Beaver Dam Family Center Advances In Pro LED Light Contest

(Beaver Dam) A local ice skating rink has made it to the semifinal round of a contest that has a grand prize of a $50-thousand-dollar LED lighting system. The Beaver Dam Family Center advanced to the top ten after competing against 32 other communities for the American Hockey League’s Light Like The Pros promotion. The winning rink will wind up with the same professional LED sports lighting system as the Miami Dolphins Hard Rock Stadium and the Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park, among others.

The contest page states that “After the refrigeration system, lighting is typically an ice rink’s largest electricity consumer. Metal-halide lighting systems, which are currently installed at most skating rinks, generate heat that must then be removed from the building by the ice refrigeration system. In contrast, energy-efficient LED lights use less energy, generate less heat and help reduce the load on the rink’s ice plant refrigeration system. An ice rink that makes the switch to LED can typically expect a 70 percent reduction in energy use, as well as a near-elimination of maintenance costs.”

The top ten facilities are now competing through March 2. The top four will square-off between March 5-and-March 18 with the winner announced on March 20. Voting at www.lightlikethepros.com can be done once per day, per email address. The vote tally on the website was reset back to zero for all ten communities though the contest rules state that the votes from the first round will still be counted. Beaver Dam came in second place in round one ahead of Stockton, California and behind front-runner Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The winning rink will be selected based 75-percent on the vote totals and 25-percent on an essay.

The Family Center opened in 1984 and is home to the Beaver Dam Hockey League and the Swan City Ice Skaters. The original lighting was replaced ten years ago with a low-interest loan from Alliant Energy that officials say paid for itself with energy savings. A link to the contest can be found at:

http://www.lightlikethepros.com/vote/?type=vote

https://theahl.com/light-like-the-pros-semifinalists-revealed