Energy efficient lighting systems (light tubes) revitalize old Wisconsin factory

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=211839

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Energy efficient lighting systems revitalize old Wisconsin factory

Orion will get about $854,500 in tax credits from the state

By The Associated Press

MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) -- What once was a mammoth distribution center of Mirro kitchen products now is a factory producing energy efficient lighting systems -- with nearly four times the employees and more hiring planned.

After agreeing to add 170 jobs over three years, Orion Energy Systems will get $854,500 in tax credits from the state as a community development zone, Gov. Jim Doyle has announced.

It's a boost for a company that has grown since the old Mirro works stopped operations several years ago.

Orion got a state jobs credit package of $350,000 in 2004 and now employs 131 manufacturing employees and 101 in sales, project management and corporate services.

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[BrklynLiberal]

1. hmmm So does that mean that conservation won't actually kill the economy?????

[kestrel91316]

2. Shhhh. Nobody's supposed to notice that part.

Nad you can count on the MSM to keep repeating the meme anyway......

[eppur_se_muova]

3. So ... their energy-efficient lighting system is a series of tubes? nt

[Kolesar]

6. Would it please a grumpy oil-state politician with obvious symptoms of SAD*?

*Seasonally affective disorder.

[madokie]

4. Whats the technology used?

[Kolesar]

5. How does one assess the heat loss of one of these tubes?

I expect that they are more efficient at getting light into the building than using a window because the tubes are up on the roof (above the trees and not restricted to one direction).

They might have a heat loss like a window of a diameter of eight inches, which would not be a lot of heat loss compared to even the small windows in my house that are twenty inches across. I suspect that there is more to these heat calculations, though. They are up near the ceiling, after all.