Here’s what the servers at Denny’s in Colorado Springs think about the LED lights

Posted by Ginny Skalski

In my hometown, Denny’s is one of the only places open after 10 p.m. So when I was in high school, the 24-hour restaurant became a late-night home base for me and my teen-aged friends. At the time, it never occurred to me how much energy my hometown Denny’s must be using to keep the lights on 24-hours a day. At 16, I had more pressing issues to worry about (gas money, prom, etc.).

Nowadays, I think about energy consumption a lot. And restaurants that stay open 24-hours-a-day are using a lot of it. Pete LeBarre knows this. Pete recently bought five Denny’s restaurants in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area.

One of the first things Pete did was install LED lights in the dining rooms. Specifically, he installed approximately 400 Cree LR6 six-inch LED downlights (which are the same lights we’re giving away on our LED Revolution site, click here to enter).  Those lights are saving Pete about $15,500 a year in energy costs, he said. More about the lighting he had installed and the energy savings here.

And, as a bonus, servers and customers say the new LED lighting is better to look at. A Cree employee visited one of the restaurants after the installation. We asked him to take a flip cam and get some reactions from the staff. I love this video (which I edited together) because it really shows how you don’t have to be a lighting geek to appreciate LED lighting. Here’s what some Denny’s servers told us about the lights: