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Fellowship Baptist Church

The Fellowship Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC was seeking lighting options that would ensure savings in energy and maintenance costs, in addition to improving the light output throughout its facility. The church reached out to GreenTech Solutions Group for a turnkey solution that would meet their requirements while being sensitive to their budget.

The proposed options presented to the Fellowship Baptist Church included upgrading the sanctuary, office, educational building, and fellowship hall with energy-efficient LED lighting. GreenTech was able to secure and maximize available utility incentives that will generate a quick payback for the church. After the LED upgrade, the church now enjoys an impressive 83% reduction in annual energy usage. A summary of benefits includes the following:

  • 83% reduction in annual lighting energy usage
  • 70,756 kWh reduction in annual lighting energy use
  • 100% reduction in lighting maintenance costs
  • 86% reduction in overall annual operational costs
  • 2.2 year payback period
  • $15,116 savings through utility incentives

The outdated fluorescent lighting throughout the church was inefficient. Noticeable failures were becoming difficult and time-consuming to service, especially the lamps mounted high in the sanctuary. GreenTech carefully took into consideration the various needs of Fellowship Baptist Church and was able to deliver adequate and flexible illumination, light levels, and color uniformity throughout the upgrade.

The legacy T12 fluorescent tubes in the sanctuary were removed and replaced with new LED panel fixtures and LED PAR30 flood lights for various downlight applications. In other areas, LED tubes were utilized to replace the outdated fluorescent lamps for a simple and cost-effective solution.

GreenTech secured more than 50% of the project cost in energy rebates through the Duke Progress Energy Efficiency for Business program and provided all the rebate application filing services for the church. This generous rebate ultimately reduced the payback period to 2.2 years. Additionally, due to the long-life of LED fixtures, the maintenance costs have been drastically reduced, bringing an 86% reduction in annual operational costs for Fellowship Baptist Church.

The LED lighting solution created a perfect marriage of purpose and savings that combined to create the appropriate atmosphere while helping the church’s bottom line. The savings will allow the church to continue its mission of outreach and stewardship to those in need.

“Working with religious organizations has been very rewarding for us, and working with Fellowship Baptist Church was no exception. Knowing that budget restraints can be a hurdle, we worked hard to provide the church the highest level of service, leveraging utility rebate incentives to accomplish the project, and saving them capital funds that might be needed for other operations,” stated Glenn Edmonds, CEO/President of GreenTech Solutions Group.

Glad Tidings Church

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Glad Tidings Church, located in Morehead City, NC, looked to GreenTech Solutions Group to upgrade the lighting in the church’s sanctuary. The sanctuary is used eight hours weekly for services, plus it is also used for weddings, funerals, plays, and rehearsals. Since the room is heavily utilized by the congregation, the upgrade resulted in a 92% reduction in lighting energy annually.

The lighting upgrade involved replacing all current halogen and incandescent lights with new energy efficient LED lighting fixtures throughout the sanctuary. Not only with the church experience 92% in lighting energy savings, but the longevity of the LED technology will virtually eliminate the need to service the lights. An immediate incentive of $1,100 helped finance the project.

  • 92% reduction in annual lighting energy
  • 17,381 kWh annual savings
  • 92% reduction in CO2 emissions
  • 100% reduction in maintenance

Due to the lighting retrofit, the church will now see a 17,381 kWh in annual savings and a 92% reduction in CO2 emissions. That is the equivalent of 28.3 barrels of oil consumed.

The Glad Tidings Church will continue to save substantially on its lighting energy. It will experience a savings of $41,837 over the next 20 years, proving no energy upgrade is too small to save money.

Upper Room Church of God in Christ

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The Upper Room Church of God in Christ, located in Raleigh, NC contacted Duke Progress for assistance on rebates for lighting in various rooms within the facility, especially the church’s sanctuary. Duke Progress then turned to various Trade Allies to provide an assessment of the facility and recommendations for energy efficient light upgrades. GreenTech was selected as the vendor of choice to provide the best solution that combined a strong return on investment and a quick payback.

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The sanctuary was refitted with T8 LED tubes to enhance the stage lighting as well as in the seating areas, virtually eliminating the need for maintenance for many years to come. The light levels were increased to achieve even, consistent lighting levels throughout a space with various elevations.
A summary of benefits was the following:

  • 69% reduction in annual lighting energy usage
  • $23,450 savings through energy incentives
  • 1.6 year payback period
  • 129,524 kWh reduction in annual lighting energy use
  • $19,428 savings in annual operational costs

“GreenTech was truly a one-stop shop for all our lighting needs; from the assessment to the financing, to the installation and the rebates.” Upper Room Church Executive Administrator Evangelist Wanda Thomas

The remainder of the church- including a multipurpose room, fellowship room, offices, and hallways- were all up-fitted with energy efficient LED panel lights. Each of the panels are equipped with automatic dimming switches for additional energy savings. These LED panel lights provide a beautiful, glare-free output that offers flexibility throughout each space with multiple levels of dimming for individual space preferences.

The Upper Room Church will now enjoy a 69% reduction in energy consumption and maintenance costs. The annual operating savings is estimated at over $20,000/year with additional savings when combined with the dimming feature. The church engaged in a lease opportunity to fund the lighting retrofit, allowing the Upper Room Church to spread out its initial investment over time and use the money it saves on utility costs to pay for the new lighting and other efficiency projects. By leasing, the church enjoyed immediate savings by minimizing its initial capital investment while experiencing a monthly cash flow positive scenario!

“We were unsure just how to tackle our lighting issues, so to have the people at GreenTech to take us through every step of the process was a blessing.” Evangelist Wanda Thomas

GreenTech also assisted in securing more than $22,000 in energy rebates through the Duke Progress Energy Efficiency for Business Program on behalf of the church to reduce the total cost financed, ultimately reducing the payback period to 1.6 years.

Thanks to the output of the T8 LEDs and the LED panel lights, each area of the church is able to be illuminated at higher levels than it was with the previous, dated lighting system. Pastor Patrick Lane Wooden, Sr., Sister Wanda Thomas and the church elders, and the congregants are thrilled with the new energy efficient lighting throughout their church. Thomas added, “We were unsure just how to tackle our lighting issues, so to have the people at GreenTech to take us through every step of the process was a blessing.” The Upper Room staff were such a pleasure to work with, and we are thankful they selected GreenTech to deliver a lighting upgrade for their place of worship.

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Church of the Servant

Church of the Servant looked to GreenTech Solutions Group to provide a solution to enhance the lighting in its sanctuary that was comprised of a mixed bag of various halogen lamps with varying wattages. The lighting was very inconsistent and costly to replace because of the high distance from the floor. The pendants used 300w halogen lamps to provide enough light in the area, which created a considerable energy cost. The offices and nursery carried legacy T12 lamps that were difficult to source due to limited inventories of the dated technology.

GreenTech sourced LED products that carried enough lumen output to that of the high wattage halogens in the sanctuary while still maintaining the same warm color temperatures. The lighting design was configured to optimize the LEDs to create a spectacular layout with balanced lighting with minimal glare. For the offices and nursery, the T12s were replaced with energy-efficient T8 LED tubes, resulting in reduced energy consumption and improved environmental surroundings.

GreenTech helped the church take advantage of generous energy rebates and incentive to help finance the lighting upgrade. The Church of the Servant experienced an impressive 79% reduction in annual lighting energy usage. In addition, GreenTech donated all the labor involved in the lighting upgrade. The labor donation combined with the energy incentives gave the church a quick 1.9 year payback on its lighting investment.

The Church of the Servant was thrilled with the updated look and feel the lighting upgrade had on its house of worship. Church leaders were also pleased with the reduced energy consumption and was felt it was important that the church be good environmental stewards of the earth. They were also grateful to the people at GreenTech for the their guidance and donation to help facilitate the cost-saving upgrade.