Sevenoaks Shopping Centre

Switch to LEDs saves $12,000 a year

“It’s phenomenal how happy we are with this now. The LEDs use hardly any electricity – just over 1 watt per bulb – and they should last about 20 years, plus they look great.”

— Don Bird, Operations Supervisor, Sevenoaks Shopping Centre

Morguard Investments Limited, which manages the Sevenoaks Shopping Centre in Abbotsford, was getting pretty tired of spending a bundle every year to replace the centre’s 900 decorative ceiling lights. The bulbs would start to burn out almost as soon as they went in.

“We would re-lamp the little 25-watt decorative lights that run around our skylights once a year, right before the Christmas shopping season,” says Sevenoaks' Don Bird, “which meant renting a lift and hiring an electrician for at least a couple of days, and it just wasn’t making sense anymore. It’s really hot up there and the lights were burning out constantly, which just looked really bad.”

The solution: High-efficiency LEDs

One of the shopping centre’s regular lighting suppliers, Albrite Lighting Limited, knew about Morguard's rising frustration with the high burnout rate and suggested Don consider new, high-efficiency LED bulbs instead.

“They told us about the bulb and how long it will last, and about BC Hydro’s incentive program, which would drop our costs right down,” says Bird.

The benefits: Sparkling lights, $12,000 in annual savings

Through just this one project, completed in summer 2008,  Bird estimates that Sevenoaks Shopping Centre will save about $6,000 a year on its energy bills and another $6,000 a year on lift rentals and labour. “It’s a very big bang for our buck,” says Bird, “and it’s made us think about what else we can do to improve our energy efficiency and reduce our bills.”

Not only is Sevenoaks saving money. The lighting has been upgraded as well.

“The LEDs sparkle more – they’re sort of a small burst of sparkly light," says Bird. "They’re brighter and more cheerful than our old 25-watt bulbs, and even if the customers walking through the mall don’t notice them specifically, they still get a better overall feeling about being here.”

Plans are now underway for at least three more re-lamping projects in partnership with BC Hydro, including moving from T12 to T8 fluorescent tubes and from incandescent to LED exit signs.

“We’re also planning to change all our parking lot lights to LEDs,” says Don. “Because they are longer lasting and more reliable, our parking lots will be safer for our staff and our customers. And they’ll pay for themselves in just a year or two by cutting our energy bills and maintenance costs even further.”

Using the Product Incentive Program to save

Buildings and businesses can benefit from energy-efficient lighting and other technologies that can pay off significantly in long term savings. Under the Power Smart Product Incentive Program (PIP), products that qualify for incentives that will lower your payback time and make upgrade projects even more attractive include:

• Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs are ideal for areas where lights are left on for long periods, such as hallways, because they use up to 75% less energy than regular light bulbs and can last up to 10 years.
• Energy saver T8 fluorescent tubes. These tubes are 50% more energy efficient than older models and work well in common spaces.
• LED exit signs. LED signs use only 10% of the energy old-fashioned incandescent signs do and last anywhere from 10 to 25 years – which means you will save about $12 per sign, per year.
• Lighting occupancy sensors. With these sensors, the lights will go on only when someone is in the area, so you stop wasting energy.