Payback periods for retrofits are often very short and can be under 2 years. This was the case for retail giant, Macy's, whose payback for their conversion was 1.6 years.
Macy's teamed up with NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and received a $200,000 incentive from NYSERDA's Existing Facility Program to do a pilot program in New York.
Macy's initially retrofitted 17 New York stores with over 24,000 LED lights in a pilot program, netting savings of nearly 73% (over $674,000) per year.
For retailers, light output and color rendering are critically important considerations for selling products. Macy's replaced 47 watt halogen lamps with 12 watt LED after discovering the LEDs provided a superior quality of light nothing like the earlier versions. In fact, many color temperature filters and tones can be achieved to suit. This includes at the newly constructed building at the Westfield South Shore Mall in Bay Shore, NY (Suffolk County).
So pleased with their results, Macy's reportedly then installed over 1.1 million LED's in more than 800 Macy's & Bloomingdale's stores across the United States (savings figures from the additional installations are not available) and have pledged to using LED fixtures exclusively in any new construction or store renovations.
Macy's isn't stopping there - energized by the dramatic changes, they are adding solar panels and other efficiencies to stores as part of a broader sustainability initiative they have committed to, rising to one of the top five companies in the nation using solar energy as of 2012 (Walmart was at #1, joined by GM, Ikea, and Kohl's).
Macy's joined the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge to be a role model for other buildings to go greener.
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