Ashville Cuts Energy Costs In Half

The City of Ashville, NC is expecting to cut its energy use and maintenance costs in half by switching all of it's streetlights to LED's. Ashville is replacing each of the cities 3,643 streetlights with 67 watt or 195 watt LEDway streetlights from Cree, Inc. of Durham, NC. The move is expected to save Ashvill $260,000 a year. The upgraded lights will not only save the city money in energy and maintenance, it will reduce the cities carbon footprint and reduce light pollution. Ashville is paying for the lighting upgrade using Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Progress Energy, who supplies electricity to the city, will use reduced rate tables to calculate Ashville's energy rates because of the lighting upgrade, saving the city even more money.

Businesses can greatly reduce there energy and maintenance costs by switching to LED lighting. Outdoor lighting is a great place to start. LED parking lot lighting and LED landscape lighting can decrease your outdoor energy bill by 70% or more. Waterfront restaurants, bars and hotels can save even more by switching to LED deck lighting and underwater LED dock lights.

U Of Wyoming Makes Greenhouse Greener

In an effort to maximizing financial and environmental returns by focusing on efficiency, the University of Wyoming is making changes that will reduce energy use and make the campus carbon neutral. One of the biggest energy users on campus is the schools greenhouses. The greenhouses are used for the research of crops, soil, weeds, plant pathology, entomology and agroecology. Upgrades to the 40 year old greenhouses include the installation of translucent polycarbonate covers, advanced control systems, new exhaust fans and upgrades to energy efficient LED grow lights. The LED lighting will replace 600 watt high intensity discharge lights. The switch to LED lighting alone will save the college more than 13,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and trimming $54,600 a year from it's power bill. With an expected 50,000 hour lifespan, the LED lights have on bulbs to replace, saving the college thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. LED lighting is the easiest, most efficient way to lower power consumption and save on energy costs. Replacing power hungry incandescent bulbs that are on for 4 or more hours a day with LED lights is the fastest way to lower your lighting bills. Porch lights, outdoor security lights and underwater dock lights are all great places for LED lighting.

Storage Facility Slashes Lighting Cost

Tempe Storage Company has slashed lighting electricity costs at it's new South McClintock Drive self-storage facility by 87%. The company replaced 215w HPS exterior lights with 26w LED fixtures from Relumination Lighting Solutions. The energy efficient LED's reduce power usage from 8,800 to 1,144 watts per hour while improving ground lighting by 20% on average. The 12-year estimated life span of the lights will also reduced future lighting-related maintenance expenses. Annual electricity savings and reduced maintenance expenses are expected to total nearly $4,000 per year giving the upgrade a full ROI of just 30 months. Tempe Storage Company used utility rebates to pay for 20% of the lighting upgrade and is eligibility for a 100% tax deduction through The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. Underwater LED dock lights can provide similar savings in lighting electricity costs and maintenance expenses to waterfront restaurants, bars and hotels. They also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty while providing a safer docking environment for float up patrons.
Like this post? Read more about how to save with LED Lighting.

Everbody Wins With Switch To LED's

This story from the Columbia Business Times in Columbia, MO shows how everbody wins when electric companies help local businesses switch to energy efficient LED lighting.
Boone Electric Cooperative of Columbia, MO is offering rebates to there commercial and industrial customers who switch to energy-efficient lighting. The rebate covers 40 percent of the costs of switching to more energy-efficient LED bulbs and fixtures. By making the switch to LED lighting businesses substantially reduce there lighting costs, save even more on air conditioning costs because of the lack of heat put out by LED's compared to halogen lights and save on maintenance costs and the cost of replement bulbs. Local contractors benefit from the program because they are often hired by the companies to replace the lights and fixtures. Even the electric companies benefit. Having there customers switch to more energy efficient lighting reduces the need for them to build more power plants. Waterfront restaurants, bars and hotels can lower there lighting costs and bring more customers to there establishment by installing underwater LED dock lights along there docks and seawall. Give your customers what they really want, great water views, even after the sun goes down!

http://www.columbiabusinesstimes.com/11767/2011/05/27/boone%E2%80%99s-energy-rebate-program-a-bright-idea-for-local-businesses/

LED Savings Stack Up For Aluminum Smelter

This story I found on the Sustainable Planet website tells about what I think is one of the best uses of LED lighting I have seen yet. After 42 years in service, the incandescent beacon lights on the chimney stack at Century Aluminum's Hawesville, Kentucky primary smelter were in need of an upgrade. The eight 1,400 watt lights, four on top and four halfway up, and eight 116 watt lights, a quarter way up and three quarters way up, were not only costing the company around $6,000 a year in electricity, maintenance costs were adding another $4,000 a year. Century found a solution to the high costs of operating and maintaining these lights in a pair of LED obstruction lights from Dialight of Suffolk, England. The Dialight L-864 LED beacons use only 20 watts of electricity and will replace the top and middle lights. The remaining lights will be replaced by Dialights L-810 Red RTO steady-burning LED's that use only 6.5 watts. The lights are FAA compliant and have a greater then 10 year life expectancy so not only will Century Aluminum save over 90% on electrical costs, they will save around $40,000 on maintenance over the lights lifetime. I think this is a great example of the potential cost savings of LED lights. Not only do you save lots of money on electricity, your maintenance costs are almost non existant for the life of the lights. Home owners, waterfront resturants and marinas can save on electricty and maintenance costs by installing underwater LED dock lights.

http://www.sustainableplant.com/2011/04/century-aluminum-cuts-maintenance-and-energy-costs-with-led-obstruction-lights/

LED's Chill US Cold Storage Energy Costs

LED's Chill US Cold Storage Energy Costs

Refrigerated storage and distribution services company, United States Cold Storage, Inc. will save 541,000 kWh Per Year with an LED lighting retrofit at their Tracy, CA, cold storage distribution center. USCS retain an energy audit by SmartWatt Energy, Inc. that recommended replacing all of the lighting in their cold storage room with new, energy efficient LED lighting from Albeo Technologies, Inc. The new Albeo LED lighting, installed by SmartWatt, will not only save USCS substantial amounts of electricity per year, the project came with a utility incentive from PG&E of $69,222 & an EPAct 2005 tax deduction of $117,619.

“As part of our company-wide sustainability program, we conducted an IRR analysis of various supply side energy savings options—wind, solar, etc.—and none of them made financial sense. The paybacks were just too long,” said Danny Dietrich, Project Engineer for USCS. “After SmartWatt proposed their value engineered LED lighting retrofit using top of the line Albeo fixtures, we knew we’d found the right project—the IRR was 35.2% and it’ll pay for itself in just 1.6 years.”

SmartWatt Energy, Inc. is a leading nationwide provider of turnkey energy efficiency solutions. We are dedicated to lowering business’ operational costs through demand-side energy reduction strategies. Albeo Technologies, Inc. manufactures high quality, long-lasting LED lighting products for commercial and industrial facilities.

Dallas Reduces Energy Costs By 60%

The City of Dallas is leading the green initiative in Texas  by converting five downtown parking garages to energy efficient LED lighting. They are setting the standard for energy efficient lighting technology that reduces energy consumption and operating costs. The City expects a 60% reduction in annual energy use and expects to substantially  reduce maintenance costs over the lifetime of the fixtures. Lumetech Group, a leading provider of commercial LED lighting solutions, and Lighting Science Group, a leading American maker of LED lighting, are installing Lighting Science Group’s long-lasting and ultra-efficient Flat LowBay LED fixtures in garages at Dallas City Hall, Dallas Public Library, the Jack Evans Police Building, the freight terminal beneath Thanksgiving Square and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

“The City of Dallas is committed to acting in the best interests of its taxpayers and to improve the efficiency in which it operates." said Ron Natinsky, Dallas Council Member. "I hope that our actions compel the leadership of other cities and private sectors to follow suit,”

Save big on your energy costs by installing underwater LED lights on your dock, seawall or pier.

Better Lighting For 90% Less Energy

Americold an Atlanta, GA based provider of temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics to the food industry that owns and operates over 182 temperature-controlled warehouses around the world, has teamed with Groom Energy and Digital Lumens to install Digital Lumens’ Intelligent LED Lighting Systems at Americold facilities located in Massachusetts, Utah and Wisconsin. The new upgrades produce higher quality lighting and reduce overall energy consumption up to 90 percent or 2.3 million kilowatt hours (kWhs) annually. Over the coming months, Groom Energy and Americold are scheduled to upgrade facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois and Texas. The projects will reduce an additional 3.3 million kWhs and 3.25 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

Groom Energy developed customized configurations for each location, managing all installation, system commissioning and training. The design delivers lighting “on demand,” producing evenly distributed high light levels when operators are nearby, then automatically dims to “nightlight” levels after operators have exited the area. The mesh networked lighting system continuously tracks and reports energy consumption and savings. “Americold’s feedback during the development process was invaluable to our successful product design. In addition to broad improvements in light quality and energy efficiency, Americold is also leveraging LightRules management software for a detailed view into the facilities’ operational performance and to measure progress toward company-wide sustainability objectives.” said Tom Pincince, president and CEO of Digital Lumens.

Our teams are very pleased with the increased light levels, functionality and the significant energy savings,” said Americold’s Vice President of Engineering, Fred Walker. “From the earliest days of the project, Groom Energy has been working with Americold to design the most effective and efficient lighting system for their facilities, we have been able to provide measurable savings and exceed corporate objectives for light quantity, quality, safety and the overall functionality.”said Bob Kirby, executive vice president and co-founder of Groom Energy Solutions.

Learn how to save even more on your lighting costs with Adaptive Exterior Lighting.