Lighting the LED Revolution

When Pete LaBarre renovated four of the Denny’s restaurants he owns in the Colorado Springs-area earlier this year, he decided to give LED lighting a try. He initially installed a total of 340 Cree LR6 six-inch LED downlights among the four dining rooms. LaBarre said he saw savings right away.
 
"Our lights stay on all the time, so we did a watt comparison of what we had in place before the LR6s. We found that we used 6,000 kilowatt hours less in the store that had the LR6s versus the store that had the fluorescent lighting,” LaBarre said. “It really is lighter in our restaurants because of the LED lighting. With the fluorescent lights, it was kind of turning the colors green.
 
During LaBarre’s comparison, he found the restaurant with the LR6 downlights in the dining room saved $264 in one month compared to the dining room with fluorescent lighting. He has since installed the same LED lights in the dining room of a fifth Denny’s he owns. The dining room LEDs will save him an estimated $15,500 a year in energy costs, and even more in maintenance costs since each light lasts 50,000 hours, he said. And he’s not stopping there.
 
LaBarre was so impressed with the energy and maintenance cost savings from the dining room LED lights that he decided to install them outside the restaurants. Specifically, LaBarre is replacing 25 fluorescent bulbs around the perimeter of the restaurants with Cree LR6 six-inch LED downlights. In fact, the light quality from the LEDs is so much better that LaBarre is permanently removing 75 fluorescent tubes that also circle the restaurant. “The fluorescent tubes would last two years, and they’re filthy,” he said. “Bugs flew into the fixtures and when we took them down, you wouldn’t believe the amount of dirt that had accumulated.
 
Facts:

• The restaurant reduced its lighting load through use of high-efficiency LED technology.
• Appx. 400 Cree LR6 six-inch LED downlights in five restaurant dining rooms are saving LaBarre about $15,500 a year in energy costs.

Since testing began in March 2009:

• More than 400 retrofit LR6 six-inch LED downlights have been installed in five dining room locations
• 50 retrofit LR6 six-inch LED downlights have been installed outside two restaurant locations, and 150 more have been ordered for three more restaurants.
• LaBarre is evaluating replacing the fluorescent lights in the kitchens with LED lights.