At the Hallie Ford Museum of Art an ambitious plan to upgrade lighting is paying off in energy savings and an enhanced visitor experience.

The museum replaced their existing 483 halogen lamps, which generated heat harmful to delicate artwork, with an equal number of LED lamps in its five exhibition galleries. The new LEDs have decreased the facility’s energy use and lowered the heat buildup in the galleries, producing additional energy savings through reduced demand on the HVAC system.

The museum received $5,700 in cash incentives from Energy Trust and expects to reduce the lighting costs by 75 percent for estimated savings of more than 55,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, or about $4,500 in annual energy cost savings.