MetLife upgraded to GE Lighting’s Evolve LED outdoor lighting in parking lots at 10 office locations and switched to more energy-efficient T8 fluorescent indoor lighting at its 650,000-sq-foot administrative center in St. Louis. Combined, these lighting solutions will save MetLife about $360,000 a year while consuming about 3.5 million fewer kWh.
Beginning in February 2010, MetLife began replacing existing high-pressure sodium and metal halide parking lot lights at eight administrative facilities and two data centers in several states, including New Jersey, Ohio and Rhode Island. The lots, comprising 700 parking spaces and 100 fixtures on average, are now lit by GE’s Evolve LED area lights. Combined, the more than 1,000 LEDs will reduce MetLife’s electricity use approximately 1.1 million kWh a year, totaling a $164,000 savings.
In addition, MetLife replaced more than 7,000 old T12 fixtures consuming nearly 5.1 million kWh a year at its administration office in St. Louis, which houses 950 employees. GE Lighting recommended replacing the existing lamps of many types, sizes and colors to a single lamp type using one of two ballast types. Nearly 13,000 GE F28 T8 linear fluorescent lamps were installed at the St. Louis office. The new linear fluorescent lamp design also utilizes more than 8,000 of GE’s UltraStart programmed start ballasts and a handful of UltraStart dimming ballasts. GE’s complete office lighting solution saves about 2.4 million kWhs of electricity a year, a $196,000 utility cost reduction. MetLife expects to invest these savings back into the system, possibly adding photocells, motion sensors and control options to optimize efficiency.
While some companies such as MetLife, have chosen to replace older fluorescents with newer models, others are “LED leapfrogging,” a trend that was discussed at LightFair 2013 this week.
