While it is often a necessity to leave a car at the airport, one of the most frustrating and exhausting tasks awaiting you upon arrival is locating your vehicle in a dimly lit parking garage at night. This is no doubt due to the number of burnt out and dim bulbs that maintenance has difficulty keeping up with.

But one busy airport, Detroit Metropolitan (DTW), has a plan that may just ease the pain of this experience with the replacement of 6,050 lighting fixtures with LED bulbs. With the current bulbs having an average life of only 13 months, the new LED lights are guaranteed to keep shining for years. As Wayne County Airport Authority (WCCA) CEO Tom Naughton states in Parking Network  “It will improve lighting in our parking facilities, reduce energy consumption, save on maintenance costs and shrink our carbon footprint.”

The planned DTW project may will be the largest LED conversion in the country thus far. While the project is slated to cost $6.2 million, the cost savings will continue to pay off to the tune of $1.2 million yearly. The energy saved alone can power 880 households for a year.

Incorporated with the energy-saving LEDs, will be a motion detection system. This system will automatically reduce lighting when there is no activity in the area and then activate additional lighting when vehicles and pedestrians are detected.

DTW airport is not the only site saving energy costs by using LED technology. According to the Environment News Service, the University of California Davis campus also replaced their parking lot lighting systems as well. Michael Siminovitch, director of the university’s Lighting Technology Center spearheaded the project which uses 20 percent of the energy of conventional parking lighting systems.

While LED lights give off brighter light, they use less electricity and last longer. Traditional parking lighting uses metal halide lights with 175 watts of power each while the LEDs are only 85 watts.

Relumination assists companies of all sizes in providing cost-effective lighting solutions. Contact us for more information on how your company can save energy costs and maintenance expenses with a lighting upgrade or retrofit.

Chances are you’ve taken extraordinary efforts in providing more than adequate lighting for your office areas where most of your business in conducted. If it’s a retail space, then you’ve taken proper actions to create ample lighting for your customers so that they can see and evaluate your product in an effective and desirable light. If your business is more of a cubicle environment, then your workers need adequate lighting to be able to performs as efficiently as possible. One area, however, that may even require more attention for your place of business though is parking lot lighting.

Having your parking lot properly illuminated is key to providing an increased level of security and safety in the areas surrounding your business. Not only will proper lighting give your customers or clients a safer access to your business, but it is also more likely to protect you, as a business owner, from any sort of legal action in the event that something unfortunate in the form of crime or personal injury may happen.

“A review of case law shows that environments that have a specified flaw in design or negligence of conditions have some traction in litigation. However, no cases show any succcessful legal actions when spaces incorporate reasonable lighting design practice, including light levels based on appropriate design references.” (E.E. Richman, U.S. Department of Energy)

Utilizing good business sense and based on the above quotation, it stands to reason that properly illuminating your parking areas will provide your business with several advantages:

1. Crime detterrant.
2. Injury prevention by providing better visibility for your customers or clients.
3. Customer’s peace of mind, knowing that they are safer from potential crime or personal injury.
4. Your peace of mind as a business owner, knowing that you will have the most possible protection against any form of litigation.

Choosing the right lighting design for your parking area is important. Let the energy-efficient lighting solutions specialists at Relumination help you. We specialize in helping companies of all sizes reduce energy costs, lower maintenance expenses, decrease their environmental footprint and improve their quality of light through energy-efficient lighting solutions. Our valued customers are in various industries from manufacturing to retail.

Contact us today, we would love the opportunity to speak with you!

NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois was named one of the “Top 10 Health Systems” in the U.S., and was looking for a green change. The parking garage, built in the 1980s, was still using 175-watt metal halide lamps. The lighting was inadequate and was expensive to run and maintain, and people had even complained about the lighting.

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Last summer, we blogged about a parking garage LED retrofit in Raleigh, North Carolina, the first city to participate in Cree’s LED City program in 2007. Raleigh replaced 144 188-watt high pressure sodium fixtures in a local parking garage with 70-watt LED lamps. Also, many of the LED fixtures were equipped with a photocell sensor that turned the lights off for 12 hours during the daylight hours. After the retrofit, the city surveyed those who used the parking garage frequently, and both men and women said they felt safer in the garage, the quality of light was better, and it was cleaner and easier to maneuver through. At the time, electricity savings were totaling to $2,803 annually, and maintenance savings were totaling to $3,325 annually.

Four years later, we can say that the results of replacing those high pressure sodium lamps with LEDs are positive. If you totaled the two amounts above, annual electricity and maintenance savings equaled to $6,128, but actually, the new lighting is saving the city more than $13,000 per year, doubling the first case study’s savings results! Another important area the city was watching was light degradation over time and operation lifespan. As of now, the city is expecting the lights turned on all day to last more than 50,000 hours, equaling 5.7 years. The lights equipped with power sensors are expected to last 11.4 years. So far, they have not had any problems with LEDs. Since this project, Raleigh has completed about 35 LED indoor and outdoor projects. The city has installed lighting in the mayor’s office and the local performing arts center. Outdoor projects include installations in parking garages, streets, parks, freeway underpasses, landscaping, and pedestrian bridges. These projects have saved Raleigh $225,000 annually!

You’ve heard it once, and you’ll hear it again from us: parking garages are some of the biggest energy wasters! Many garages are required to have its lights on all day because there is no outside light coming in from other floors, or for safety and security reasons. For a cheaper, brighter, more unified light, operators of parking garages should switch to LED lighting. Dallas is the first major city to replace five of its parking garage lighting fixtures with LEDs. Dallas city councilman Ron Natinsky said the city has been working on making the city greener, and the reduction in energy and maintenance costs really drove them to consider LED lighting. By replacing lighting at parking garages near the Dallas City Hall, Dallas Public Library, Jack Evans police building, the freight terminal beneath Thanksgiving Square, and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, the city of Dallas will reduce energy consumption by 60%, over 1,700,000 kWh. Lumetech already replaced lighting in Dallas County School’s parking lot, which reduces electricity consumption by 505,000 kWh annually. The school will see a savings of $363,000 in maintenance and electricity over the lifetime of the new LEDs.

Vermont is also looking into replacing its parking garage lighting and its street lighting fixtures. The city of Colchester has a ballot initiative on the table right now, and if it passes, LED lighting will be installed on all of the city’s streets. The biggest obstacle the city faces right now, and most other cities do as well, is the initial costs of the lighting. Colchester would need to replace 780 lamps, costing approximately $500,000. On the other hand, the LED lighting would cost the city 70% less than the lamps they have installed now. The city has applied and received a few grants so they will not have to increase taxes, so hopefully they get the support they need! The city of Waterbury already installed more than 60 LED streetlamps in the business district, which is saving the city $3,000 annually.

LED lighting is not only more efficient and sustainable, but it is also safer than other available lighting, especially when it comes to airport runway areas. In Ocala, Florida, the Ocala International Airport is beginning to replace its old airfield lighting with high intensity LEDs.

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George Karolis, Vice President of corporate development and real estate at Asbury Automotive Group and owner of a recently retrofitted Lexus dealership, couldn’t have said it better. Automobile dealerships’ number one concern is customer satisfaction. Car salesmen don’t want to be worrying about burned out or broken lamps while tending to customer needs, which makes LED lighting an optimal choice, said Karolis. The lights consume less energy, last longer, and have a better quality of light. Karolis’ Lexus dealership in Roswell, Georgia, replaced its exterior 750-1000 watt fixtures with Qnuru LEDs. The retrofit reduced lighting costs 86.6%, and the lamps have 19% more lumen output.

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Parking lots waste a lot of energy! Most everyone has seen the parking lots of retail businesses at 2 A.M. with not a car in sight and lights on at full power. The U.S. Department of Energy conducted case studies at two retail parking lots, replacing their light fixtures with LEDs. The retrofits have decreased energy costs dramatically while improving the lighting at both lots.

Raley’s Supermarket in West Sacramento, California, replaced half of their parking lot’s 320-watt metal halide fixtures with LEDs. Their LED fixtures came installed with a motion sensor that turns the lights to a lower power after five minutes of inactivity. The LEDs consume 149 watts at full power and 52 watts at low power. Much of their savings came from the motion sensor, which was only at full power 55% of the time. The supermarket also saved a substantial amount of money on maintenance fees. According to the report, annual maintenance costs for the metal halide fixtures were $200-$215 per fixture. They were also supposed to last 3-5 years, but the company owner said they were “lucky to get two years.” The LED fixtures are estimated to last 50,000-90,000 hours, which can mean as much as 20 years of maintenance free lighting. Raley’s Supermarket’s payback period is expected to be in 3-4 years.

T.J.Maxx in Manchester, New Hampshire, replaced their parking lot’s 400-watt high pressure sodium fixtures and 400-watt metal halide fixtures with LEDs. These fixtures also came installed with a motion sensor. On top of energy savings, the business also saved $11,000 annually on maintenance for spot relamping. Their expected payback period is in 3 years. A survey was administered to employees of the plaza T.J.Maxx is located in about the new lighting. According to the survey, 78.1% of the employees said the new lighting system provided more light than the original system and improved the appearance of the parking lot. Employees also said the new parking lot lighting “helps to increase safety and security within the plaza,” and the motion sensors “use less energy, and that is better for the environment.”

With both of these retail businesses seeing their return on investment in as little as three years, LED fixtures are a cost efficient and sustainable alternative to other fixtures, not to mention they reduce night time light pollution. As a member of the International Dark-Sky Association we actively support reducing light pollution.

Arizona State University, home to 80,000 students, faculty, and staff, joined Cree’s LED University earlier this year. The program recognizes universities around the world that have installed LED lighting fixtures on their campuses to save money on energy and maintenance costs and promote sustainability.

ASU began its retrofit by replacing 2,000 150-watt metal halide fixtures with 78-watt LED low bay fixtures in six parking structures across its Tempe campus. The LED low bay fixtures are going to decrease energy consumption by 1.5 million kilowatt-hours. According to the program, that’s the amount of emissions from 208 vehicles! The new LED fixtures are anticipated to last 50,000 hours, which is three times longer than the metal halide fixtures. The new, brighter lighting in the parking garages will help motorists keep an eye out for people walking through the garage and help pedestrians feel safer when retrieving their vehicles at night. ASU also replaced the incandescent downlights in the Sandra Day O’Connor rotunda with LED downlights. The new fixtures consume 85% less energy than the previous incandescent fixtures, and are estimated to last 50,000 hours.

ASU has been recognized as one of the “greenest” universities by The Princeton Review’s Green Rating Honor Roll. “Not only are they promoting environmentally conscious projects, but they are also helping to instill these principles in their students and lead other universities by example,” said Deb Lovig, LED programs manager at Cree. ASU is anticipating to save $127,000 from the parking garage LED retrofit, and we hope to see even more environmentally friendly changes from them and other universities in the future.