In-between hosting a variety of events, the operations staff at the San Diego Convention Center is constantly making improvements to the facility, and there are some standout projects happening in the building this year.

The first of these is our steady conversion to LED lights. Instead of modifying the building's mounting systems to accept off-the-shelf fixtures, we are working with a manufacturer directly to replace 10,282 existing fixtures with new LED fixtures and lamps. The more environmentally–friendly LEDs offer a number of benefits including improved visibility and reduced energy consumption. In addition, the LEDs will reduce the heat load on our Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, and eliminate 91 percent of the mercury inventory in the building by removing the old lightbulbs.

In the first phase of this retrofit, which began in February of 2015, many of the "back of house" light fixtures in the loading docks, workshops and service corridors were replaced. With the second phase, which kicked off last November, replacements include meeting rooms, office areas, hallways and the Sails Pavilion.

When completed, the manufacturer estimates this conversion to LEDs will reduce the convention center's lighting consumption by an estimated 4,461,058 kilowatt hours, which translates to approximately $848,654 saved annually on the Corporation's utility bills.

Another exciting project in progress is the renovation of three restrooms on the bayside of the Phase I original building exhibit hall. Over the past six years, our operations staff has been steadily renovating the 26 restrooms that were part of the original construction from 1989.

"It's always exciting," said Ron Barham, Building Superintendent. "When we did the first round of restroom renovations, we had so many comments saying how they were like a fine hotel's restrooms. It's like night and day."

With three more restrooms scheduled to be renovated next year, we will have soon modernized all of the original restrooms. This also comes with some water savings, as the toilets are going from 3.5 gal/flush to 1.28 gal/flush models.

Other notable projects include:

Rebuilding the boilers, and replacing the chillers that power our HVAC system

Replacing the bayside roll-up doors used in entrances to the loading docks and exhibit halls in the Phase I original building

Replacing the compressor units for the walk-in refrigerator and freezer in the West Kitchen