SRI Shoe Warehouse LED Upgrade: Retail Store Sees Dramatic 74% Savings in Energy Costs and Saves $8,500 Annually
The Challenge
SRI Shoe Warehouse was founded by Stuart and Barbara Rosenberg. Their vision of a warehouse emporium of stylish, casual, and always affordable shoes is as innovative today as it was when the store opened back in 1991. Today, with the help of the next generation of the Rosenberg family, SRI Shoe Warehouse remains a top destination for comfortable, affordable, quality shoes. Since the store is open seven days a week, it was important to find ways to save both energy and money. In a typical retail store, electric lighting accounts for 22 percent of total building energy use.
SRI Shoe Warehouse was looking to decrease operational costs and sought the expertise of GreenTech Solutions Group to provide a complete LED lighting retrofit of its Raleigh, NC store.
The Solution
GreenTech took into consideration the retail aspect of the job, keeping in mind that lighting merchandise in the most attractive way and ensuring customers they can find the products they are looking for easily are critical to increased sales for the retailer.
“In retail stores, effective lighting design is crucial to the overall environment and likely results in improved sales,” said GreenTech VP of Business Development Scott Jernigan. “If customers enjoy the store’s atmosphere, it makes sense that they probably will linger more and ultimately make a purchase.”
GreenTech’s lighting upgrade involved removing all current high bay HID light sources and replacing them with new energy-efficient 120-watt LED lighting fixtures that deliver more consistent and better quality lighting.
The Results
The upgrade resulted in a 74% reduction in annual lighting energy usage. Due to the energy efficiency and longevity of LEDs, the maintenance savings is 100%, which resulted in a 77% savings in annual operational costs.
A summary of the benefits is as follows:
- 74% reduction in annual lighting energy usage
- 1.3 year payback period
- 95,189 kWh reduction in lighting annual energy use
- 77% reduction in annual operating costs
- $11,250 savings in energy incentives
- 67,186 kgCO2e greenhouse gases avoided
The upgrade will save SRI Shoe Warehouse approximately $8,500 a year. A generous rebate from Duke Energy Progress paid for nearly 48% of the project cost, which reduced the payback period to only 1.3 years.
The energy savings of the lighting upgrade is the equivalent of taking 14 cars off the road or planting 55 acres of urban forests. With increased color and lighting quality, the retrofit helped make SRI Shoe Warehouse a store that is inviting where customers want to stay and shop.
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