RedBird LED Cardinal™ Tube Lights Installed in Largest K-12 Public School Lighting Retrofit .

ATLANTA - May 30, 2013 - PRLog -- According to a new research study K-12 schools spend $6 billion annually in energy costs. Reducing these costs allows schools to focus their funding on needed education programs. This is just what Ware County School District did. The Ware County School system, located in Waycross Georgia, recently invested in the largest known K-12 grade public school lighting retrofit program. Encompassing ten individual schools, Pre-K through 12th grade, the Ware County System serves more than 5,000 students.

Their investment in LED lighting will save the school district more than $11 million dollars over the next nine years. They partnered with IP UtiliNET, a next generation technologies firm specializing in environmentally friendly solutions, to develop the lighting retrofit program. “Times have changed since the first light bulb was invented 200 years ago. Today, we are shifting to LED technology because it’s safer to use, reduces energy consumption costs, and the softer light from LEDs causes less eye strain than other lighting technologies,” said David Quinn, CEO and Managing Director of IP UtiliNET.

Ware County School District is upgrading more than 24,000 lighting fixtures to more energy efficient LED Tube lights, designed and manufactured by Atlanta based - RedBird LED. The school system conducted a six-month pilot program incorporating LED tube lighting in several conference rooms prior to reaching an agreement to install LED lights throughout the system.

The RedBird LED Cardinal™ Tube lights have an anticipated lifetime of 15 to 20 years. “The money we save with maintenance and reduced energy costs can be applied to continual improvement of the quality of education we provide to our students as well as benefit the taxpayers who support our system,’’ Dr. Joseph C. Barrow, Jr., Ware County School System Superintendent, said. The Cardinal™ LED lighting provide one of the highest lumens/dollar and lumens/watt of any LED lighting fixture. The Cardinal LED tubes are a direct mechanical fit into standard fixtures, operating on any voltage ranging from 110 to 277 VAC, and do not require the fluorescent ballast.

” RedBird LED is pleased that our Cardinal™ LED tube light has been selected for the major energy reduction project underway for the Ware County Schools,” said Jonathan Eppstein, President of RedBird LED. “Working closely with Etrenzik and IP-Utilinet, we were able to put together a system that offers state of the art performance and will save the district millions in their electricity bills over the next 10 years.”

Cardinal LED Linear products are UL listed as both a Luminair-Conversion-Retrofit-Product and as a Recognized Component Product ensuring that when installed as directed all UL compliance for the fixture is preserved. Installed efficacy (the ratio of light-output to power consumed when installed in real world fixtures) has been measured at >110 lumens/watt making them some of the most energy efficient LED lighting products available today.

Cardinal Linear Lights have been qualified by the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) making them eligible for many utility rebate programs in the US and Canada. The RedBird Cardinal LED Tube Light was awarded the 2012 Progress Report Selection by the Illuminating Engineering Society for, “Unique  and significant advancememnt in the art and science of lighting”. For more information please visit their website at http://www.redbirdled.com .

About Ware County School System

Ware County School District, a public school system located in Waycross, Georgia, contains 10 individual schools pre-K through 12th grade and a 5,079 student population. Dr. Joseph C. Barrow, Jr., Ware County School System Superintendent, established the eight step model for student improvement among other initiatives and manages an annual budget of $44 million. In 2009, Ware County School System was awarded $7.9 million in grant funding via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was recognized recently by Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle for the success of its Career Academy, also established in 2009. For information about the Ware County School System please visit: http://www.ware.k12.ga.us.