Medalta Potteries Lighting Upgrade – City of Medicine Hat

Overview

As part of the Action Centre’s Community Energy Conservation Program, the City of Medicine Hat completed an LED lighting retrofit throughout Medalta Potteries. 

The site welcomes thousands of visitors annually for tours, art exhibitions, and cultural programming. With aging T5 fluorescent and halogen lighting throughout the facility, the City recognized an opportunity to improve energy efficiency while enhancing the visitor experience. With support from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Community Energy Conservation Program, the City replaced 412 outdated fixtures with high-efficiency LED T5s and potlights, significantly reducing electricity consumption and operating costs.

Approach

The City of Medicine Hat secured $29,697 in MCCAC funding to help cover the $66,393 project cost. Working with their contractor, the City undertook a comprehensive lighting retrofit at Medalta Potteries, replacing 412 T5 fluorescent and halogen fixtures with modern LED T5s and potlights. The new LED lighting provides improved illumination for galleries, exhibit spaces, and visitor areas while consuming a fraction of the electricity of the previous system. The project was carefully coordinated to minimize disruption to museum operations and visitor programming.

Results

The new LED lighting system is expected to save the City of Medicine Hat approximately $10,962 in energy costs each year, reducing electricity consumption by 82,295 kWh annually and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 tonnes of CO₂e per year. Over the approximately 8-year expected useful life of the fixtures, the project will prevent an estimated 277 tonnes of CO₂e from entering the atmosphere. With these upgrades, Medalta Potteries now offers a brighter, more energy-efficient environment for the thousands of visitors who experience this historic site each year.

“These upgrades demonstrate how targeted investments can make a real difference. Being able to retrofit existing fixtures helps stretch project dollars further while minimizing disruptions for facility users. We appreciate the support from the MCCAC and look forward to continued collaboration.”

Kevin Schaaf, Acting Manager of Facilities Management

“We are pleased that Medicine Hat has returned to the MCCAC for more savings. This latest project cuts another $11,000 off their utility bills. We admire their commitment to energy efficiency and are glad we can help facilitate it.”

Trina Innes, Executive Director of the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre