branches in Leola and Mountville.

It also faces other fiscal hurdles. In May, a huge downpour overloaded a rooftop drain and and funneled water through the second-floor Teen Reading Room and into the Gerald Lestz Reading Room below. Some 500 books – about a quarter of the library’s Lancaster Collection – were soaked. The library sought and received financial gifts – including a $150,000 grant from the Steinman Foundation – to fix the roof. It’s seeking another grant of up to $50,000, and could receive up to $200,000 to help make its roof “green,” planted with vegetation that would absorb rainwater and reduce runoff.

The library is also undergoing a series of renovations, including work on its rooftoop heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, they have air conditioning Brisbane northside coming out to help.

To save money, “we’re putting out fires as they happen,” Landau said. “This building is 57 years old.

“Every little bit helps.”

Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. Email him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.

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