C Sharps Arms

The C Sharps Arms building is located in Big Timber, Montana, and is used to produce custom firearms. The building is divided into two sections, the workshop and the retail/office space. The workshop is the largest section, accounting for approximately 11,100ft². The building has high ceilings throughout both the workshop and retail spaces, while the offices are standard height with storage above. The basement is used as a packaging area and shooting range to test the company’s products.

Workshop lighting was the main concern for both the management team and the craftsmen. Lighting consisted of (101) 8-foot, two-lamp T12 fluorescent fixtures and (16) 4-foot, two-lamp T12 fixtures. Only 26 of the 8-foot fixtures and nine of the 4-foot fixtures were working or had bulbs. The goal of the management team was to increase lighting in the work areas, while leaving the unused areas dim. There is a second building that had (6) 8-foot fixtures, of which only three were working. The office and retail lighting was also out-of-date, but this was a secondary concern to the workshop. With this type of situation, it was recommended to do a complete replacement of the light fixtures. The table below shows the recommended replacement fixtures.

 

Current Fixture	Number of Fixtures	Current Wattage	Replacement Fixture	Replacement Wattage	Watts Saved
Exterior Wall Packs	5	150	LED Wall Packs	30	120
4ft Fluorescent T12	79	80	T8 18W LED Tube	36	44
8ft Fluorescent T12	39	257	LED High Bay Fixture	119	138
CFL Floods	9	26	18W LED Flood	18	8
Halogen MR16	4	50	7.5 Watt LED	7.5	42.5

 

Based on these upgrades, this project was eligible for $7,575 through a utility lighting rebate program.  The rebates dropped the net project cost to $4,407. Annual energy cost savings was $2,391, for a simple payback of less than two years.

 

C Sharps Arms	Annual Bill Savings	Est. Project Cost	Est. Rebate	Net Cost	KWh Savings	kW Savings	Simple Payback
LED Conversion	$2,391	$11,982	$7,575	$4,407	18,373	8.9	1.84 years