Figure 1. Entrance to the recycling center (picture taken by Enrique Diaz)
Project data

The Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) (Figure 1) has been serving the community of Arcata, CA for the last thirty years. Mark Loughmiller, director of operations, agreed to have the ACRC participate in a light retrofit program sponsored by the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA). A retrofit is the addition of new technology or the upgrading of older technology.[1] In this case the RCEA hired a contractor to change the existing light fixtures, at the 9th St. and 10th St. buildings of the ACRC. The program offered the ACRC rebate incentives to retrofit its light fixtures based on Kilowatt-hour offsets.

## RCEA's Retrofits

The purpose of the upgrade was to reduce electrical energy (kWh/year) consumption of the ACRC which will reduce the center's energy bill and CO2 emissions. The retrofit occurred on August 19th, 2007 in the following 9th. St building areas (Table 1): thrift store (Figure 2), reusables depot, break room, and oil recycling area. Two months after the retrofit the ACRC shut down its operations at the 10th St. building. The motive behind the closure of this building is that the ACRC opened a larger facility in Samoa, CA. Because of the closure of the 10th St. building, any retrofits information for the tenth St. building will not be included.

Figure 2. Here is an example of one of the new T8 light fixtures used in the thrift store as part of the retrofit (picture taken by Enrique Diaz

Table 1. Retrofits at 9th. St. Building[2]

Location Pre Retrofit Post Retrofit Installation Cost Annual Projected Savings
Break room 2 Incandescent 60 Watt Bulbs 2 Compact Fluorescent 13 Watt Lights $26.14$5.74
Oil Recycling Area 1 400 Watt Metal Halide Lamp 4' Industrial Fixtures $340.80$36.12
Reusables Depot 8 T12 (2 bulbs 60 watts each) 8' fixtures 8 T8 ( 2 bulbs 32 watts each) 4' fixtures $661.44$269.44
Thrift Store 8 T12 (2 bulbs 40 watts each) 4' fixtures 8 T8 (2 bulbs 32 watts each) 4' fixtures $472.71$166.93
Figure 3. Riley the cat was diagnosed with cancer; this caused a large spike in energy consumption because of the heat dish ACRC used to keep him warm (picture of a picture taken by Enrique Diaz)

A heat dish was kept on daily for approximately a year to keep the ACRC's cat warm. Riley (Figure 3), the ACRC's cat, was diagnosed with cancer one month before the retrofit took place. Caring for him caused the energy readings for the first year after the retrofit to be higher than the previous year (Table 2). The ACRC kept Riley warm and comfortable during his last year of life . The heat dish used to keep him warm consumes 1,000 watts of power.[3] The heat dish kept on for 10-14 hrs/day for one year equates to an energy increase of 3,650-5,110 kWh/year. Hence, the data from September 2007 to August 2008 will not be included on this page.
Table 2. Raw Data

### Thoughts From Mark Loughmiller on the Retrofit

Mark Loughmiller strongly believes that taking part in RCEA's retrofit program was "the right choice to help the environment and saves the company money in the long run". The ACRC would not have retrofitted its lighting with out the RCEA's help because there is only a high energy demand during the winter months. Mark Loughmiller was very satisfied with the work that was done for the ACRC. He recommends that "other companies take advantage of the grants that are available to lower energy consumption." [9]

## References

1. Retrofit. Accessed online November 17th, 2009.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrofit
2. RCEA. 2007. Customer Report: Arcata Community Recycling Center. Redwood Coast Energy Authority. February 13th, 2007.
3. Elite Deals. Presto Heat Dish Parabolic Electric Space Heater Plus Footlight. Accessed online December 10th, 2009. http://www.elitedeals.com/prhepaelsphe.html?productid=prhepaelsphe&amp;amp;amp;amp;channelid=FROOG
4. Mark Loughmiller. Personal Communication. December 10th, 2009.
5. Mark Loughmiller. Personal Communication. October 20th, 2009.
6. RCEA. 2007. Customer Report: Arcata Community Recycling Center. Redwood Coast Energy Authority. February 13th, 2007.
7. Anonymous. RCEA Energy Audit Reviews. Accessed online December 10th, 2009. https://www.appropedia.org/Category:RCEA_energy_audit_reviews
8. Tri-State. Simple Payback. Accessed online December 11th, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20080820210019/http://tristate.apogee.net/res/refpay.asp
9. Mark Loughmiller. Personal Communication. October 20th, 2009.