When executives at Southdale Mall in Edina, Minn., decided it was time for an upgrade at the fist enclosed shopping mall in the United States, it looked to lighting for energy-saving answers. Egan Co., a specialty contractor that offers mechanical, electrical, systems and curtain wall/glass construction and services, recommended replacing 300 existing 150W HID fixtures in the mall's three parking garages with GFF Series linear fluorescent light fixtures from Engineered Products Co. (EPCO), Minneapolis.
Part of a multimillion-dollar renovation, installation of the light fixtures lowered maintenance costs and provided more uniform lighting for customers. “We worked very closely with Egan Company, which is leading the tear-out and installation of the new lighting system, to make the installers’ job as easy as possible," said EPCO President Jack Schuster. "Each light fixture is pre-wired and lamped, so all the installer has to do is hang it and run power to it.”
According to Paul Hartman, Egan’s general foreman for the Southdale project, the customized fixture design cuts labor costs by 40%. EPCO Engineer Jim Luegge determined ideal mounting and wiring options for the installation: a 4-ft T5 GFF custom fixture with a 90° connector pre-installed in the middle of the housing attached to a 4-ft piece of liquid-tight conduit with 12-inch leads and WAGO connectors. The light fixtures were shipped in bulk to eliminate the cost of recycling individual shipping cartons and facilitate working in tight spaces.
