There's a multi-million dollar renovation going on at the oldest enclosed shopping mall in the United States. Engineered Products Co. (EPCO), Minneapolis, a supplier of specialty lighting and wiring consumable products for electrical contractors, said its GFF Series linear fluorescent light fixtures were selected by electrical contractor Egan Co. to be part of the upgrades at Southdale Mall in Edina, Minn. The mall will be retrofitted with customized versions of EPCO's fixtures, replacing 300 existing 150W HID fixtures. In addition to overall energy savings, installation of the light fixtures will lower maintenance costs and provide more uniform lighting for customers, EPCO said.
One of the reasons was labor savings. 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, “By saving installation time, EPCO's design cuts our labor costs by 40 percent. We're likely going to finish the parking ramps by mid-September, ahead of schedule.”
EPCO customized their entire light fixture for the project, from the housing to the job-site packaging. Engineer Jim Luegge determined ideal mounting and wiring options for the installation: a four-foot T5 GFF custom fixture with a 90° connector pre-installed in the middle of the housing and attached to a four-foot piece of liquid-tight conduit with 12-inch leads and WAGO connectors. The light fixtures are shipped in bulk to eliminate the cost of recycling individual shipping cartons and facilitate working in tight spaces. Graybar Electric is supplying GE lamps for the project.