Sears, USPS Efficient Lighting to Save Millions of KWh

Sears says its Canadian stores are making one of the world’s largest replacements of inefficient lighting, the Toronto Sun reports.

More than 130,000 inefficient incandescent spotlights are being replaced with LED lighting in all Sears Home and full-line stores across Canada, the company said. Sears says the switch will reduce its electricity use by more than 16 million kWh per year.

Sears Canada also announced that it would be the first national retailer in Canada to ban the sale of incandescent and halogen lighting.

The company was recently named Energy Star Retailer of the Year by government agency Natural Resources Canada for the fourth year in a row.

Meanwhile, two U.S. Postal Service facilities have installed new lighting and advanced lighting controls from Lime Energy. The 510,000 square foot Network Distribution Center in Philadelphia, and the 190,000 square foot Processing and Distribution Center in Wilmington have installed high-efficiency fluorescent lighting that uses about half the energy of the old fixtures, Lime Energy said.

The Internet Protocol control system will allow building operators to turn on individual lights as needed, and maintain other areas of the buildings at minimal light levels as necessary to match work flows.

Total savings from these two large projects are expected to exceed 2,800,000 kWh per year and save the USPS $429,184 in annual operating costs. Since January, Lime Energy has installed energy efficiency upgrades that it predicts will save $684,946 in annual energy costs for the eastern region of the USPS.

Lime says these retrofits will annually eliminate 3.7 million pounds of carbon dioxide, 14,560 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 9,230 pounds of nitrous oxides (NOx).