Pope energy initiative saves thousands, lights the way Published Oct. 16, 2008 By Emily Smith 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AFNS) -- A 43rd Civil Engineer Squadron member here received $10,000 for a proposal of a wireless-ramp-lighting initiative. Anton Klein submitted the proposal to the Air Force Innovative Development through Employee Awareness Program, or IDEA, for base members to turn off ramp lights when planes were not present on the runway with wirelessly controlled relays installed on each of the lamp poles. Previously, lamps were left running continuously because the process of manually switching off every one of the 41 lamp poles on the flightline was tedious and time consuming. With Mr. Klein's new plan, light poles can now be switched on and off all at once through a centrally located control panel. The installation of a radio frequency switch at each of the lamp poles allows for each pole to be turned on or off individually, or in groups, depending on the mission. Mr. Klein is a former 43rd CES electrical engineer. Before his proposal, Pope Air Force Base officials spent $330,000 a year on ramp lighting consisting of- $230,000 on electricity and $100,000 on maintenance like replacing bulbs. The plan, proposed in 2007, was implemented and took full effect after a 12-week installation process. With this new system comes a 51 percent reduction in annual ramp lighting energy consumption and a 46 percent reduction in maintenance costs. The entire system only cost $102,000 to install. The cost of installation was made up in savings in less than a year. Where past annual expenditures were upward of $330,000, Pope AFB officials now spend $157,000 a year on ramp lighting. Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page