Most of us take power for granted, but retailers are keenly aware that energy is becoming more expensive.

One strategy for reducing consumption that makes good environmental – and, increasingly, financial – sense is quite simple: change light bulbs.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting consumes 22 percent of the country's electricity and "represents a great opportunity for energy efficiency," says Greg Merritt, director of corporate marketing for Cree, a manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency.

"Most of the technologies in use today were invented a hundred years ago. We see the opportunity to bring new technology to bear to adjust the current needs for energy efficiency in a number of lighting applications."

Durham, N.C.-based Cree specializes in LED lighting, which can save 80 percent and 50 percent compared with incandescent and compact fluorescent lighting, respectively. Another attribute is that LEDs "have a very long service lifetime of at least 50,000 hours," Merritt says. "To put that in perspective: if the LED light is on 12 hours a day, that's more than 11 years."

What Cree has brought to the market are "very high-performance white LEDs" that can be used for almost any applications "from street lighting to down lighting to accent lighting."

Anchorage, Alaska, joined Cree's LED City program, an international program that promotes the deployment of energy-efficient LED lighting. For a city that experiences 85 days a year with less than eight hours of daylight, good quality affordable lighting is an imperative.

According to Cree, the fixtures from BetaLED are expected to use 50 percent less energy than Anchorage's current streetlights, which could save the city $360,000 annually at current energy prices. And the LED fixtures typically last up to seven times longer than high-pressure sodium fixtures, allowing Anchorage to better utilize maintenance resources.

For retailers, LED lighting offers a green alternative to fluorescent lighting, which contains mercury. "That's the great thing about LED," says Bruce Sweeny, president of Chandler, Ariz.-based Red Mountain Lighting. "There is no hazardous waste."

Good for food presentation
Sweeny says retailers and restaurateurs also love the exceptional color quality of LED lights. A comparison of LEDs with fluorescents is like "the difference between standard television and HD television," he says. "Products, especially food, look better under LED lights."

Loving the crisp look their food gets under LED lights, restaurant owners are using them to replace incandescents and halogens — which give off great light quality, but are energy-inefficient.

Broach Management, a 19-unit Burger King franchisee in Arizona, installed LED lights earlier this year. It has enjoyed what vice president of operations and development Eric Dreier describes as a tremendous improvement in presentation, as well as a cost savings. "We've seen our utility costs slowly creep and creep upward, so we've always been looking for ways that we could battle that upward swing in cost," he says.

LED is "definitely a softer light," he says, "a little bit warmer in the restrooms and the dining room."

Most of Broach's stores are in Arizona, where air conditioning is a major summer cost. The LED lights have helped keep the temperature down, thus helping to reduce AC dollars. The LEDs are "definitely not radiating any heat like some of the older 4-ft. fluorescent bulbs do," Dreier says.

Cooler is better
Darryn Athis, general manager of an Applebee's in Beaverton, Ore., recently installed LED lights around his bar. He — and his patrons — appreciate the fact their light is not sweat-inducing.

"The LEDs' illumination and feel was a big improvement," he says. "It puts a sparkle on anything that can shine without melting the ice. Having the ability to dim is very handy, too."

LEDs can be dimmed or turned on and off "as often as you want without causing any negative impact over the lifetime or the performance of the light, which is different from most lights," Merritt says. Combining LEDs with intelligent control technologies — occupancy, ambient light or time-of-day sensors — can help "achieve outstanding reductions in the amount of electricity you use," he says.

LED installation costs are on par with other lighting solutions, though the process can vary depending upon the type of application. Cree's LR 6 recess down lights, for example, can be retrofitted into the existing recessed can light.