South King Fire & Rescue is taking several steps to save energy and taxpayer dollars.

The fire department has received a grant totaling more than $37,000 for energy-efficiency upgrades from Puget Sound Energy to provide about 285,000 kilowatt hours of savings per year, translating to an estimated savings of nearly $23,000 annually.

The grant will pay for Green Energy Management to retrofit all the fluorescent lighting fixtures in seven of the department’s facilities.

The contractor will replace older oil filled ballast and bulb fixtures with more efficient electronic ballasts and energy efficient bulbs. South King Fire & Rescue will spend only $8,750 to upgrade the seven facilities on top of the grant.

“The payback on the project should be felt within the first year. It will save the department a considerable amount of money relating to energy expenses, while updating our lighting systems with a more energy-efficient product,” said Deputy Chief Mike Knorr. “It’s a great savings for our department and our citizens.”

South King Fire & Rescue is pleased to take advantage of ighting retrofits, which are one of PSE’s most popular programs for commercial buildings, due primarily to the cost-effectiveness of combining utility grants with quick return from lower energy bills.

“PSE grant incentives typically pay for about 50 percent of a project's cost at facilities like those of South King Fire & Rescue,” said Bill Younger, manager of Business Energy Management for PSE. “Combined with lower bills, the upgrades in public facilities pay for themselves very quickly.”

The lighting upgrade is one of several projects the fire department is working on to reduce energy consumption and save tax dollars.

Fire department administration is encouraging all employees to make a concerted effort to reduce energy consumption by turning lights off when leaving a room, keeping thermostats in apparatus bays set at minimum temperatures and installing new sensor activated light switches.

Additional efforts by the Information Technology division should reduce power consumption in the department’s computer server room and associated cooling systems.