The Opportunity
Food City knew they wanted to save energy, but the Abingdon, Virginia supermarket chain faced the challenge of finding energy-efficient lighting options that could handle the frigid environments of its frozen and refrigerated warehouses (as low as -30°!). After discovering that LED high bay lighting fixtures would be the perfect fit, Food City was ready to make the transition. When they were contacted by their Appalachian Power Commercial Program representative to help complete the project and earn money saving rebates, they knew the time was right for the upgrades.
The Project
The company went all in on its lighting upgrades. At its 178,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse, Food City had 276 motion sensored 6-lamp T5 fluorescent high bay fixtures replaced with 204 W LED high bays with high-efficiency occupancy sensors. It made even more upgrades at its 174,000-square-foot frozen warehouse, replacing 360 switch-controlled 400 W metal halide high bay fixtures with 204 W LED high bays with occupancy sensors mounted on each new fixture. The new lights not only use less energy, but also turn on instantly, provide more light and require almost no maintenance.
"We have worked with other utilities for energy efficiency rebates in the past but this effort with Appalachian Power has so far been the easiest we have experienced."
Keith Norton, Food City
The Results
Being proactive paid off for Food City. Literally. The company is estimated to save $103,483 and 1,293,537 kWh, annually. It also received $64,676 in rebates from Appalachian Power, putting the project payback period at only a year and a half.
On top of that, Food City now has safer, more comfortable warehouses. Good news all round.