Background

New Energy Codes Challenge National Retailer Pacific Sunwear, a leading mall-based specialty retailer with more than 1,000 locations nation- wide focuses on everyday casual apparel accessories and footwear designed to meet the lifestyle needs of active teens and young adults. The branding efforts of the retail store loca- tions include extensive track lighting. PacSun’s displays need to be easily moved, replaced, and redesigned and the flexibility offered by track lighting accommodates these changes. PacSun converted to high-efficiency Ceramic Metal Halide track fixtures in their stores and were frustrated that even though they upgraded to a very energy efficient solution, they still were not able to comply with current energy codes.

Challenge

Wattage Limits on Track Lighting Because new energy codes throughout the United States place a mandatory limit on lighting density, track lighting now has an additional burden: an automatic VA (wattage) calculation per linear foot of track. ASHRAE 90.1, the basis for many municipal energy codes around the country, assigns 30-watts per linear foot of track. California’s Title 24 code assigns 45-watts and other more stringent codes may assign up to 70-watts per linear foot. Lighting Design Exceeds Code Using California Title 24’s 45-watt per linear foot calculation, the initial design wattage for the PacSun store’s track lighting calculated to over 35,000 watts, an enormous exaggeration above the actual planned wattage.In fact, the PacSun stores were designed using high-efficiency Ceramic Metal Halide track fixtures and each store’s track lighting was projected to consume only 7000 watts in total and only 8.75 watts per linear foot of track. Regulations Force Redesign Concerns Because of the energy codes, PacSun was faced with re-thinking their store design for some states and eliminating a large portion of their track lighting – particularly in California – detracting from their successful lighting plan, while increasing design costs and installed costs. One manufacturer proposed installing a current limiter at the electrical feed of each run of track. This solution only reduced the load to about 18,000 watts, required significant redesign, added additional installation costs, created serious maintenance concerns and forced difficult choices of what to illuminate.