LED Replacement Project Reduces Waste

As part of the ongoing Freedom to be Green program, Sinai Hospital has replaced nearly all fluorescent lights in non-clinical areas with super energy-efficient LED lamps.

The LED Replacement project makes sense both financially and environmentally.

For example, the new LEDs have three or four times the life of regular bulbs, which reduces waste. They work seven to ten years instead of the current seven months to one year. The bulbs also use 50 percent less electricity. In addition, the more these lights are used, the fewer florescent tubes- which must be disposed of in landfills- are needed.

"Budget-wise, the savings for LifeBridge Health will be substantial as the new LED bulbs are phased in. We were able to cut $110,000 from Sinai’s energy budget for the next fiscal year." says Lewis Poe, director of Plant Operations at LifeBridge Health.

Baltimore Gas and Electric will be giving LifeBridge Health rebates that will amount to about half of what our projected costs will be. In dollars and cents, that’s a savings of more than $300,000.

But Sinai and LifeBridge Health leaders know that one man's trash is another man's treasure. On June 22, Sinai donated approximately 4,000 of the outgoing fluorescent lamps and 2,000 ballasts to The Loading Dock, a Baltimore-based non-profit organization. This was the hospital’s first donation to the local charity. Most of the remaining lamps were redistributed internally to other LifeBridge Health properties for reuse.