Auto Sales Lot LED Lighting Retrofit
Published March 2016
Many lighting projects focus on the inside of a facility, but there are many businesses that require high-quality, energy-efficient lighting for their exteriors. Auto sales lots are a great example of a business that needs exceptional exterior lighting. Their “sales floor” is the entire parking lot. There, lighting shows off their product, and customers can see what is on display at all hours. Incentives are also getting better to upgrade exterior lighting, even though the energy-usage is lower during peak hours.Let’s take a closer look at a specific TRC project for a car lot:
This client took initiative to educate himself about the kind of fixture and results that he wanted for the auto lot at his business. He needed an evenly lit lot to make the cars look great when people come by to shop. He wanted to make sure that all potential customers are presented with a memorable first impression during off hours. The secondary goal was to achieve fewer shadowy areas so the lot is safer at night. An LED lighting retrofit and energy efficient redesign is an obvious savings solution. Let’s take a closer look::
Goals for this Auto Sales Lot redesign and retrofit:
to improve energy efficiency
to improve the overall ‘look’ of the fixtures
to reduce maintenance expenses
to improve light quality, achieve even lighting, and increase perception of safety
Let’s see how a custom lighting design by TRC stacked up against a ‘cookie cutter’ option where fixtures are just replaced with energy-efficient options instead of a redesign. We compare photometrics and see the competitor’s one-for-one replacement retrofit project was 4.6 average foot candles with a whopping max of 50. The result is all the red ‘hot spots’ you see in the graphic below (left). This solution saved energy, so it looked good on paper, but it wasn’t the best design. Most importantly, it did not achieve the client’s goals.
TRC’s thoughtful system redesign (on the right of the graphic above) achieved the client’s goals and allowed even more savings to be captured. This redesigned system reduced the number of total fixtures, removing 48 unnecessary ones. The new design used custom optics packages on those fixtures to achieve a highly efficient, evenly lit lot with 5.6 average foot candles, and a maximum of 10.4. No hot spots, even light, and tons of energy savings. The client achieved maximum efficiency while decreasing their kW and kWh by 85% overall, and met their project goals!
By replacing their HID fixtures with energy-efficient LED fixtures, this parking lot retrofit is saving the client over $3,800 monthly in lighting costs, over $45,000 annually! Immediately after project completion, these savings began. By simply reducing the amount of energy used, they were able to reduce utility costs.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
CARBON SAVINGS: Total greenhouse gas reduction Metric Tons equivalent to: 316.6
- Passenger cars not driven for one year 62
- Gallons of gasoline saved 35,490
- Acres of forest preserved from deforestation 3.1
- Tons of waste recycled vs. land filled 110
Given the nature of their retrofit, because they were replacing an outmoded technology with very energy-efficient lighting technology and because they redesigned the lighting system, this facility qualified for a rebate from their utility company to help offset some of the retrofit project cost. They received $53,000 in rebate incentives.
If you are considering a lighting retrofit, energy-savings is definitely on the forefront of your mind, but have you considered the other ways that this efficiency in lighting could help reduce overhead? Many retrofit projects help reduce maintenance costs by standardizing equipment, especially in areas where special equipment, such as a lift, is required just to replace a bulb.•