Resorts, hotels, and motels worldwide are guilty of wasting most of their electricity on lighting. Think about it. These places keep most, if not all, of their lights burning 24 hours a day. That’s a lot of electricity being wasted on lighting hallways, elevators, lobbies, patio areas, and other gathering places in hotels that usually aren’t filled with people every hour of the day. With energy-efficient lighting, resorts, hotels, and motels could save companies thousands on electricity while improving the quality of light for their customers.
The Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Florida, replaced its halogen lamps with LEDs in February. They decided to remodel as part of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Lodging program. The program encourages hotels and motels statewide to become “greener” in their business practices by conserving energy, reducing water use and waste, and protecting air quality. The Hyatt replaced 800 halogen lamps in the hallways with 636 Cree LR6 LED lights. The new lamps save 90% of energy compared to the old lamps, consume 10.5 watts, and have a 50,000-hour lifetime. They replaced 35 halogen lamps in the 10,000 square-foot lobby with Cree LRP-38 LED lamps. Hyatt expects to save $131,659 during the first year of use, and a return on investment in approximately nine months.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians recently opened the Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage, California, featuring LED lighting on 14 building floors. According to Nancy Conrad, press secretary, the tribe focuses on using “green technologies and building materials wherever possible,” and turned to LED lighting. Richard Milanovich, tribe chairman, frequently walks through the resort to ensure the hotel meets his expectations and the illumination shows “the level of beauty and elegance he is after.” He was looking for an amber-like color for elevator and hallway areas and decided on Albeo Technologies’ Atmosphere LED cove lighting. They are very pleased with the LEDs because they last 10 times longer than other fixtures they considered installing, and the resort doesn’t have to hire a maintenance crew to replace the bulbs each year.
If a resort, hotel, motel, or any other business, for that matter, has to keep its lights burning 24 hours per day, seven days per week, why not choose the most efficient and long-lasting lamps possible? We hope that more 24-hour businesses choose LED lighting and share the same environmental and monetary benefits as the Hyatt and Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa.
