The Week-end Stock Pot Watch, Thursday, November 28th-December 1st. Holiday Edition!

[Demeter]

15. Look How Drastically Intelligent LEDs Can Cut Energy Consumption

CONSERVATION IS THE FIRST STEP TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE AND GREEN-LIVING

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/look-at-how-drastically-intelligent-leds-cut-power-consumption?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=Headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily

PG&E, California's largest utility, wanted to know how much energy controllable LEDs could save its industrial customers. It recently found its answer: a lot.

Earlier this year, the utility tested the performance of a networked LED system at a 44,800-square-foot Ace Hardware distribution warehouse in California. The system was installed and controlled by Digital Lumens, a Boston-based company with more than 500 projects deployed in the commercial and industrial sector.

Digital Lumens says its system, which combines monitoring software, building controls and LED fixtures, can save customers up to 90 percent on lighting costs...Simply replacing the metal-halide luminaires with LEDs resulted in a 50 percent reduction in energy use from the baseline. By adding in controls that enable the LEDs to react to occupancy and daylight quality, the system enabled a 93 percent drop in electricity consumption from lighting...The controllable LED system cost $117,935 to install. That may seem like a tough sell. But when PG&E modeled the savings, it found that the granular monitoring approach offered the shortest payback period of 3.6 years. When factoring in deferred maintenance, the payback period fell to 2.5 years.