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.

Download the Case Study

Great Clips on Fayetteville Road in Raleigh was looking to save on escalating operating costs and contacted GreenTech Solutions Groups for options in lighting its store. High monthly electric bills were a growing concern since the salon was equipped with 4-foot T8 fluorescent fixtures and operates 7 days a week for 12 hours a day.

GreenTech took into consideration reducing the glare factor and providing the best color temperature with the LED lighting upgrade. The outdated T8 fluorescents were replaced with 4000K 40W LED panel lights equipped with step dimming to maximize energy savings. The upgrade resulted in an impressive 73% reduction in lighting energy use and operational costs.

The project gave Great Clips higher quality light and brightness and improved color rendition (CRI). The integrated step dimming feature allows for three levels of light output dimming down to 50% and 10% light output based on ambient light levels further reducing the power consumption. A generous rebate from Duke Energy Progress paid for nearly 54% of the total project, ultimately reducing the payback period to 2.2 years.

CMI Jewelry, a nationally recognized diamond importer of loose diamonds and fine jewelry, was faced with high operational cost due to recurrent lighting replacements. High monthly electric bills were also a concern as their store was equipped with high wattage 2700K Halogen lamps, 2700K Halogen Bi-pin lights in the jewelry cases, and outdated T12 fluorescents in the offices.

After careful consideration of their lighting configuration making note of power consumption, color rendering index, and efficiency of lighting output, 6500K 16W LED lamps for the can lighting, 6500K LED Bi-pin lights for the jewelry cases, and T5 retrofit kits for the recessed troffers in the offices were recommended and installed. A speedy payback of 1.8 years was achieved thanks to the realized energy savings and approval of the Progress Energy Rebate.