Museum Goes Green with LED Lighting

2015-04-22

Re-launched Today’s Game Exhibit Features High-Tech Illumination

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – As the planet celebrates the 45th edition of Earth Day, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is reducing its energy footprint in Cooperstown while re-launching one of the Museum’s most popular exhibits.

The Museum’s Today’s Game exhibit has been relocated for 2015 to space adjacent to the Grandstand Theater on the Museum’s second floor. Today’s Game features lockers from all 30 big league teams with artifacts from some of the game’s biggest stars.

While re-installing the exhibit, the Museum took another step in reducing energy consumption as well as the damaging effects of light on precious artifacts by equipping Today’s Game with LED lighting, including 30 LED Light Attic Panels. The lights were purchased from BandNY, Inc., in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Over the next 12 months, the Museum will install LEDs in a variety of lighting projects in the gallery areas, staircases and landings, Museum Store and Bookstore.

New York State Energy and Research Development Authority will provide incentives to cover approximately 20 percent of the capital investment.

LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) produce illumination without traditional filaments found in light bulbs. The result is light with virtually no heat and no ultra-violet rays, saving wear-and-tear on the sensitive artifacts. Another byproduct will be a brighter Museum for visitors, as the number of foot-candles – a measurement of light’s quality – can be raised throughout the public spaces thanks to direct and ambient light.

LED lights use more than 50 percent less energy than conventional bulbs. For every watt of lighting energy saved, the Museum’s air conditioning load is reduced by a third of a watt.

The Today’s Game exhibit was relocated from the end of the Museum’s second-floor timeline to make room for a new exhibit opening this fall. Today’s Game currently features artifacts such as the cap the Yankees’ Derek Jeter wore at the 2014 All-Star Game; spikes worn by the Athletics’ Dallas Braden when he pitched a perfect game on May 9, 2010; and the spikes worn by the Red Sox’s Dave Roberts in the 2004 American League Championship Series.