PCC Plans to Save Millions in Energy Costs

Pasadena City College has contracted with LED lighting manufacturer Seesmart, Inc. for a lighting retrofit expect to vastly reduce the campus’ carbon footprint and generate over $1.5 million in savings and rebates the first year.

The $2.3 million retrofit will replace more than 34,000 fluorescent tube lights in campus buildings with LED lights.

“Pasadena City College is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in sustainability,” said Richard van Pelt, CFO and assistant president of Pasadena City College. “The move to replace all fluorescent lamps on campus with LEDs represents what we are about—global leadership in everything we do. We start saving money on the first day the LEDs are installed, so the payback is instantaneous.”

The retrofit is expected to create energy savings of $720,000 and 3.7 million kilowatt-hours per year, and the college’s carbon footprint will reduce by 5 million pounds per year.

Additionally, the college expects an $850,000 rebate from Pasadena Water Power for this energy-saving project.

In the course of Pasadena City College’s lighting retrofit, classrooms, offices, stairwells, parking structures, gymnasium, and mechanical rooms of 26 buildings will be converted from fluorescent to LED lighting.