The Utica Community Schools are a large suburban public school district, north of Detroit, Michigan. The district recently started renovating some of their 28 elementary school gyms, including a dramatic overhaul of lighting. The district needed a flexible lighting system that could provide appropriate light levels for a variety of activities.

Mike Gold, of EAM Engineers in Troy, MI was given the challenge of designing lighting for the gyms that would achieve different light levels with one set of luminaires. For use as an auditorium, he needed 5-15 foot-candles. Lunchroom use required 30-40 foot-candles. Gym classes and basketball games needed 75-80 foot-candles.

Light was originally provided by 400W HPS high bay luminaires. Newer fluorescent technology with multi-level switching could achieve the levels Mike was seeking. He wanted luminaires with two levels of switching, plus a dimming circuit. He turned to Bob Halleck, of Pro-Tech Lighting, for help find someone who could produce a luminaire with more than 4 lamps.

Bob suggested Paramount because of their custom design and manufacturing. So Paramount created a 2x4 troffer that houses from five to eight 54W T5HO lamps. T5 fluorescent technology has the flexibility Mike needed plus energy savings, better color rendering than HPS and the convenience of instant starting.

Browning Elementary School gym in Sterling Heights was one of the first to be redone. Twenty troffers were installed in a new grid ceiling, so that the ceiling would offer more reflectance than the previous exposed structure. These luminaires were configured with 5 lamps each, and a battery pack for emergency lighting. New flooring was also installed and the walls were painted.

The Browning gym was finished in June 2002. Officials were impressed with the light level. It was beyond their expectations. In fact, with all the lamps switched on, it approached 100 foot-candles, out-performing the old HPS system.

Mike remarked "These T5 luminaires have us looking at fluorescent in a whole new light."