Homestead High School’s Aquatic Center

Homestead High School’s Aquatics Center Improves Safety & Costs with Litetronics LED Solutions

Located in Mequon, WI, Homestead High School’s Aquatic Center not only serves its own 1,400 students, but hosts major swim competitions and a multitude of community events as well. Thanks to a recent lighting upgrade using LED High Bays and TLEDs from Litetronics, all those who use the school’s aquatics facility can now count on unparalleled visibility, durability, safety, and sustainability for generations to come. According to David Kautzman, head custodian and certified pool operator at Homestead High School, optimal lighting was key for both the pool facility and the whole school. “In addition to promoting a safe environment,” he said, “a high-quality and efficient lighting system can drive astronomical savings of tens of thousands of dollars each year” while significantly minimizing lighting maintenance costs and concerns.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Homestead High School’s pool is open from early morning until late at night seven days a week and hosts everything from swim sessions for the community to competitive swimming events including national and Olympic trials. “One of the challenges we faced was poor lighting across the entire pool,” Kautzman shared. “The large CFLs we were using didn’t put out enough nice, clean light, making it very dim and difficult to see what was going on in the pool area and also making it harder for us to clean.” Maintenance of the lighting was another problem. Because the facility was in near-constant use, cleaning and maintenance of the lighting system needed to be done off-hours and the main pool lights within the facility’s previous vapor-tight enclosures were difficult to access, replace, and properly dispose of.

THE SOLUTION

In 2016, Kautzman and his team decided to upgrade the pool’s lighting system with various LED lighting solutions from Litetronics. “We chose Litetronics LED High Bay fixtures because of their ease of installation, lightweight and waterproof design, and the fact that they give off a tremendous amount of light and last 5-7 times longer than the CFLs and fluorescents we were using,” Kautzman said. “Having durable and waterproof lighting fixtures is very important for our pool area because a lot of chemicals and humidity come off the pool, which can wear down a lot of fixtures very fast.” Kautzman said that the brightness of the new LEDs made an equally indelible mark on the pool area. Following their upgrade to the LED High Bays, “We went from just nine candlelight lumens on the pool deck to 70, a roughly seven-fold increase in the lighting in the installed area,” he said. Available in 125, 185, and 220 Watt models, Litetronics’ family of LED High Bay fixtures are powerful, easy-to-install, high-output luminaires that can quickly upgrade the lighting in a wide variety of high-ceiling settings to energy-saving, high-performing LED technology. Lightweight, durable, and long-lasting, the fixtures’ outstanding color rendering index (CRI) provides high-quality lighting that promotes enhanced visibility, while their IP 65 rating ensures their reliable, waterproof operation in such demanding environments as warehouses, industrial facilities, gymnasiums, and pool settings. Kautzman’s staff also replaced fluorescent tubes in a number of ancillary lighting fixtures near the facility’s gallery and entryways with Litetronics TLEDs for enhanced lighting quality, efficiency, and life. Since the upgrade at Homestead High School, pool users have been thrilled with the new lighting system and Kautzman couldn’t be happier with his product decision. “Installation of our new Litetronics LED High Bays made a huge difference at our pool,” Kautzman confirmed. “They’ve been a wonderful product to work with and our new lighting is, in a word, ‘spectacular.’”

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Project Summary