With the recent hike in energy prices, South African companies are under pressure to find ways to drastically reduce their energy consumption. To achieve this sustainability practice, major retailer, Game Stores in South Africa has embraced the benefits of LED lighting technology to manage costs and resources effectively. Since LED lighting is recognized as the future of commercial lighting, Game selected LED fixtures from LED Lighting SA, powered by Cree’s XP-E High-Efficiency White LEDs, for various areas of its stores, located throughout 12 different African countries.
 
They replaced the previous 45-watt metal halides in 50 stores with 24-watt LED lights, specially fitted with lenses to maximize efficiency and eliminate light spillage for greater overall accent lighting inside the stores. In vertical freezers, Game utilized 20-watt LED lights for door frames to produce more uniform light while eliminating glare for shoppers. By using LEDs in freezers, the store will not only drastically reduce energy consumption from 58 watts per T8 fluorescent tube to 20 watts per LED fixture, but also have better performing lights as LEDs work more efficiently at lower temperatures than fluorescents.
 
Further, the Cree-powered LED lights are designed to last at least 50,000 hours, cutting down the number of fixtures replaced and the labor costs for replacement. Given the inconvenience of changing the metal halides, the store would often postpone replacement until a few more lights were burned out, compromising the lighting quality even more. LEDs also emit less heat than other lighting options, so it takes less energy to cool the store and the fridges to the required temperatures. Another benefit of LED lights is the lack of ultraviolet rays produced, which along with minimal heat emission, allows produce to stay fresher for longer periods of time.
 
“Not only will they experience improved light quality and significantly reduced costs, but they will also be able to run more efficient stores with superior products,” said Pierre Van Helden, CEO of LED Lighting SA.“The switch to LED lighting will continue to be a substantial component of theirsustainability efforts.”
 
To see other projects which LED Lighting SA have been involved in visit their website at www.ledlighting.co.za