Eastern Washington University Finds NexLight Controls Simple To

Eastern Washington University Finds NexLight
Controls Simple To Use And Extremely Reliable
Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university located in Cheney, Wash.
Situated just 17 miles southwest of Spokane the university offers a comprehensive
liberal arts curriculum to more than 12,000 undergraduate students.
Craig Opsal is the electrical shop supervisor and is responsible for taking care of the
university campus. He maintains electrical,
all the lighting and high voltage, elevators,
fire alarms, maintenance, construction and
service calls. For 10 years he has monitored
and maintained the activity in nearly 60
buildings – covering approximately three
million square feet of space.
“Overall, it’s a very easy system to
do retrofits with and remodel with
using the 2-wire system.”
As the university began to grow and more
academic programs were offered to students, several buildings came online and
Opsal noticed that the university had
three different lighting control systems.
Like many other universities today, EWU is
committed to ensuring their facilities are
being updated to meet university green
initiatives, save energy, provide greater
occupant control and comfort and meet
the latest energy codes.
Planning for future growth was necessary
and choosing a solution that was simple
and reliable, yet afforded flexibility, was of
paramount importance. However, being
a public university, the state requires that
vendors are chosen, based on the lowest
bids.
“With this process, you often end up with a
menagerie of different solutions and have
no way to consolidate,” Opsal said of his
challenge.
forming up to speed. These systems often
required maintenance and repair. Each service call increases the real cost of ownership.
“As panels failed, we retooled with
NexLight equipment,” Opsal said.
“You end up with multiple vendors. It has
become a major hurdle – to be able to go
to one specific provider manufacturer and
basically get that service.”
Opsal began retrofitting existing buildings
in 2008. Some of the original equipment
was 20 years olds. “We had three different control technologies on campus that
we could compare,” Opsal explained. “We
had many issues with two of them and they
were outdated. Based on actual results, we
felt that NexLight (the third of the existing
systems) could probably fit our needs better than the other two for ease of programming and future expansion.”
Opsal constantly had to call for customer
service support because the two other
original control systems were not per-
NexLight control panels are designed to fit exact
space and load requirements.
“One of the biggest things for us is the integrity of the company and
that they stand behind us to make sure that we are taken care of.”
“Overall, it’s a very easy system to do retrofits with and remodel with using the 2-wire
system.”
halide lamps are used outdoors for security and parking lot areas on the 300-acre
park-like campus.
Thus far, four multi-level buildings have
been totally retrofitted. Panels have been
installed in Hargreaves Hall, the Computing
and Engineering Building, URC and the
153,000 sq. ft. John F. Kennedy Library.
Now code compliant with the latest
ASHRAE 90.1 standards, these updates
have also increased energy savings. The
University currently pays five cents per
kWh and the addition of lighting controls
has saved at least 15-20 percent. Perhaps
the more significant savings has come with
the reduced cost of ownership. The need
for any maintenance or repair of these systems has been virtually eliminated, providing significant savings overall.
ming is critical, especially when schedules
change often.
EWU is now using the NexLight Web Server,
which provides the potential to connect,
monitor and control all of the campus lighting connected to NexLight systems from a
central location like a laptop computer or
tablet device.
“The system is easy to use,” Opsal said.
“You can just go in and make changes to
the schedule at a moment’s notice. That’s
a bonus to us. We can easily adjust schedules for a buildings open and close.”
Simplicity, effortless scalability and
extreme reliability were the main reasons
that NexLight was chosen for the state’s
fastest-growing public institution.
Ideal in retrofits, NexLight can often save time and
money for the customer using existing enclosures
like above and ship the customer a prewired subpanel with all needed equipment included.
Built in 1940, Hargreaves Hall served as the
original campus library until JFK Library
was constructed in 1968. Hargreaves Hall
is now an academic building with classrooms on four levels.
The Computing and Engineering Building
opened in the fall of 2005 and is a fourstory, concrete-and-steel framed facility, anchored by a multi-story atrium. The
building features a variety of state-of-theart classrooms and fully equipped 21st century laboratories.
Another building that has been retrofitted
with lighting controls is URC the University
Recreation Center, which opened in 2008.
It include a fitness facility, indoor running
track, gymnasium, ice rink and climbing
wall and contains a restaurant with a stateof-the-art display cooking open air kitchen.
“The NexLight control systems have been
a big success for Eastern Washington
University in the buildings that we have
installed them in,” Opsal said. “Because of
this we have been able to reduce energy
costs in those areas. They have given us
many control options without all of the
headaches that other programmable systems bring.”
The NexLight Lighting Control System connects all relay panels, switches and sensors
via Panasonic’s low-voltage “Full-2Way”
communications bus with its unique topology free and polarity neutral design. This
provides the contractor, facility manager or
end user with the flexibility to easily readdress switches and loads without the need
to rewire or, relocate.
More buildings are planned for updates
and will be retrofitted with NexLight’s
lighting control system. Keeping up with
the latest in green technology, EWU also
plans to convert classrooms to LED fixtures.
Patterson Hall, an academic building that
was named after University President Don
Patterson (1954-67), and a residential hall,
are in fact now in the final stages. Senior
Hall, one of the University’s oldest buildings and on the National Register for
Historical Places, is also slated to be retrofitted with new controls.
“One of the biggest things for us is the
integrity of the company and that they
stand behind us to make sure that we are
taken care of. They do a great job making
sure we have what we need and with follow-up to see if we have any programming
issues. We have never had to call.”
“We really appreciate the ease in
which we can add a switch, sensor
or additional remote relay”
All of these buildings have been equipped
with the NexLight 2-Wire networked control system. In addition to the indoor
spaces, outdoor lighting was also included
in the project. These outdoor area and path
lights are controlled with a combination of
time clock scheduling and photocell override to provide safety and convenience
depending on activity in and around the
buildings. A combination of LED and metal
The next project for NexLight on campus is the all
new Patterson Hall academic building.
And that’s one less headache for Opsal.
Opsal (right) and a senior facilities department member show the internal workings of a lighting panel
“We really appreciate the ease in which
we can add a switch, sensor or additional
remote relay for added lighting control and
simply tie them in with the two-wire bus,”
Opsal explained. “The system is also more
user-friendly than the others we used as far
as programming.” And ease of program-
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Extreme Reliability
Lighting Control Systems
Phone 218-828-3700
Email sales@nexlight.com
Onlinewww.NexLight.com