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Would you believe it if a next-generation lighting company told you that you could reduce your lighting electricity bill by 80 percent or more and save you $260,000 by spending just $18,855? The proof is now in the actual utility bills. A Philadelphia-based family-owned pet supply store undertook a lighting upgrade of its retail space and upon opening the next utility bill found that the amount due was hundreds of dollars less, freeing up funds for other facets of the business.
The LED lighting retrofit coincided with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Awareness Month in October 2009. For the case study with the full savings report and the sample pre and post retrofit utility bills see: Case Study.
In the areas above store aisles, Braxton’s Animal Works replaced incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) lights through LED Saving Solutions, which estimated that the store would save $650 per month. The utility bill shows that the estimate was off by just 1.5 percent, with more savings than predicted.
Highlights:
- Property Type: Medium Retail
- Square Footage: 8,000
- City, State: Wayne, PA
- Previous Monthly Lighting Expense: .............$761.00
- New Monthly Lighting Expense (w/LED’s): ......$100.56
- Monthly Savings with LED’s........................$660.44
- Total Projected Lifetime Savings w/ LED’s: .....$260,631
The lifetime savings over the 80,000 hour life of the LED bulbs takes into account a conservative 3 percent annual inflationary increase on electricity costs and the offset advantages like eliminating the need to periodically purchase and replace the shorter life bulbs and tubes.
“I was confident in the light quality of the LED lights having personally experienced the free in-store ‘demo’ provided by the LED Saving Solutions team," said David Braxton, co-owner of Braxton’s Animal Works. I received great feedback from our staff and customers on the samples that gave me the confidence to say ‘Go’ on the whole property lighting retrofit. After one full month of operations with the new bulbs, the bill came, and I was delighted to see in my own hands that the savings actually exceeded the estimates! I knew that I would see some savings, but I honestly did not expect to see the full amount projected by LED Saving Solutions.”
“I met David Braxton through our collective work on the ‘Go Green’ committee of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce. He is a true pioneer that took this opportunity to work with us and become one of the very first retailers in America to spearhead the LED Energy Revolution. We were all delighted to see the performance exceed our expectations,” said Charlie Szoradi, President of LED Saving Solutions, a division of GREENandSAVE.
DOE and LED Savings DATA
Braxton’s is a great case study for other retailers, because their electricity usage matches up with the Department of Energy data for US retailers. According to the DOE, retailers spend 42 percent of their electricity on lighting. Braxton’s average historical electricity bills ran $1,735 per month and 42 percent of it would be $728 on lighting according to the DOE. Braxton’ s runs a little bit ‘hotter’ in terms of lighting, because it has a partial double height loft in its 8,000 square foot space, and their actual cost of lighting before the LED lighting retrofit was $761…now it is just $100.56 per month. For retailer to estimate the Annual Savings for their own facility with LED lighting, they can take their total square footage and multiply it by a factor of $.64 to $.80 given that the cost of electricity ranges across the US. Simply, for every 10,000 sq. ft. retailers could save between $6,400 and $8,000 per year. Since Braxton’s is in Greater Philadelphia and the 2009 cost per kWh is over 14 cents compared to the 2009 national average of 10.6 Cents, Baxton’s saves a little bit more than the average per square foot.
National Savings Impact with LED Lighting
According to the DOE and its Energy Information Administration, there are over 10.3 Billion Retail ‘Mercantile’ square feet across America that use over 90 Billion kilowatt hours per year. If retailers followed David Braxton’s lead, then they would collectively save over $6.6 Billion annually and save on CO2 emissions to take over 7 million vehicles off the road each year. Over the thirty year life of the bulbs, the LED retrofit for retail properties translates into over $200 Billion saved in electricity and over 1.3 Billion tons of CO2.
Braxton’s is a 70-year-old pet store that has been a neighborhood meeting place for three generations that may be one of the very first recorded mid-size retailers in America to “go green” with an LED lighting retrofit. The store carries high quality food products, raw foods, equipment, toys, treats and a wonderful source of organic supplies. It is also the best resource for pet advice for miles. In August 2009, Braxton’s was featured in an article entitled ‘LED Lighting Retrofit To Save Local Pet Supply Store Over $200,000’.
LED Saving Solutions recently established some ground-breaking international production and financing relationships that save 80 percent on electricity for lighting and reduce up-front costs to $0 for property owners. Their financing takes the cost of replacing the bulbs off of the buyer since the company only gets paid on a portion of the savings results each month. Their Saving Share program has set a new benchmark for performance payment on energy savings.
