If you took a job in the furniture business, chances are you wouldn’t expect changing light bulbs to be part of your daily routine. But for some employees at the 330 specialty furniture stores owned by the Furniture Row Companies, changing light bulbs became second nature.

That’s because many of the stores were lit with energy-wasting 90-Watt halogen bulbs. In fact, Furniture Row officials estimate that employees spent about 15 hours per week replacing burned out halogen bulbs.

At the Sofa Mart in Yuma, Arizona (one of the specialty stores owned by Furniture Row), store manager Stu Cozzens says employees changed out about 20 bulbs each month. But he’s hoping that will be a task of the past thanks to the newly-installed Cree LRP-38™ LED spotlights that shine on his store.

Cree LRP-38 LED spotlights were installed at the Sofa Mart in Yuma, Arizona.

“We are hoping that number will be reduced greatly with the new bulbs,” Stu told me.

LED Lights are Long Lasting

That shouldn’t be hard. The LRP-38 LED light is designed to last 50,000 hours in open applications like this. That means Stu could leave these lights on in his store for eight hours a day, seven days a week and could go more than 17 years before he would have to replace them. There are 250 LRP-38 LED lights illuminating the showroom that Stu manages.

In fact, the Furniture Row Companies is in the process of converting all of its 330 Sofa Mart®, Oak Express®, Bedroom Expressions® and Denver Mattress Company® specialty furniture stores to Cree LED Lighting. Last month we announced that nearly 13,000 Cree LRP-38 LED lights were installed out of more than 80,000 planned. In most cases, the 11-Watt Cree LED lights are replacing inefficient 90-Watt halogen bulbs.

“We knew we wanted new lighting that addressed our goal of being environmental stewards, but we also wanted to remain fiscally responsible,” Rod Schnurr, Furniture Row store planning coordinator, said in a recent press release. “We also knew that we couldn’t sacrifice the high quality of light needed to accentuate the wood grains and highlight the beauty of the fabrics – that’s what these Cree lights do.”

Ladders and Bulb Replacement

We sent a photographer out to Sofa Mart in Yuma, and when I saw the height of the tracks the lights live on, I understood the hassle.

Can you imagine climbing a ladder to change bulbs up this high?

Replacing those bulbs means dragging out a tall ladder and climbing up it. Suddenly I was able to see why Furniture Row employees spent an estimated 15 hours per week replacing bulbs throughout the 330 locations. This isn’t like replacing a bulb over your bathroom sink, this requires actual labor.

The long life of the Cree LED lights isn’t the only perk Furniture Row should experience. These LED lights also consume significantly less energy than halogen lights while providing high quality light. The first Furniture Row Shopping Center to install Cree LED lights saved $4,200 on monthly energy costs compared to the original lighting, Schnurr said. Another bonus? The LRP-38 LED spotlights generate less heat, which can result in savings on air conditioning costs.

So the next time you’re out shopping and you see an employee on a ladder changing a light bulb, maybe you should kindly tell their manager about long-lasting LED lights. And if you are a manager or a store owner, what are you waiting for? Give LED lights a try so your employees can spend more time doing their jobs and less time screwing in light bulbs.